Tag Archives: MLB Pipeline

05 Mar

prospecting

Twenty-one Mississippians (natives or school alums) appear in MLB Pipeline’s new Top 30 prospect rankings for each big league organization. The highest rated among this group is former Jackson Prep uber-star Konnor Griffin, No. 2 in Pittsburgh’s system before ever playing a regular season pro game. (The ninth overall pick last July, he has been in big league camp this spring.) … Elsewhere in the National Central: Magnolia Heights product Cooper Pratt is No. 3 in Milwaukee’s system and targeted for Double-A Biloxi this season, and K.C. Hunt (Mississippi State), who pitched in Double-A in 2024, is rated No. 25 in the Brewers’ chain. … In the American League Central, former Madison Central star Braden Montgomery — a 2024 first-rounder — is No. 5 in the Chicago White Sox’s organization, and Jacob Gonzalez (Ole Miss) checks in at No. 14. Doug Nikhazy (Ole Miss) is No. 22 on Cleveland’s list, and Eric Cerantola (MSU) is ranked 28th on Kansas City’s. … In the NL East: ex-Southern Miss standout Hurston Waldrep ranks No. 4 in Atlanta’s system. Waldrep made his MLB debut in 2024. Kemp Alderman (Ole Miss) is Miami’s No. 11; Nate Dohm (MSU) is the New York Mets’ No. 19; and Tyler Stuart (USM) ranks 15th in Washington’s system. … In the AL East: Jackson Prep product Will Warren is No. 5 on the Yankees’ list; he also debuted in The Show last season. Cade Smith (Mississippi State) is No. 16 in the Yankees’ chain. Elsewhere in the AL East, Colton Ledbetter (MSU) and Matthew Etzel (Southern Miss) rank Nos. 26 and 27 for Tampa Bay, and Khal Stephen (MSU) is ranked 11th in Toronto’s system. … In the NL West, Dakota Jordan (MSU), a 2024 draftee, is ranked sixth on San Francisco’s list. In the AL West, switch-pitcher Jurrangelo Cijntje (MSU) — 15th overall pick last July — is ranked No. 9 in Seattle’s system. The A’s have J.T. Ginn (MSU), who debuted in MLB last summer, at No. 14 and Gunnar Hoglund (Ole Miss) at 16. Justin Foscue (MSU), who got some limited time with Texas in 2024, is rated No. 15 in the Rangers’ chain. … Griffin (43), Montgomery (54) and Pratt (56) are ranked in MLB Pipeline’s overall Top 100. P.S. Props to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s James Vines and Dom Jackson for earning the MACCC pitcher and hitter of the week honors. Vines posted a 1.12 ERA and 15 strikeouts in eight innings last week; he is 1-0 with a 2.00 in five games on the season. Jackson hit three homers and drove in 10 runs as the Bulldogs won four of six games. He has seven homers on the season. … Copiah-Lincoln CC’s Tucker Jones, a Northwest Rankin High alum, ranks second in NJCAA Division II with 19 stolen bases in just 12 games for the 15-8 Wolves, and teammate Jennings Kimbrell, a St. Joe product, is 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA, tied for the national lead in wins.

