Tag Archives: MLB draft

19 Jun

a fast start

Earl Burl III, the 902nd player picked in the recent MLB draft out of Alcorn State, made quite a splash in his pro debut on Thursday night: 2 hits (both doubles), 3 runs, 3 RBIs, 2 steals and a walk. Batting leadoff and playing center field, he sparked Vancouver to an 11-2 win over Salem-Keizer on opening day in the short-season Class A Northwest League. Toronto picked Burl in the 30th round. He was an All-SWAC performer this season, batting .298 with five homers and 20 steals for the Braves.

19 Jun

on the dotted line

With the signings on Thursday of Austin Riley by Atlanta and Jacob Taylor by Pittsburgh, the top six Mississippians taken in the 2015 MLB draft reportedly are under contract. Riley, a third baseman from DeSoto Central High taken at No. 41 overall, and Taylor, a right-hander from Pearl River Community College picked in Round 4, join RH Scott Weathersby (Ole Miss, Houston), RH Witt Haggard (Delta State, New York Mets), 1B Sikes Orvis (Ole Miss, Chicago White Sox) and 2B Dalton Dulin (Northwest Mississippi CC, Washington) as major league hopefuls. Most, if not all, of these players will head to the Gulf Coast or Arizona rookie leagues, which start next week. Some others who have signed include Southern Miss RH James McMahon (Colorado), DSU RH Stephen Milligan (Kansas City), Alcorn State OF Earl Burl (Toronto), Mississippi Valley State OF Kalik May (Toronto) and former East Mississippi CC OF LaDarious Clark (Texas). Third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, son of Hattiesburg native and ex-big league star Charlie Hayes, has signed with the Pirates; he was the 32nd overall pick out of a Texas high school. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves standout Jordan Schafer has been released by Minnesota. Schafer, the Twins’ opening day center fielder, hasn’t played since mid-May because of a knee injury and was hitting just .217. The recent promotion of top prospect Byron Buxton made him expendable. Schafer arrived in Mississippi as Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect in 2008, was hit with a drug suspension just days into the season and rode a rollercoaster over his career from then on.

15 Jun

caught short?

A quick check of Atlanta’s top 30 prospects on mlb.com reveals two catchers. Jose Briceno, No. 20, is hitting .156 at Class A Carolina. Tanner Murphy, No. 26, is batting .178 at low Class A Rome. Chris O’Dowd, a fringe prospect acquired in the off-season from Colorado, was hitting .304 for the Double-A Mississippi Braves when he was slapped last week with an 80-game drug suspension. Why is any of this relevant? Well, the Atlanta Braves sent “catcher of the future” Christian Bethancourt down to Triple-A Gwinnett. Relegated to backing up 38-year-old A.J. Pierzynski, Bethancourt, 23, was batting .208 with one home run and had five passed balls and three errors in his 27 games. Bethancourt, who has a rifle arm, seemed to have a breakthrough with the M-Braves in 2013, when he hit .277 with 12 homers and made the Southern League postseason All-Star team. He was a consensus top five prospect in the system after a solid season at Gwinnett in 2014. Atlanta essentially handed him the starting job this spring — and he fumbled it away in short order. Can he ever recover it? Is Atlanta shopping for a catcher? The Braves drafted five last week, two from four-year colleges and a second-rounder from a California high school. Maybe there’s a “catcher of the future” in that bunch. P.S. LSU lost its College World Series opener to TCU 10-3 on Sunday, but former Southwest Mississippi Community College star Kade Scivicque held up his end with a 2-for-4, one-RBI day. Scivicque, the Tigers’ catcher and cleanup batter, is hitting .350 with six homers and 46 RBIs on the season. LSU plays an elimination game on Tuesday. … Arkansas, facing elimination in the CWS tonight against Miami, has two Mississippi juco products on its roster, pitcher Jackson Lowery of Meridian CC and outfielder Krisjon Wilkerson of Pearl River CC. Neither appeared in Saturday’s 5-3 loss to Virginia.

