Tag Archives: mlb.com

22 Oct

back with a bang

Idled by an injury since early September, Braden Montgomery returned with a literal bang on Tuesday, smacking an RBI double off the center-field wall in his first at-bat in an Arizona Fall League contest. The former state Gatorade player of the year at Madison Central High walked in his other three ABs for Glendale. “I just wanted to add a little bit of normalcy, see a bunch of pitches,” he said in a story on the AFL website. Montgomery, a first-round pick in 2024 out of Texas A&M, is rated the No. 1 prospect in the Chicago White Sox’s system and No. 35 overall in the minors. In his first action as a pro this season, the switch-hitting outfielder batted .270 (.360 OBP) with 12 home runs, 68 RBIs and 14 stolen bases, moving seamlessly from Low-Class A to High-A to Double-A. His regular season ended Sept. 6 when he was hit by a pitch that broke a bone in his foot. He is playing catch-up in the AFL. On Tuesday, he also played right field, where his arm and athleticism are a good fit. Montgomery admits to being something of a copycat in his hitting approach. “I like watching Mookie (Betts) and how his hands work. I like watching Aaron Judge and his effortless pop. I like Shohei (Ohtani) and his torque. I like picking up and looking at tiny pieces of all the guys because I understand that everyone’s big picture is going to be different,” he said in a recent mlb.com story. At 22, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Montgomery is likely a year away from making the big leagues, though the White Sox (three straight 100-loss seasons) need immediate help. P.S. Southern Miss (and Mississippi Mud Monsters) alum Michael Fowler, pitching for Surprise, faced Montgomery once on Tuesday and walked him. Fowler, now in the Milwaukee system, has made three scoreless appearances in the AFL. … In another AFL game on Tuesday, ex-Mississippi State star Cade Smith worked 3 2/3 sharp innings for Mesa, retiring the first 11 batters he faced and yielding just a lone run. The New York Yankees prospect, a third-year pro, has a 1.35 ERA in two outings; he went 2-1, 2.50, in 11 starts in the low minors this season. … MSU product David Mershon, playing for Salt River, faced Smith twice Tuesday and grounded out both times. Mershon, a 2024 draftee by the Los Angeles Angels, is coming off a tough, injury-dampened season; he hit .182 in 91 games, 14 at the Triple-A level.

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.

26 Jul

change of sox?

Give a tip of the cap today to Marcus Thames, the Louisville native who serves as hitting coach of the Chicago White Sox. The ChiSox went into the All-Star break with the worst record in the American League and woeful offensive numbers. They’ve come out of the break looking like the ’27 Yankees: an MLB-best 61 runs in a 6-1 surge. On Friday, sparked by a bunch of rookies, the White Sox blasted the crosstown-rival Cubs 12-5, racking up a season-high 18 hits at Rate Field. Their reported plan was to sit on and attack Shota Imanaga’s fastball; they knocked him out in the fourth inning while building a 9-0 lead. Thames, in his second year with the team, deserves a little credit here. He endured the 2024 disaster that cost manager Pedro Grifol his job and was retained by new manager Will Venable for the 2025 rebuild. Thames, a former MLB slugger and a veteran hitting coach, said in a TV interview before the All-Star break that the key to being a good coach is “all about building relationships.” He told The Chicago Sports Network he just wanted to “make sure our guys understand their strengths.” That seems to be happening. “We were on a mission when we came back (from the break),” rookie Chase Meidroth told mlb.com. Every starter had a hit on Friday. Rookie Edgar Quero had four knocks and Meidroth had three, including a first-inning homer off Imanaga. Colson Montgomery, yet another first-year player, also took Imanaga deep. The White Sox are too far back to make a playoff run, but they might be a fun team to watch as a spoiler down the stretch. P.S. Austin Riley returned to Atlanta’s lineup Friday but couldn’t help the Braves pull out of their tailspin. The former DeSoto Central High star went 0-for-4 in an 8-3 loss at Texas that dropped Atlanta 14 games under .500. … Jacob Waguespack, an Ole Miss alum, was designated for assignment by Tampa Bay; the onetime big leaguer was on the injured list at Triple-A Durham, where he had pitched well (0.46 ERA in 15 games). He has not made an MLB appearance this season.

