Tag Archives: MLB draft

24 Aug

touching the bases

Sikes Orvis, the power-hitting prospect out of Ole Miss, has belted two home runs in his last three games at rookie-level Great Falls in the Chicago White Sox’s system. He now has four homers for the season in 34 games and is batting .240. … Mississippi State product Chris Stratton, a first-round pick by San Francisco in 2012, has won three of his last five starts at Triple-A Sacramento. He is 3-4 with a 3.78 ERA. … Silento Sayles, the record-setting base stealer from Port Gibson High, recently earned a promotion from Cleveland, moving up to Class A Lake County in the Midwest League. Sayles is 2-for-8 with a steal in three games. … Jackson State alum and 2015 SWAC player of the year Melvin Rodriguez is batting .211 through 29 games at Auburn in the short season Class A New York-Penn League in Washington’s system. … West Lauderdale High product Blake Anderson, the first Mississippian drafted in 2014, is 3-for-11 since coming off the disabled list for Miami’s Batavia club in the NYPL. He is batting .226. … James McMahon, the 2015 Ferriss Trophy winner from Southern Miss, has a 3.60 ERA over his last 10 appearances, all in relief, at Grand Junction in the rookie Pioneer League. He has four holds and a 6.55 ERA on the season for the Colorado farm team. … JaCoby Jones, a former Mr. Baseball from Richton, has six homers in 21 games (76 at-bats) for Double-A Erie in the Detroit system. … Alcorn State alum Angel Rosa, in his third pro season, is getting a look at Triple-A in the Los Angeles Angels’ system. The infielder is 2-for-6 in two games for Salt Lake; he was hitting .252 in A-ball. … Auston Bousfield, one of the stars of Ole Miss’ strong 2014 team, is 1-for-18 at Double-A San Antonio since San Diego promoted him. Bousfield was batting .273 in A-ball.

14 Aug

beating the bushes

Bobby Bradley ain’t goin’ away. The former Harrison Central High star homered Thursday for the second straight game and now has 22 for the season at Class A Lake County. The lefty-hitting first baseman, Cleveland’s No. 7 prospect (by mlb.com), is hitting .275 with four homers and 17 RBIs in his last 10 games, boosting his season stats to .254 with 74 RBIs. And remember, he’s 19 years old. … Kansas City, which already has a great bullpen, also has Louis Coleman humming along at Triple-A Omaha, apparently ready if needed. The former Pillow Academy star and Greenwood native has seven saves, seven wins and a 1.84 ERA in 33 games. Coleman, 29, has 148 big league appearances but none in 2015. … Starkville native Julio Borbon is batting .483 over his last 10 games for Norfolk, Baltimore’s Triple-A club, and is at .281 with 20 steals for the season. Like Coleman, onetime big leaguer Borbon isn’t on the 40-man roster, but it would seem he could help the Orioles as they fight to stay in the American League playoff race. … DeSoto Central product Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s draft, is back from a short stint on the disabled list and hitting .325 with two homers and seven RBIs for Atlanta’s rookie-level Danville club. … West Lauderdale alum Blake Anderson, the first Mississippian picked in the 2014 draft, is on the DL at short-season Class A Batavia. The catcher, a first-round supplemental pick by Miami, is hitting .220 with two homers and 11 RBIs in 22 games. … Wade Wass, former Meridian Community College slugger, has seven homers at Class A Burlington in the Los Angeles Angels’ system. Wass, a catcher who signed out of the Cape Cod League last summer, is batting .256 with 35 RBIs in 75 games. … Ex-Murrah star Zack Bird took his first Double-A loss on Thursday for the Mississippi Braves. The right-hander lasted just two innings against Mobile, yielded five runs and walked five batters; M-Braves pitchers walked 11 all told in the 9-1 loss. Bird is 1-1 with a 4.26 ERA, 12 walks and eight strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings over three starts. … East Mississippi CC alum LeDarious Clark’s scorching start (see previous posts) is a fading memory. He went hitless in seven straight games from late July into August, and despite a current five-game hit streak, is batting .135 over his last 10 games at short-season Spokane in the Texas system. His average is down to .298. For the season, Clark’s numbers look good: eight homers, 21 RBIs, 37 runs and 19 steals in 45 games. But he hasn’t homered since July 22 and has one RBI, five steals and 22 strikeouts since that date.