13 Jun

picks who clicked

The record for most players drafted in one year by one team to reach the majors is 17 (1982, New York Mets), this according to Baseball America, which did a splendid retrospective on the MLB draft in a 50th anniversary tribute in the June 19-July 3 issue. Many of the players drafted that year by the Mets turned up on the Jackson Mets teams of 1984-87 that won two Texas League pennants and played for two more. Dwight Gooden, who didn’t play in Jackson, was the Mets’ top pick in ’82, and Rafael Palmeiro, who didn’t sign out of high school and went on to Mississippi State, was their eighth pick. Barry Lyons, the ex-Delta State star from Biloxi, was the 15th pick and starred on the ’85 JaxMets title team before going on to the big leagues. Other players of note in that draft include Roger McDowell, Greg Olson, Floyd Youmans, Steve Springer, Mickey Weston, Kyle Hartshorn, Joe Redfield and Al Carmichael, all of whom played at Smith-Wills Stadium. McDowell, Olson and Youmans enjoyed nice MLB careers. P.S. Ole Miss products Lance Lynn (St. Louis) and Aaron Barrett (Washington) have been put on the disabled list, leaving just five Mississippi-connected pitchers on active rosters in MLB. There have been as many as 11 this season. … Right-hander Mike Broadway, who pitched for the Mississippi Braves from 2009-11, was called up to the big leagues by San Francisco. He didn’t pitch on Friday, but Jesus Sucre did make his mound debut. The ex-M-Braves catcher worked a scoreless inning for Seattle in its 10-0 loss to Houston.

11 Jun

by the numbers

2 – Number of Mississippians in the majors sent to the minors today. Southern Miss alum Scott Copeland, who got his first MLB win for Toronto on Wednesday, was optioned (for the fourth time this year) to Triple-A Buffalo. Ole Miss product David Goforth, who had pitched sparingly for Milwaukee, also was optioned to Triple-A.
2 – Teams (the Chicago Cubs and Toronto) reportedly interested in trading for ex-Mississippi State standout Jonathan Papelbon, who has 12 saves and a 1.13 ERA (plus a lot of attitude) for Philadelphia.
4.5 – Games that first-place Biloxi (36-23) is ahead of the Mississippi Braves (31-27) in the Southern League South standings. The teams play a five-game series starting tonight at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The M-Braves took three of five in the teams’ inaugural series May 6-10, also played at the Tee-Pee. The first half ends June 21.
5 – Number of M-Braves on the SL South All-Star roster when pitcher Jake Brigham was added late Wednesday to a list that already included pitchers Tyrell Jenkins and Jorge Reyes, catcher Chris O’Dowd and outfielder Mallex Smith. Of course, O’Dowd won’t be playing in the June 23 game at Montgomery because he will be serving an 80-game drug suspension also handed down on Wednesday. O’Dowd had been on the inactive list since May 28.
8 – Number of Biloxi Shuckers named to the SL South All-Star team. Included are highly rated Milwaukee prospects Orlando Arcia, a shortstop, and pitcher Tyler Wagner.
8 – Home runs by Chris Coghlan, the former Ole Miss standout whose latest blast on Wednesday helped the Chicago Cubs pound Detroit 12-3.
15 – Days (at least) that ex-Ole Miss star Zack Cozart is expected to be out after hurting his knee on Wednesday. Cozart, on a roll with Cincinnati (.258, nine homers), is likely headed to the 15-day DL, according to various reports. Ex-Rebels ace Lance Lynn, 4-4 with a 3.07 ERA for St. Louis, is having tightness in his right forearm and could also land on the DL.
15 – Hits in his last 10 games for Pascagoula’s Joey Butler, who is batting .324 for Tampa Bay, the best average among regulars on the team.
19 – Number of players plucked out of Mississippi schools in the MLB draft, from DeSoto Central High’s Austin Riley at No. 41 overall to Columbia’s C.J. Newsome at No. 1,136. Ole Miss had four players chosen (Christian Trent was drafted for the second straight year), Southern Miss three (including Ferriss Trophy winner James McMahon), Delta State two and Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State one each. Five high schoolers and two junior college players were picked. Of note: Hinds CC, which won 43 games this season and had a plethora of NCAA Division I signees, had no players drafted. Also of note: Former Southeast Lauderdale and East Mississippi CC star LaDarious Clark was picked out of West Florida by Texas in the 12th round.

