Tag Archives: MLB

02 Sep

dynamic duo

A tag team of former Magnolia State rivals played leading roles in Tampa Bay’s beatdown of playoff-contender Seattle on Monday night. Ex-Ole Miss star Nick Fortes and former Mississippi State standout Jake Mangum combined for five hits, four runs, three RBIs and a stolen base as the Rays claimed a 10-2 victory against the visiting Mariners. Fortes, who has not been much of an offensive contributor since the Rays acquired him in July, delivered a jarring blow early, a three-run homer in the second inning. A .218 hitter, catcher Fortes has four homers, two with Tampa Bay. Best known for his defense, he threw out a Seattle runner trying to steal. Mangum, the rookie outfielder, banged out three hits to raise his average to .291, scored a run (on Fortes’ homer) and stole a base, his 21st. The fall left the Mariners with a 73-65 record, second in the American League West and third in the wild card standings. The Rays haven’t yet tapped out — they’ve won four straight — but at 68-69, their playoff hopes have faded. P.S. Ole Miss alum Ryan Rolison, back with Colorado as a September call-up, worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings Monday in an 8-2 loss to San Francisco. The lefty — a rookie at 28 — trimmed his ERA to 7.15. … Boston’s Aroldis Chapman registered his 28th save on Monday with a 1-2-3 ninth and ran his remarkable streak of consecutive batters faced without yielding a hit to 46. MLB Network displayed a list of the longest such streaks since 2019 and ex-Ole Miss star Mike Mayers was No. 2 with 48 back in 2020. Mayers, who had an ERA of 5.21 in eight seasons, had a career year in 2020 for the Los Angeles Angels, putting up a 2.10 ERA in 30 relief appearances. … Today is Garrett Crochet day in Boston, where the Ocean Springs native and Red Sox ace will go for his 15th win against Cleveland. Crochet is 14-5 with a 2.40 ERA and is 10-1 in his last 15 starts. With the 6-4 win on Labor Day, Boston (77-62) is just 2.5 games behind Toronto in the AL East.

31 Aug

noteworthy

The Milwaukee Brewers, the team with the best record in the majors, got stronger on Saturday when Jackson Chourio came off the injured list. And the former Biloxi Shuckers star went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning as the Brewers (85-52) beat Toronto 4-1. It was the 18th homer of the season for Chourio, who spent a month on the IL. The 21-year-old outfielder, currently batting .278 with 68 RBIs and 18 steals, was third in National League rookie of the year voting in 2024. Mississippi State product Brandon Woodruff, another of the many Shuckers alums on Milwaukee’s roster, starts for the Brewers today at Toronto; he is 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA. … Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Blaze Jordan extended his hitting streak to seven games with a home run — his 15th of 2025 — in Triple-A Memphis’ 8-2 win over Oklahoma City. Jordan, St. Louis’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .280 with 84 RBIs on the year with three different clubs. … In a Double-A Eastern League game at Reading, Pa., before a crowd of 7,000-plus, a couple of former Mississippi high school stars got big knocks: Bryson Ware, Germantown grad, hit a two-run homer for Reading (Philadelphia affiliate) and Tupelo alum Reed Trimble went deep for Chesapeake (Baltimore) in the Fightin Phils’ 3-1 victory. Reading managed just two hits in the game. Ware, who also played at Pearl River Community College and Auburn, is batting .279 with two homers for Reading and has eight bombs overall at two levels. Ex-Southern Miss star Trimble has nine homers for Chesapeake and 13 overall, including a couple in Triple-A. … And at Windy City in Illinois, Kyle Booker’s eighth-inning single drove in the lone run as the indy Mississippi Mud Monsters (and Jeremy Peguero) beat the Thunderbolts 1-0. The Mud Monsters (48-47) finish their inaugural season today at Crestwood, Ill. … Madison Central product Spencer Turnbull has signed a minor league deal with Kansas City and will report to Triple-A Omaha. The veteran right-hander is now with his third organization in 2025, having been released by Toronto and the Chicago Cubs. … On this date in 1990, former Jackson State standout Wes Chamberlain made his MLB debut for the Phillies. He would play six years in the majors, batting .255 with 43 homers. He batted .364 for the Phils in the 1993 NL Championship Series win over Atlanta.