07 Aug

random numbers

8 – Hits, including three doubles, a triple and a home run, by Austin Riley in six games for Danville, Atlanta’s advanced rookie team. The former DeSoto Central High star, the 41st overall pick in the June draft, was promoted last week from the Gulf Coast League, where he had seven homers and 21 RBIs.
.349 – Batting average over 73 games for Adam Frazier, the ex-Mississippi State standout now playing at Double-A Altoona in the Pittsburgh system. Frazier, playing shortstop and center field, has 10 hits in his last six games.
2 – Innings pitched in pro ball this season by Jacob Taylor, the Pearl River Community College product drafted in the fourth round by Pittsburgh. Taylor recently had Tommy John surgery and may not pitch again until 2017.
9 – Holds by Tony Sipp, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College alum from Pascagoula, for the Houston Astros. Sipp pitched a clean inning Thursday in the first-place Astros’ 5-4 win against Oakland and lowered his ERA to 2.52.
9 – Hits, in 27 at-bats, for Daniel Castro, the Mississippi Braves alumnus who has been filling in at shortstop in Atlanta for injured Andrelton Simmons. Castro had three hits and scored twice in Thursday’s 9-8 win over Miami.
41 – Stolen bases by Tim Anderson, the ex-East Central Community College star now playing at Double-A Birmingham in the Chicago White Sox’s system. Anderson, batting .302, leads all of Double-A in steals and leads the Southern League in hits (126) and runs (62).
4.60 – Aaron Barrett’s ERA for Washington when the Nationals sent the Ole Miss product to Triple-A on Thursday. Barrett had a 2.66 in 2014.
23 – Home runs in 2015 by the Mississippi Braves, including Kevin Ahrens’ game-winner on Thursday against Montgomery. The M-Braves are dead last in the SL in homers; ninth-place Biloxi has 47. Ahrens leads the team with five.
1,220 — Hits in pro ball, including 38 in the big leagues, by Brandon Jones, the ex-Mississippi Braves star who announced his retirement during his 12th season on Wednesday. He was playing for Bridgeport in the independent Atlantic League and batting .243.
18 – Strikeouts, in 15 innings for Pensacola, by Cody Reed, the Northwest Mississippi Community College product who moved from the Kansas City organization to Cincinnati in the Johnny Cueto trade. Lefty Reed is 2-0 with one run allowed in two starts for the Southern League’s Blue Wahoos.

28 Jul

the launch pad

Will Clark famously homered in his first at-bat as a pro and went on to hit .309 with 10 bombs that season in the Class A California League. Of course, the transition from college to pro ball doesn’t flow as seamlessly for everyone as it did for the ex-Mississippi State star in 1985. Typically, there are adjustments to be made. Sikes Orvis was a fearsome hitter at Ole Miss this past season. He belted 16 homers, drove in 53 runs, scored 41 and slugged .587. The Chicago White Sox picked the big first baseman in the 17th round of the draft, and 20 games into his rookie campaign, he is batting .224 and slugging .366 with two homers at Great Falls in the Pioneer League. James McMahon was the ace of the Southern Miss staff in 2015, going 11-1 with a 1.56 ERA and winning the Ferriss Trophy. The Colorado Rockies picked the right-hander in the 24th round, and eight games into his rookie campaign, he is 1-2, 8.41 with Grand Junction of the Pioneer League. For Orvis and McMahon, and others who recently launched pro careers, adjustments are required if they want to survive and advance. It can be tough – but it can be done. Aaron Barrett came out of Ole Miss in 2010 and went 0-5, 9.43 in his first pro season. Four years later, he made the big leagues and currently has a career 3.26 ERA as a key piece in the Washington Nationals’ bullpen. Ex-Rebels star Zack Cozart hit .239 and made nine errors in 46 games at shortstop in his pro debut in 2007. A regular for Cincinnati since 2012, he is now considered one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball and was on course for his best season at the plate before suffering a knee injury in June. P.S. Itawamba Community College alum Desmond Jennings, who hasn’t played for Tampa Bay since April (knee injury), has been working out for several days with the Rays’ Class A Port Charlotte club but there has been no report on when he might return to the big leagues. The veteran outfielder was batting .222.