10 Jun

swing and a drive

There is so much more to baseball than home runs – but there’s nothing more fun, is there? Former Mississippi Braves star Joey Terdoslavich hit the first of his career on Tuesday night, an eighth-inning shot that propelled Atlanta to a thrilling 6-5 win over visiting San Diego. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Terdoslavich will no doubt hit some more. He has 64 career minor league homers (since 2010) and has hit as many as 20 in a season. He hit five in 78 games for the M-Braves in 2012. Meanwhile, Ole Miss product Zack Cozart cranked his ninth bomb of the year and closed the gap on ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier, who has 11, in the all-Mississippi MLB home run derby. Cozart’s third homer in his last seven games – plus Joey Votto’s three long balls — helped Cincinnati wallop Philadelphia 11-2. Cozart hit just four homers all of last season. Mississippi State alum Mitch Moreland belted his seventh homer of the year as Texas beat Oakland 2-1. Ex-UM star Chris Coghlan of the Chicago Cubs also is sitting on seven. P.S. Day 2 draft picks from Mississippi included Pearl River Community College right-hander Jacob Taylor (Pittsburgh), Ole Miss righty Scott Weathersby (Houston) and Delta State righty Witt Haggard (New York Mets). Haggard is a former Lamar School football star who walked on as a quarterback at Ole Miss in 2010, then transferred to Meridian CC to focus on baseball before heading to DSU. He posted a 3.24 ERA in 14 games as a senior this season.

09 Jun

minor matters

D.J. Davis, the first Mississippi-connected player chosen in the 2012 draft, is making a strong bid for promotion in the Toronto system. The ex-Stone County High star drove in eight runs on Monday for the low Class A Lansing Lugnuts. The lefty-hitting outfielder, who went 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles in the game, is batting .294 with three homers, 30 RBIs, 32 runs, four triples and nine steals over 53 games in his second tour of the Midwest League. A key for Davis this year has been cutting down on his strikeouts. … Chris Stratton, also a first-rounder in 2012 (No. 20 overall to Davis’ 17), made his Triple-A debut in the San Francisco system last Friday. Stratton, from Tupelo by way of Mississippi State, allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings in a victory by Sacramento. He was 1-5 with a 4.14 ERA at Double-A Richmond before his promotion. … Knocking on the Double-A door is Horn Lake’s Cody Reed, a second-round pick out of Northwest Mississippi CC by Kansas City in 2013 (and the third Mississippian picked in that draft, after Hunter Renfroe and Tim Anderson). The 6-foot-5, 220-pound left-hander is 5-3 with a 1.29 ERA for Wilmington in the high-A Carolina League. … Anderson, the East Central CC alum who missed a couple days with a shoulder injury, is playing again at Double-A Birmingham (Chicago White Sox) and is hitting .304 with 21 bags. MSU product and Crystal Springs native Renfroe, at Double-A San Antonio in San Diego’s system, has scuffled a bit (.226, three homers). … Ole Miss alum Bobby Wahl, another 2013 draftee, is also toiling in Double-A and has a 3.76 ERA with four saves for Midland (Oakland) in the Texas League. P.S. Ed Easley, drafted way back in 2007 out of MSU, got his first big league RBI on Monday for St. Louis. He is still looking for his first hit; he is 0-for-2 in three plate appearances. … Hinds CC’s Randy Bell was named an NJCAA first-team All-America pitcher. The South Alabama signee was 12-0 with a 2.37 ERA for the state champion Eagles.