24 Jul

hot topics

Landon Harmon, the touted right-hander from East Union High, has signed with the Washington Nationals for $2.5 million, according to several reports. He was taken in the third round, 80th overall; the slot value for that pick was $1.01M, per mlb.com. His pitch repertoire will need some polish, according to Baseball America’s pre-draft scouting report: “While Harmon’s fastball is one the better pitches in this class, his secondaries need more refinement.” Harmon was a Mississippi State signee and is the second high-profile MSU recruit to sign with an MLB club, joining eighth overall pick JoJo Parker from Purvis. Parker’s twin brother Jacob also was drafted (19th round) but has chosen to attend MSU. All told, five prep players from the state were drafted this year. Talon Haley (12th round), a pitcher from Lewisburg, signed with the Los Angeles Angels, and Jay McQueen (20th round), an outfielder from Brandon, reportedly has inked with Texas, though that has not been confirmed on mlb.com. … Konnor Griffin, the No. 9 overall pick in 2024 out of Jackson Prep, is rated the No. 1 overall prospect in the minors in MLB Pipeline’s updated Top 100 rankings. He entered his first pro season ranked No. 43; he is batting .324 with 13 homers and 42 steals at two levels of A-ball in Pittsburgh’s organization. Braden Montgomery (Madison Central alum) is No. 27, Cooper Pratt (Magnolia Heights) No. 38 and Jurrangelo Cijntje (MSU) No. 71. … MSU is ranked No. 4 in Baseball America’s first 2026 college poll. The magazine’s story hails the arrival of new coach Brian O’Connor and several portal additions plus the return of Ace Reese, SEC newcomer of the year in 2025. Ole Miss is No. 24, thanks in part to the return of Judd Utermark, Austin Fawley and Hunter Elliott.

18 Jul

back to work

Nathaniel Lowe went into the MLB All-Star break on a 4-for-28 skid, down to .227 on the season for a scuffling Washington club. But the Mississippi State alum should enter today’s game vs. San Diego with a little confidence. He is 5-for-11 with two home runs career against Padres starter Dylan Cease, per The Baseball Buffet. Lowe, in his first season with the Nats, has 14 homers, second on the team to All-Star James Wood. … Adam Frazier starts the “second half” with a new team, having moved from Pittsburgh to Kansas City. The MSU product figures to be in the lineup today at Miami. He is 8-for-17 with two homers and a double career against the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara. Frazier was hitting .255 with three homers for Pittsburgh. … Brent Rooker of the A’s entered the All-Star break on a tear (.360 with two homers over his last seven games), then went nuts during the All-Star festivities, hitting 17 homers in the Home Run Derby, another in the All-Star Game itself and then two more in the tiebreaking swing-off. The ex-MSU slugger faces Cleveland’s Slade Cecconi today. … Former Biloxi High standout Colt Keith, now with Detroit, was on an 18-for-51 (.353) heater entering the break. The Tigers, with the best record in MLB at 59-38, face Texas and lefty Patrick Corbin today. … Jordan Westburg, another ex-Bulldogs star, entered the break on an 11-for-31 roll with three homers for Baltimore. He’ll try to keep it going today against Tampa Bay and Taj Bradley. P.S. Texas recalled MSU alum Justin Foscue from Triple-A, with Jake Burger going back on the injured list. Foscue is 1-for-6 for the Rangers this year and 3-for-48 career. … That was quick: Drafted on Sunday, with the eighth overall pick, JoJo Parker already is rated the top prospect in the Toronto farm system by Bleacher Report. The state’s Gatorade player of the year out of Purvis High, Parker tops a system that is ranked 25th overall by BR in its post-draft evaluation. (Note that Parker hasn’t yet signed.) The 6-foot-2, 195-pound shortstop is “one of the best pure hitters in the (2025 draft) class, with real power to go with his polished hit tool,” per Baseball America’s scouting report. Still, he has yet to play a pro game. Landon Harmon, the 6-foot-5 right-hander out of East Union picked in the third round by Washington, is slotted in as the Nationals’ No. 9 prospect by Bleacher Report. (He also has yet to sign.) Baseball America calls Harmon a “high-upside, projectable right-hander” with “tremendous arm speed and a fastball that explodes.” It’s interesting to note that each of Bleacher Report’s top 3 farm systems features a Mississippi product in its top 10. Pittsburgh, ranked No. 3, has Konnor Griffin at No. 2; Milwaukee, ranked second, has Cooper Pratt at No. 5; and Seattle, the top-rated system, has Jurrangelo Cijntje at No. 9. … Kevin Roberts Jr., a rising senior at Jackson Prep, was listed as the 15th overall pick in a “way-too-early” 2026 mock draft by mlb.com. Roberts, currently competing for a spot on the Under-18 Team USA, is a 6-foot-5 outfielder with a power bat and arm.