28 Jan

circling back

Adam Frazier, the ex-Mississippi State standout, is off the free agent market, having reportedly agreed to sign with his original MLB team, Pittsburgh. A nine-year veteran, Frazier spent the first 5 1/2 years of his career with the Pirates, making the All-Star Game in 2021. The 32-year-old utility man has bounced around ever since, playing for four other teams, three of which made the postseason. The left-handed hitter batted just .202 for Kansas City in 2024 but has a .264 career mark with 60 homers and 55 steals. … With the gates of spring training camps soon to swing open, three other notable Mississippi products, each a big league veteran, remain unsigned. Pitchers Spencer Turnbull, Lance Lynn and Kendall Graveman would seem to be attractive, reasonably priced options for teams that still have holes to fill. Former Madison Central High star Turnbull, 32, has a 4.26 ERA in six big league seasons, working primarily as a starter, and made just $2 million last year with Philadelphia. He posted a 2.65 ERA in an injury-shortened 2024 season but is reportedly healthy now. Ole Miss alum Lynn, 37, had a 3.84 ERA in 23 starts last season with St. Louis, where he was on a one-year, $11M deal. Lynn has 143 career wins dating to 2011, when he helped the Cardinals win the World Series as a rookie. Ex-State star Graveman, 34, missed all of 2024 following shoulder surgery last off-season. A nine-year vet, he has a career ERA of 3.95, working strictly as a reliever since 2020. He was effective in middle relief for Houston in 2023. P.S. Former Mississippi College standout Blaine Crim, who batted .277 with 20 homers and 86 RBIs for Texas’ Triple-A team in 2024, has received a non-roster invite to the Rangers’ camp. The Gulf South Conference’s player of the year in 2019, the righty-hitting first baseman has batted .295 in his minor league career with 103 homers in 562 games. … MLB Pipeline gave 70-grade arm tools (on the 20-80 scouting scale) to 2024 draftees and Magnolia State prep products Konnor Griffin (Pittsburgh system) and Braden Montgomery (Chicago White Sox).

25 Jan

going camping

Mississippi will be well-represented in the Chicago White Sox’s spring training camp in Arizona next month. Three minor leaguers — Tim Elko, Jacob Gonzalez and Braden Montgomery — with state ties and strong credentials have been invited as non-roster players to Glendale, where they’ll hook up with Louisville native and ex-big leaguer Marcus Thames, the White Sox’s hitting coach. Elko, 26, a 10th-round pick off Ole Miss’ 2022 national title team, has batted .288 with 51 homers as a pro, reaching the Triple-A level last summer. The big first baseman also played well in the Arizona Fall League — four bombs in 11 games — and was selected by USA Baseball for the Premier 12 team that played in an international tournament last fall. Gonzalez, national freshman of the year at Ole Miss in 2021, was a first-round pick by the ChiSox in 2023 and is currently rated their No. 15 prospect by MLB Pipeline. A middle infielder, Gonzalez reached Double-A in 2024 and hit .225 with five homers, 42 RBIs and 10 steals for Birmingham in the Southern League. Montgomery was Mississippi’s Gatorade player of the year at Madison Central High in 2021 and starred at Stanford and Texas A&M before Boston picked him 12th overall in the 2024 draft. The switch-hitting outfielder, who has yet to make his pro debut, was one of the prospects Chicago acquired from Boston in the recent Garrett Crochet trade. Montgomery, 21, is the ChiSox’s No. 5 prospect. The ChiSox need all the help they can get. The team went 41-121 last season, worst record in modern MLB history. Thames, who starred at East Central Community College before launching a 10-year major league career, is entering his second season as Chicago’s hitting coach, having been retained by new manager Will Venable. P.S. Montgomery checked in at No. 55 on MLB Pipeline’s new list of the Top 100 minor league prospects entering the 2025 season. Konnor Griffin, the mega-star out of Jackson Prep, is No. 43; the shortstop/outfielder was the ninth overall pick last July by Pittsburgh and has yet to make his pro debut. Cooper Pratt, the ex-Magnolia Heights standout, is No. 57 on the list; the 2023 draftee is in Milwaukee’s system.