09 Jun

a power play

High school draftees from Mississippi generally have had a tough time making it to the big leagues, Billy Hamilton being a noteworthy exception to that rule. But Austin Riley’s power, in both his bat and his arm, apparently convinced the Atlanta Braves to pick the DeSoto Central High product as a third baseman in the Competitive Balance Round A of Monday’s MLB draft. Riley was the 41st overall pick and Atlanta’s third of its five selections on the draft’s first day. Baseball America had Riley No. 164 in its last pre-draft rating. Riley, 6 feet 3, 230 pounds, played mostly shortstop for the Jaguars when he wasn’t on the mound, where his fastball reportedly reached 95 mph. Riley batted .423 with 11 homers and 14 doubles for the state champions this year. Riley is a Mississippi State signee, but he’ll likely get a sweet enough financial offer from the Braves to make him forgo college ball. The Braves need some power in their minor league system; there isn’t much on the Double-A Mississippi Braves’ roster.

08 Jun

draft notice

The major league draft often produces surprises, but it’s safe to assume that the Mississippi benchmark set 30 years ago by Will Clark will go unchallenged today. Former Mississippi State star Clark was the second overall pick in 1985 by San Francisco. No Mississippi-connected player before or since has gone No. 1 overall, though the state has had its fair share of first-rounders, including a No. 3 (B.J. Wallace of State by Montreal in 1992), a No. 5 (Drew Pomeranz of Ole Miss by Cleveland in 2010) and two No. 8’s (Kirk Presley of Tupelo High by the New York Mets in 1993 and Paul Maholm of State by Pittsburgh in 2003). Just last year, Blake Anderson, a catcher from West Lauderdale, went in the supplemental phase of Round 1, No. 36 overall to Miami. MSU alum Hunter Renfroe (13th overall) and East Central Community College product Tim Anderson (17th) were first-round picks in 2013, and Stone County’s D.J. Davis (17th) and State’s Chris Stratton (20th) went in Round 1 in 2012. Other first-rounders (including supplemental picks) over the last 30 years include ex-State star Rafael Palmeiro (No. 22 in 1985), Jackson State’s Earl Sanders (1986), Steve Pegues of Pontotoc (1987), Stone County’s Sam Hence (1990), State’s Carlton Loewer (1994), ex-Bulldogs star Eric DuBose (1997), Oak Grove’s Donnie Bridges (1997), Matt Ginter of State (1999), Michael Rosamond of Ole Miss (1999), UM’s Chris Coghlan (2006), Wendell Fairley from George County (2007), State’s Ed Easley (2007), former Rebels star Lance Lynn (2008) and Madison Central’s Ryan Bolden (2010). Lynn, Easley, Coghlan and Pomeranz are currently in the big leagues. The first round of the draft will be televised tonight on MLB Network. No Mississippians are expected to be picked – but you never know. Anderson wasn’t projected to go on the first day last year.

01 Jun

feeling a draft

One week out from the major league draft, which begins June 8 and lasts three days, it’s a good time to take a glance back at the top Mississippians picked in last year’s draft. Blake Anderson from West Lauderdale High, taken in the first round by Miami, hasn’t been assigned to a team for 2015, nor have Columbia product Ti’Quan Forbes (second round, Texas) or George County’s Justin Steele (fifth round, Chicago Cubs). The short-season clubs, their likely destination, open after the draft. Ex-Mississippi State star Jacob Lindgren, picked in Round 2 by the New York Yankees, is already in The Show. In three games, he has a 5.40 ERA. Ole Miss alum Chris Ellis (third round, Los Angeles Angels) is 3-5, 4.37 in 10 starts at Inland Empire in the high Class A California League. A third-round selection by Cleveland, Bobby Bradley out of Harrison Central is batting .253 with five homers and 20 RBIs at Lake County in the Class A Midwest League. He was sidetracked for a time with an oblique strain. Last year’s Ferriss Trophy winner, Auston Bousfield of Ole Miss, a fifth-round pick by San Diego, is hitting .313 with 14 stolen bases at Lake Elsinore in the Cal League. Also of note: Former Southern Miss star Bradley Roney, an eighth-rounder by Atlanta, is pitching at Class A Rome and has a 5.29 ERA with a save in 11 appearances. He could make it to the Double-A Mississippi Braves by next season. P.S. Left-handed reliever Donnie Veal was designated for assignment by Atlanta and may be looking for a new team. Veal, a Jackson native and big league vet, had a 14.54 ERA in 4 1/3 innings for the Braves. Three of the eight hits he allowed were homers.