27 Jun

great eight

Interesting story – with a Mississippi tie — on mlb.com today: An Atlantic League player named Dylan Rock has homered in eight straight games, tying the known professional record. Three major leaguers have gone deep in eight straight: Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr. One minor leaguer has done so: Former Mississippi State star Justin Foscue, who did it in July of 2021 in the Texas system. A first-round pick by the Rangers in 2020, Foscue started his homer streak while on a rehab assignment in the rookie Arizona Complex League. He hit one there and the next seven with Low-Class A Hickory. He finished that season with 17 homers and has hit 53 since, 10 in Triple-A this season before a recent call-up. He has yet to homer in the majors in 45 at-bats. … Rock, who plays for Lexington in the independent Atlantic League, is slated to play tonight against Southern Maryland, which is managed by Jackson native and ex-big leaguer Stan Cliburn.

12 Jun

hey now …

Brent Rooker was an All-Star for the Oakland A’s in 2023 and might be on that path again this season. The former Mississippi State standout had a star-spangled day at the plate on Wednesday, going 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double, three RBIs and three runs. In his final at-bat, he hit a drive that was caught at the warning track. (Not surprisingly, the lowly A’s lost the game to the Los Angeles Angels 6-5.) Rooker is hitting .276 with 15 bombs and 41 RBIs on the year; he ranks in the top 10 in the American League in homers, RBIs and slugging percentage. Over his last 20 games, he is at .380 with five homers and 17 runs knocked in. But it hasn’t been a streaky kind of season. “I’ve been able to maintain a level of consistency that maybe I haven’t in the past,” Rooker said in an mlb.com article. He batted .293 with 39 homers and 112 RBIs in 2024, winning a Silver Slugger but not making the All-Star Game. He hit .246 with 30 homers in 2023, his first season with the A’s. All-Star Game voting is under way on mlb.com; the game is July 15 in Atlanta. … Elsewhere in The Show, in his season debut with Toronto, Madison Central High alum Spencer Turnbull pitched two scoreless innings in middle relief and picked up the win as the surging Blue Jays beat St. Louis 5-2. It was his first MLB game since June of last year (see previous posts). P.S. Kudos to six players from Mississippi schools who made the NCBWA Division I All-America teams. Southern Miss’ Nick Monistere and J.B. Middleton (the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner) and MSU’s Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan were named to the first team, USM’s Colby Allen and Ole Miss’ Hunter Elliott to the third team.

27 Mar

appetizers

Fun facts about MLB’s Opening Day:
Garrett Crochet will make his second straight opening day start when he takes the bump for Boston against Texas. The Ocean Springs native started Game 1 for the Chicago White Sox last year and — perhaps foreshadowing the team’s dismal season — took a loss despite allowing just a lone run in six innings against Detroit, which won 1-0 behind Tarik Skubal. Incidentally, ex-Biloxi High star Colt Keith made his big league debut in that game and got his first hit off Crochet.
The record for consecutive opening day starts by a Mississippi native belongs to Roy Oswalt, the Weir High and Holmes Community College alum who made eight starts for Houston between 2003-10. The right-hander, who won 163 games in his stellar career, was in his third big league season when he got the Day 1 call for the Astros in 2003, and he beat Colorado, yielding one earned run in seven innings.
The record for highest on-base percentage all-time on opening day (at least 10 starts) is .500, according to mlb.com research. Ellisville native and Mississippi State alum Buddy Myer shares that mark with two others. Myer, a leadoff batter most of his career, played from 1925-41 and had a career .389 OBP, in the top 100 all-time.
The record for home runs on an opening day is three, and Vicksburg native Dmitri Young is among the four players to accomplish that feat. “Da Meat Hook” did it 20 years ago for Detroit; he went 4-for-4 and drove in five runs in an 11-2 victory against Kansas City. Young belted 171 career homers and hit two in a game six times.
The only opening day cycle in major league history belongs to Gee Walker, a Gulfport native and ex-Ole Miss star who pulled it off on April 20, 1937, for Detroit against Cleveland. He went 4-for-4 and scored twice in that game, a 4-3 win; he batted .294 in a 15-year career.
Two former Mississippi Braves standouts — Jordan Schafer and Jason Heyward — homered on opening day in their first career at-bat, both for Atlanta, Schafer in 2009 and Heyward in 2010. Schafer would hit only 11 more homers in a brief career. Heyward, still playing, has 184 bombs.
P.S. The Los Angeles Angels optioned Chuckie Robinson, ex-Southern Miss star, to Triple-A on Wednesday. Now in his third organization, the 30-year-old catcher, a good defensive player, has a career .132 average in 51 MLB games.