07 Dec

names and numbers

There hasn’t been much activity on the major league free agent market, but that will change soon. Juan Soto, the biggest fish in the pond, likely will sign — for $600 million-plus — next week during the Winter Meetings. That figures to trigger a lot of movement in the market. Quite a few Mississippians with MLB experience are out there looking for a 2025 team. Some could get big bucks. The list includes: Madison Central High alum Spencer Turnbull; ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn; former Mississippi State standout Kendall Graveman; MSU alum Adam Frazier; former Bulldogs star Ethan Small; ex-East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson; MSU product and Pascagoula native Konnor Pilkington; and Michael Rucker, a Columbus native. Of note: Lynn, 37, a 13-year MLB vet, recently told the New York Times that he has dropped 20 pounds this off-season and has received numerous calls from MLB clubs about pitching next season. He had a 3.84 ERA with St. Louis in 2024, when balky knees limited him to 23 starts. … Two state prep players made MLB Pipeline’s latest Top 100 draft prospects chart for 2025: Pitcher Landon Harmon of East Union High at No. 49 and shortstop JoJo Parker of Purvis at 86. The 6-foot-5 Harmon, the Class 2A player of the year, is a Mississippi State commit who pitched in the MLB-sponsored High School All-America Game at Petco Park last summer. Parker, a lefty hitter, is also an MSU commit. His twin brother, outfielder Jacob, won a share of the high school home run derby competition during the MLB All-Star festivities last summer and will get some scouts’ attention, as well. Only one high school player was drafted from the state in 2024: No. 9 overall pick Konnor Griffin of Jackson Prep. Also making MLB Pipeline’s new draft list at No. 66 is LSU’s Conner Ware, an injury-prone lefty from Germantown via Pearl River Community College. No players from Mississippi’s four-year schools cracked the Top 100. … Three state juco products made the top nine in d1baseball.com’s list of the Top 50 impact juco hitters now at NCAA Division I schools: Pearl River CC’s Bryce Fowler (now at Alabama) is No. 6, Mississippi Gulf Coast’s Brandon Cain (Oklahoma) No. 7 and PRCC’s Hollis Porter (Maryland) No. 9. Porter was the MACCC player of the year and a first-team NJCAA Division II All-America pick. Hinds product Thomas Marsala (Western Kentucky) was ranked 48th. … William Carey University, which went 37-16 in 2024 and made yet another trip to the NAIA World Series, is ranked ninth in the NAIA coaches preseason poll. Carey was the preseason No. 4 in 2024.

21 Oct

top performers

Kemp Alderman had a big moment last week in the Arizona Fall League. Fellow former Ole Miss standout Tim Elko had several moments — and was rewarded with a spot on the Week 2 list of top performers compiled by MLB Pipeline. Elko, a 10th-round pick by the Chicago White Sox in 2022, went 5-for-14 (.357) for the week with a double, two home runs and four runs for Glendale. The big first baseman/DH batted .289 with 18 homers between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024. Alderman, a second-rounder by Miami last year, hit a 119.5 mph homer that carried 443 feet for Peoria on Oct. 18. Only two major leaguers have ever hit a ball harder, per MLB Pipeline’s story. Alderman leads the AFL in homers with six and slugging at a ridiculous .906. … Ex-UM closer Brandon Johnson, a Kansas City prospect pitching for Surprise in the AFL, is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in three appearances. He had a 4.23 ERA, three wins, eight holds and three saves at two levels of the minors this season. P.S. Postseason flashback (of a different sort): On this date in 2009, ex-Columbus High star and erstwhile big leaguer Luther Hackman tossed a 153-pitch complete game in an 11-5 win for the Uni-President Lions over the Brother Elephants in Game 4 of the Taiwan Series, the championship of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Hackman, who pitched in 149 MLB games from 1999-2003, took MVP honors in back-to-back Taiwan Series in 2008 and ’09, according to baseballreference.com.