14 Jul

warming up

Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s draft, is starting to show the power that enticed the Atlanta Braves to take him 41st overall. The former DeSoto Central High star belted his third home run in four games on Monday in the Gulf Coast League. After a slow start to his pro career – hitless in his first five games – Riley has seven knocks in his last 14 at-bats, boosting his average to .250. He has eight RBIs. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound Riley, playing third base for the GCL Braves, smacked 11 home runs and 14 doubles as a senior at DeSoto, leading the Jaguars to the MHSAA Class 6A championship.

09 Jul

thermometer, please

Taking a temperature reading of various Mississippians in the minors, we find no one hotter at the moment than rookie pro LaDarious Clark. The East Mississippi Community College product from Meridian went 4-for-5 (with two homers) on Wednesday to boost his average to .436 in short-season A-ball for Texas. Also hot: Adam Frazier (Mississippi State) is hitting .488 over his last 10 games and .382 for the year in Double-A with Pittsburgh. … Anthony Alford (Petal High) is hitting .364 in 12 games at the high Class A level for Toronto. … Kalik May (Mississippi Valley State) has nine hits in his last four games to spike his average to .352 for Toronto’s rookie Gulf Coast League club. … Cody Reed (Northwest Mississippi CC) has a 2.25 ERA over 12 innings in his first two Double-A starts for Kansas City. … Chris Stratton (State) took a loss on Wednesday but has a 2.23 ERA in seven Triple-A starts for San Francisco. … Austin Riley (DeSoto Central High), the top pick from the state in last month’s draft, is hitting just .182 overall but is at .304 in July for Atlanta’s rookie GCL club. Not so hot: Ferriss Trophy winner James McMahon (Southern Miss) has an 11.81 ERA in three starts in rookie ball for Colorado. … Bobby Bradley (Harrison Central High) is in a 5-for-40 slump that has dropped his average to .245 (with 13 homers) in low Class A ball for Cleveland. … Blake Anderson (West Lauderdale High), the first Mississippian drafted in 2014, has seen his average slide to .250 from .321 on June 29 with Miami’s short-season A team. … Sikes Orvis (Ole Miss) is hitting .190 with no homers at the rookie level in the Chicago White Sox system. … Silento Sayles (Port Gibson High), the prep stolen base king, is batting .156 with one steal in short-season A-ball with Cleveland. … Ed Easley (State) has scuffled since St. Louis shipped him back to Triple-A Memphis in mid-June; his average has dipped from .295 to .257. P.S. Riley and Jason Barber of Oxford High have been named to the MaxPreps High School All-America team. Both were two-way stars on state championship teams. Barber, a junior in 2015, was the state’s Gatorade player of the year.

06 Jul

so far, so (very) good

LaDarious Clark can play. He put up star-spangled numbers at Southeast Lauderdale High, East Mississippi Community College and West Florida – and now he is doing it in pro ball. Clark (whose first name is sometimes spelled LeDarious) is on a 21-for-46 tear over his last 10 games for Spokane, the Texas Rangers’ affiliate in the short-season Class A Northwest League. The 5-foot-9 outfielder is batting .394 with three homers, 12 RBIs and seven steals for the season. Clark, also a standout football player in high school and at EMCC, has always inspired raves about his tools. But there seemed to be questions about his attitude. He was the top-rated juco draft prospect in the state in 2014 but wasn’t picked. He went to NCAA Division II West Florida, where he batted .329 with eight bombs and 21 steals and was All-Gulf South Conference this past season. The Rangers plucked him in the 12th round. He went 0-for-3 in his debut but has hit safely in every game since, 15 straight. He can play. But it takes more than physical tools to climb the baseball ladder. Maybe Clark has learned that.