15 Mar

special delivery

There was nothing particularly eye-catching about the pitching line in the box score: 2 innings, 2 hits, 1 unearned run, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts. But on the field in Goodyear, Ariz., on Friday night, it was a captivating outing by Jurrangelo Cijntje, the former Mississippi State standout whose switch-pitching abilities have garnered a lot of attention. Appearing in his first actual pro game — a Spring Breakout contest for Seattle prospects against Cleveland’s — Cijntje pitched lefty against lefty-hitting Travis Bazzana — first overall draft pick last summer — and retired him on a grounder on his first pitch. “There was a lot of adrenaline,” Cijntje said in an mlb.com article. “I couldn’t even control my body, but I fought through it.” He pitched righty the rest of the way, striking out Bazzana on a 97-mph heater to conclude his 40-pitch appearance. “That’s something special,” Bazzana said in the mlb.com story. “I think he’s got a bright future, and it was cool to battle.” Cijntje, a native of The Netherlands who pitched in Florida as a high-schooler, was the 15th overall pick by Seattle last year after going 8-2 with a 3.67 ERA at MSU. According to reports, Seattle plans to develop him as a right-handed starter who’ll go lefty in certain situations. He figures to start the upcoming season in Low-Class A at Modesto (Calif.). P.S. The Chicago Cubs reportedly are considering signing Lance Lynn, the grizzled veteran out of Ole Miss. Lynn, 37, is 143-99 in an MLB career that began in 2011; he went 7-4 with a 3.84 ERA for St. Louis in 2024. … Ex-Ole Miss star Grae Kessinger, batting .294 this spring, has been optioned to Triple-A by Arizona. Kessinger, who has some big league time, was acquired by the Diamondbacks in a trade after Houston designated the infielder for assignment in December. … MLB The Show 25, the popular video game, has added Starkville native Cool Papa Bell and Mississippi prep products Konnor Griffin and Braden Montgomery to the list of available player cards. Hall of Famer Bell is one of the new Legends — along with former Jackson Generals stars Lance Berkman and Bobby Abreu — and rookie pros Griffin (Jackson Prep) and Montgomery (Madison Central) are part of the Spring Breakout Series.

04 Mar

one fine day

Making a strong bid for a role on the New York Yankees’ pitching staff come opening day, Will Warren threw three strong innings against Philadelphia today in the Grapefruit League. The former Jackson Prep star allowed one run with four strikeouts — Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner — and now has an ERA of 1.13 over eight innings. The Yankees’ No. 5 prospect, right-hander Warren apparently has enhanced his repertoire from last season, when he endured a wobbly six-game MLB debut. “Getting ahead is the biggest thing,” Warren recently told mlb.com. “Looking back at some stuff last year, I was always fighting back (in the count).” He is 25-18 with a 4.31 ERA over three minor league seasons after being an eighth-round pick out of Southeastern Louisiana in 2021. … Ex-Southern Miss standout Matthew Etzel, in Tampa Bay’s camp as a non-roster invitee, put on a show today, banging out a double and a home run with three RBIs in the Rays’ 4-1 win against Detroit. Etzel, a 10th-round pick in 2023 by Baltimore, is 3-for-16 this spring. He reached Double-A last season, when he was traded from the Orioles to Tampa. Overall in 2024, the 6-foot-2, 211-pound outfielder belted 11 homers and stole 45 bases. Jake Mangum, another ex-Prep star and Mississippi State alum who is battling for an opening day roster spot with the Rays, went 1-for-2 with a double, a walk and a sac bunt. The 28-year-old outfielder is 4-for-10 in Grapefruit games. … In that same game today in Clearwater, Fla., Biloxi High product Colt Keith was 1-for-3 with a run for Detroit and is batting .375 in 16 spring at-bats. He hit .260 with 13 homers and 61 RBIs as a rookie for the Tigers last year.