12 Oct

take notice

Pegged by MLB Pipeline as one of the sleepers to watch in the Arizona Fall League, former Southern Miss standout Landon Harper registered an eye-opening performance on Friday. Pitching for Peoria, Harper tossed three scoreless innings in middle relief, allowing three hits and a walk with six strikeouts in his first AFL appearance. Harper isn’t on Atlanta’s list of Top 30 prospects, but the Meridian native’s showing for the Double-A Mississippi Braves this summer was impressive enough to earn a coveted fall league assignment. He posted a 1.41 ERA in 22 games, including five starts, and had a stretch of 14 straight appearances without allowing an earned run shortly after his late May promotion from A-ball. MLB Pipeline notes that command (of several pitches) is his best tool. He had 40 strikeouts and nine walks in 51 innings for the M-Braves and has walked just 27 batters in 161 1/3 pro innings. Harper is a Northeast Lauderdale High and Pearl River Community College alum who posted 12 saves for a 47-win USM team in 2022. The 6-foot-1 right-hander was drafted by Atlanta in the 14th round in ’22. … Other AFL “sleepers” with Mississippi ties include Ole Miss product Dylan DeLucia (Cleveland); ex-Mississippi State standout Jackson Fristoe (New York Yankees); and 2024 MSU alum David Mershon (Los Angeles Angels). P.S. Postseason flashback: On this date in 1980, ex-State star Del Unser scored the game-winning run in the 10th inning as Philadelphia beat Houston 8-7 in the deciding fifth game of a wild National League Championship Series that featured four extra-inning games. The Phillies would go on to win their first World Series against Kansas City.

03 Sep

eye on …

David McCabe is rated 13th among Atlanta’s minor league prospects, but through 24 games with the Mississippi Braves he has yet to find his footing. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound McCabe, who missed the first four months of the season after Tommy John surgery, is batting .125 (10-for-80) and slugging .188 with a single home run, seven RBIs and 33 strikeouts. The switch-hitter is in the lineup tonight, batting third at DH, as the Double-A M-Braves begin their final — as in last ever — regular season homestand. Canada native McCabe was drafted in the fourth round in 2022 out of UNC-Charlotte, where he slugged .679 as a junior and hit 30 homers over his last two seasons. Power is his best tool. A corner infielder, he played at two Class A levels in 2023 and hit .276 with 17 homers and 75 RBIs and batted .278 in the Arizona Fall League. Before this season began, MLB Pipeline ranked him No. 6 on Atlanta’s prospect chart. He slipped in the most recent ratings. After all that time on the shelf, it isn’t terribly surprising that McCabe would start slow once he arrived in Pearl. But to have just one homer — on Aug. 9 — in 24 games has to be a little bit of a disappointment. … The M-Braves, riding a three-game win streak, are 30-27 in the second half and 61-64 overall, still in the running for a Southern League postseason berth. And they have a strong set of starters lined up to face Tennessee this week at Trustmark Park. Southern Miss alum Landon Harper (2-1, 1.32 ERA, in 20 appearances, three starts) is scheduled tonight and again in Sunday’s finale. Knuckleballer David Fletcher, the ex-big league infielder, Ernesto Mejia, Lucas Braun and Jhancarlo Lara have Games 2-5.

14 Aug

checking the charts

There are lofty expectations for three recent Mississippi high school players of the year. In MLB Pipeline’s new Top 100 minor league prospects list released on Tuesday, Konnor Griffin (Jackson Prep) is ranked No. 55, Braden Montgomery (Madison Central) No. 59 and Cooper Pratt (Magnolia Heights) No. 62. Griffin, drafted ninth overall by Pittsburgh last month, is rated the Pirates’ No. 2 prospect, despite not having played a pro game. He was the national prep player of the year for 2024. Montgomery, drafted 12th overall in July out of Texas A&M by Boston, is already No. 4 in the Red Sox’s system; he hasn’t yet been assigned to a team either as he recovers from an ankle injury. Pratt was drafted last year and is now Milwaukee’s No. 2 prospect; he is batting .287 with four homers, 39 RBIs and 27 steals over two levels of Class A ball. … Roughly two dozen players with Mississippi ties appear in the Top 30 rankings of individual MLB clubs. Of note: Southern Miss alum Hurston Waldrep, who already has some big league time in his second pro season, is Atlanta’s No. 3. … Dakota Jordan, former Jackson Academy star drafted out of Mississippi State in July, checks in at No. 5 in San Francisco’s chain. … Jurrangelo Cijntje, the switch-pitcher drafted 15th overall out of MSU, is rated Seattle’s No. 7. … Former Jackson Prep standout Will Warren, who has made two appearances with the New York Yankees this season, is the No. 5 prospect in that system. P.S. USM product Matthew Etzel, Tampa Bay’s No. 25 prospect, hit his first two homers for Montgomery in Tuesday’s 18-5 blowout of Pensacola in the Double-A Southern League. Etzel is batting .278 with eight homers and 42 steals overall in 2024, having been traded by Baltimore to the Rays last month. … East Union High’s Landon Harmon, the Class 2A Mr. Baseball this past season, is slated to participate in today’s MLB-sponsored High School All-America Game at Petco Park. … Mike Cubbage, former major league infielder who managed the 1986 Jackson Mets to a division title in the Texas League, has died at age 74.