30 Jun

that’ll work

The Toronto Blue Jays surely like what they’re seeing from Anthony Alford, who is 6-for-22 in his first five games in the high Class A Florida State League. The former Mr. Baseball from Petal began his first full pro season in the Midwest League, hitting .293 with 14 doubles, 16 RBIs, 12 steals and 49 runs in 50 games at Lansing. The righty-hitting outfielder, a third-round pick in 2012, already has two doubles, a triple, a homer, three RBIs and four runs for Dunedin. … The Los Angeles Angels surely like most of what they’ve seen from Alex Yarbrough in his last five games. The switch-hitting second baseman out of Ole Miss is 9-for-19 (.473), lifting his average at Triple-A Salt Lake to .247. He has 19 doubles, 29 RBIs and 36 runs in 73 games. However, Yarbrough has struck out six times in his last five games, giving him 81 in 299 at-bats. That’s an area where the 2014 Texas League player of the year needs to improve. P.S. Jacob Taylor, the Pearl River Community College alum from Picayune, pitched two scoreless innings (no hits, three walks, two strikeouts) in his pro debut today. Taylor, a fourth-round pick by Pittsburgh and the second Mississippian drafted this year, is with the Gulf Coast League Pirates.

26 Jun

early returns

Year 2 is going better for Blake Anderson, the first Mississippian picked (36th overall) in the 2014 MLB draft. The catcher from West Lauderdale High is batting .364 (8-for-22) with three RBIs in five games for Miami’s Batavia club in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League. Anderson hit just .108 in 26 games in the rookie Gulf Coast League last year. Meanwhile, Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked this year (41st overall by Atlanta) out of DeSoto Central, is 0-for-8 in three games for the Gulf Coast League Braves. Other starts of note: LaDarious Clark, who played at Southeast Lauderdale and East Mississippi Community College, went 4-for-5 (with two triples) on Thursday, boosting his average to .360 in seven games at Spokane in the short-season Class A Northwest League. Clark was picked in the 12th round this year by Texas. Ti’Quan Forbes, the 2014 Mr. Baseball from Columbia and a second-rounder last summer, is also playing on that club, hitting .227 to date. … Ole Miss alum Scott Weathersby, picked in Round 10 this year by Houston, yielded two runs in two innings in his debut at Tri-City in the short-season New York-Penn League. … Ex-Rebels star Sikes Orvis (17th round, Chicago White Sox) is 2-for-20 at Great Falls in the rookie Pioneer League. … Northwest Mississippi CC product Dalton Dulin (17th round, Washington) is 5-for-11 for Auburn in the NYPL. P.S. Former Ole Miss ace Lance Lynn, back on the bump Thursday for St. Louis after 18 days on the disabled list, allowed two hits in six shutout innings to beat Miami. He is 5-4 and lowered his ERA to 2.84. ”That was a good one to come back to,” he told The Associated Press after the Cardinals’ 5-1 win.

23 Jun

life of riley

Austin Riley, the first Mississippian picked in this year’s MLB draft, made his pro debut today for the Gulf Coast League Braves. The former DeSoto Central High star, a supplemental first-round pick by Atlanta, was the DH and batted fourth for the rookie-level club, which rallied to beat the GCL Yankees 8-7 in 10 innings in Florida. Riley struck out in his first two at-bats, was hit by a pitch (and later scored) in his third and grounded out in his fourth. The play-by-play on milb.com indicates that Riley pinch hit for himself (?) in the eighth inning and walked, then struck out again in the 10th. So, he was either 0-for-3 or 0-for-4. … Also debuting today in the GCL: Mississippi Valley State alum Kalik May, who went 2-for-2 with a walk, a run and a steal for the GCL Blue Jays, whose game was suspended by rain in the seventh inning.