Tag Archives: MLB Draft League

19 Aug

whatever happened to …

Vantrel Reed: The Warren Central High and Hinds Community College product is playing in the MLB Draft League, a short-season independent pro loop. He is batting .285 with two homers, 10 RBIs and 12 steals in 30 games with the Williamsport Crosscutters. Reed starred for the 59-0 LSU-Shreveport team that won the NAIA World Series in May. (Also in the MLBDL are ex-Rust and Mississippi Valley State standout Dreylin Holmes and Jackson State alum Chenar Brown.)
Jacob Robson: The former Mississippi State standout, a Canada native, is now with Winnipeg in the indy American Association, where he is hitting .259 with 13 homers, 46 RBIs and 27 steals. Robson was an eighth-round draft pick out of State in 2016 by Detroit and has bounced all over the globe ever since. He got into four MLB games with the Tigers in 2021 and has also played in the Dominican Republic, Australia and the World Baseball Classic.
Will Bednar: The 14th overall pick in the 2021 draft, after helping MSU win the College World Series, the injury-plagued right-hander is at Double-A Richmond in the San Francisco system. Working only in relief this year, his ERA is 5.40 with a win, three holds and 62 strikeouts in 40 innings. He has a 1.17 ERA in six games in August. The 25-year-old has made just 81 appearances (5-11, 5.00 ERA) in his five pro seasons.
Billy Hamilton: The ex-big leaguer from Taylorsville, who’s been playing — or not playing — in the Mexican League, remains on the injured list, where the 34-year-old has resided since mid-May. He has seven steals in 10 games for Jalisco, giving the fleet-footed outfielder 850 bags in his long pro career. He swiped 326 — the record for a native Mississippian — over parts of 11 MLB campaigns, the last in 2023.
Drew Lugbauer: The former Mississippi Braves slugger — who holds the franchise career home run record with 68 over three seasons in Pearl — is now hitting bombs in the Mexican League. Currently with the Algodoneros Union Laguna, his third LMB club this season, he is batting .287 with 16 homers and 62 RBIs. All told, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound first baseman has hit 178 homers going back to his college days at Michigan (2015-17).
P.S. In his first game with Boston (see previous post), MSU alum Nathaniel Lowe drew a walk and scored a run in a 6-3 loss to Baltimore. In that game, former Bulldogs star and current Orioles third baseman Jordan Westburg, batting .375 over his last seven games, suffered an ankle injury that was initially described as “mild.”

03 Aug

transaction watch

As part of a big wave of minor league transactions on Friday, former Mississippi State star Tanner Allen was released by Miami. He was on the Double-A Pensacola roster but playing at Low-Class A Jupiter on an injury rehab assignment. The lefty-hitting outfielder was batting .225 with two homers in 50 games this season and .229 for his career. Allen was a national player of the year, the SEC’s player of the year and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner in 2021, when he helped MSU win the national title. He was a fourth-round pick by the Marlins that summer. Also released were Ole Miss alum Mike Mayers, a former big leaguer pitching at Triple-A Buffalo in the Toronto system; ex-UM infielder Justin Bench (San Francisco system); and Itawamba Community College alum Kyle Crigger (Miami system). … Meanwhile, former Ole Miss star Kemp Alderman was promoted by Miami from Jupiter to High-A Beloit and went 2-for-4 in his debut. The 2023 Ferriss Trophy winner was batting .270 with five homers and 30 RBIs in Low-A ball. P.S. After being outscored 25-3 in the first three games of the series at Trustmark Park, the Mississippi Braves rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Tennessee 7-6 Friday on a walk-off knock by Justin Dean in the ninth. Dean’s hit followed a walk, a steal and a wild pitch by former Delta State standout Dalton Moats, who took the loss for the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A club. … Former Mississippi Valley State (and Rust College) standout Dreylin Holmes has emerged as one of the top hitters in the MLB Draft League. He is hitting .400 with four homers, nine RBIs and 14 runs in 13 games for Mahoning Valley. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound outfielder reportedly hit a 461-foot homer on Thursday; he hit 29 homers in three seasons for the Delta Devils. … Brandon High’s Jamaurion McQueen is slated to participate in the Hank Aaron Invitational today at Truist Park in Atlanta. The event is part a diversity-focused development program for prep players around the country. McQueen, 6-3, 195, an outfielder/pitcher, is a Southern Miss commit.

19 Jul

whatever happened to …

Aiden Moffett, the former Taylorsville High flamethrower, picked up his second win of the Cape Cod League season on Thursday. The 6-foot-3, 221-pound right-hander threw a scoreless, hitless 2 2/3 innings in relief for Yarmouth-Dennis, striking out six and walking four. Moffett is 2-1 with a 5.08 ERA over seven games, 12 2/3 innings. He pitched the last two seasons at LSU, entered the portal and recently announced a transfer to Texas for 2025. An All-State pick at Taylorsville, Moffett went 9-1 with a 0.54 ERA and 128 strikeouts (with 32 walks) in 52 innings as a senior in 2022, according to MaxPreps. He was a highly rated recruit with a 99-mph fastball but pitched in only one game for LSU in 2023, when the Paul Skenes-fueled Tigers won the national title. Moffett worked 17 2/3 relief innings for the Tigers this past season, putting up a 5.60 ERA with 21 K’s and 12 walks. If he can harness his stuff, he’ll be a weapon for the Longhorns. P.S. Mississippi Valley State alum Dreylin Holmes went 2-for-5 in his MLB Draft League debut on Thursday. Holmes, 6-2, 215, was a .300 hitter with 29 homers and 29 steals in three seasons for the Delta Devils. Also in the Draft League, A.J. Stinson, a former William Carey star from Hattiesburg, threw a scoreless inning in his ’24 debut. Stinson won 18 games for Carey in 2022-23. The Draft League is a pro league in the second half of its split season.

18 Jun

eye on …

Patrick Lee, former William Carey University standout, took a winding road to reach affiliated baseball. Currently playing outfield — and faring well — for the Low-Class A Lakeland Flying Tigers, Lee wasn’t drafted out of high school — Resurrection Catholic in Pascagoula — or following a five-year stint at Carey, where he batted .335, stole 74 bases and played in the NAIA World Series in 2023. The 5-foot-11, 180-pound Lee got a spot in the MLB Draft League last summer and hit .279 with 29 stolen bases. The Draft League is for players hoping to catch the eye of scouts ahead of the draft, but Lee didn’t get a call last summer. This spring, he signed with Evansville in the independent Frontier League and after batting .410 in 11 games there got an offer from the Detroit Tigers. He signed on May 25. Through 16 games at Lakeland, Lee is batting .289 with a homer, 11 runs, nine steals and a .467 OBP. At 24, he is a little old for the Low-A level and might be in line for a bump to High-A soon. P.S. Willie Joe Garry Jr., a Pascagoula High product, is currently playing for Schaumburg in the Frontier League, batting .191 in five games. Garry, drafted out of ‘Goula by Minnesota in 2018, spent six years in the Twins’ system, reaching the Double-A level briefly. The 24-year-old outfielder, a career .206 batter, was hitting .132 at High-A Cedar Rapids when he was released on May 21. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Dallas Woolfolk, a Hernando native, is also on the Schaumburg roster.