02 Aug

three shining moments

Around the minors on Thursday, Tanner Hall pitched an immaculate inning, Blaze Jordan got a walk-off hit and Gunnar Hoglund made an impressive debut. Hall, the former Southern Miss All-America, pitching for Low-Class A Fort Myers in the Minnesota chain, struck out the side on nine pitches in the fifth inning against St. Lucie. What’s more, Hall threw six innings — his longest outing of the year — struck out nine all told and got the win in a 7-2 game. The 2022 Ferriss Trophy winner, a fourth-round pick in 2023, is 3-0 with a 5.22 ERA in 14 games in his debut season. Jordan, the ex-DeSoto Central High star, was 0-for-5 when he stepped into the box in the 10th inning for Double-A Portland (Boston), then delivered an RBI hit to give the Sea Dogs a 6-5 win over Erie. Boston’s No. 19 prospect per MLB Pipeline, Jordan is hitting .252 with 41 RBIs in what has been an uneven season. He was riding a 17-game hit streak when he broke a finger in mid-May and missed a month. The right-handed hitting first baseman/third baseman hit 18 homers in 2023 but has just six this season, only one since June 21. Ole Miss product Hoglund, Oakland’s No. 17 prospect, made his first appearance for Triple-A Las Vegas, pitched a 1-2-3 first inning with two K’s and worked five more innings against Albuquerque. He yielded five hits and three runs, fanned seven and got a no-decision. The 6-foot-4 right-hander, the 19th overall pick in 2021, was 9-4 with a 2.84 ERA in Double-A this season. P.S. Hoglund was one of three Mississippians pegged by MLB Pipeline as pitching prospects to watch down the stretch. The others were ex-Mississippi State star Cade Smith (6-6, 3.48, at Low-A Tampa in the New York Yankees’ system) and former Bulldogs closer Landon Sims (1.21 ERA, 32 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings at High-A Hillsboro in the Arizona system).

02 Jul

reach for the stars

Magnolia Heights product Cooper Pratt is going where a number of former Mississippi-connected stars have gone before: the All-Star Futures Game. Pratt, a top Milwaukee prospect, has been named to the National League roster for the July 13 contest at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. He follows the likes of Colt Keith, Billy Hamilton, Hunter Renfroe, Matt Wallner, Nathaniel Lowe, Dakota Hudson and Ethan Small as selectees for this prestigious game. Pratt, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound shortstop, was drafted in the sixth round by the Brewers in 2023 after earning state player of the year honors as a two-way standout at MAIS state champion Magnolia Heights. An Ole Miss commit, he got $1.35M to sign with the Brewers and already is rated the No. 4 prospect in their loaded system. “He’s a cage rat … and one of our more explosive athletes,” Brewers minor league hitting instructor Brenton Del Chiaro recently told Brewers Beat. Pratt, 19, playing at Low-Class A Carolina — for a first-half championship team in the Carolina League — is hitting .313 with two homers, 31 RBIs and 19 stolen bases. He batted .356 in rookie ball last summer. MLB Pipeline projects his big league arrival as 2027 — but that could change. … Former Mississippi State star Mitch Moreland, who spent a chunk of his MLB career with Texas, will serve as first-base coach for the AL team in the Futures Game. Most of the coaches have Rangers connections.