25 Aug

details, details …

Sunday stuff: Two more hits and RBIs for Nathaniel Lowe. That’s seven knocks in 16 at-bats with seven RBIs for the ex-Mississippi State star in six games with Boston. The Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees on Sunday and are 3-3 in Lowe’s appearances. … Two more hits, an RBI, a run, three different positions and a win for Kansas City’s Adam Frazier. The former MSU standout is hitting .295 with 14 RBIs and 12 runs in his 29 games for the wild card-chasing Royals, 19-12 since the All-Star break. … Konnor Pilkington, MSU product from Pascagoula, struck out the Philadelphia side in the seventh inning of Washington’s 3-2 loss; he has 18 punchouts in 14 2/3 innings — with a 5.52 ERA — in 16 games this season. … Blaze Jordan, DeSoto Central High product, drove in a run for Triple-A Memphis, his 16th RBI in 17 games since joining the St. Louis affiliate in a trade. He is batting just .129. … In his first week in Double-A, ex-Jackson Prep standout Konnor Griffin batted .286 with four RBIs, four runs and four steals for Pittsburgh’s Altoona club. … Former Southern Miss star Dustin Dickerson scored one run for Northwest Arkansas, but it was the game-winner in a walk-off victory by the Royals’ Double-A club. … MSU product Kamren James hit his first homer of the season and fellow Bulldogs alum Colton Ledbetter added his sixth in a win for Double-A Montgomery, a Tampa Bay affiliate. … Patrick Lee, former William Carey University star, hit his fourth homer for West Michigan, one of six bombs Detroit’s High-Class A club belted in a 16-0 win. … Luke Hill, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss, got three more hits and is batting .417 in seven games for Low-A Lynchburg in Cleveland’s chain. He has a homer, four RBIs, five runs and five bags. … Michael Fowler took a loss for Low-A Carolina but still has yet to yield an earned run in five appearances for the Milwaukee affiliate. He pitched for USM and the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters this season before the Brewers signed him on July 29. P.S. Fun flashback: On this date in 1995, former Jackson Mets star Gregg Jefferies hit for the cycle and ex-Jackson Generals ace Jeff Juden threw a complete game and clubbed a grand slam as Philadelphia whipped the Los Angeles Dodgers (and Hideo Nomo) 17-4.

21 Aug

donde estan ahora?

Quite a few familiar names dot the rosters of the teams in the Mexican League postseason (the LMB Zone Series), which got under way Wednesday. Monterrey, which won its opener 11-2 over Dos Laredos, features former Mississippi Braves pitchers Nolan Kingham, Manny Banuelos and Chris Ellis, who also played at Ole Miss. Kingham got the win in the opener, and Ellis — the Sultanes’ closer all season — worked the ninth. Johan Camargo, who passed through Pearl en route to Atlanta, plays for Dos Laredos. M-Braves alums Drew Lugbauer and Hendrik Clementina — members of the 2021 league championship team — played for Union Laguna in a 9-3 loss to Jalisco, which suits up former M-Braves standout Mallex Smith. Smith went 0-for-3 with a walk and run for the Charros, while Lugbauer and Clementina each had a hit for the Algodoneros. M-Braves alum Rio Ruiz had a 2-for-4 game for Mexico City’s Diablos Rojos in a win against Puebla. James Hoyt, a fireballing closer for the M-Braves in 2013-14, pitches for Campeche but did not appear for the Piratas in Campeche’s loss to Oaxaca. … Bobby Bradley’s Saltillo team did not make the playoffs; the Harrison Central High product finished his season at .305 with 12 homers and 56 RBIs. Bradley has 253 homers over his 11 pro seasons, 17 bombs in MLB with Cleveland from 2019-22.

14 Aug

positive signs

Blaze Jordan, the former DeSoto Central High star, hit his first home run for Memphis — 13th overall in 2025 — as part of a 2-for-5, four-RBI performance in the Triple-A Redbirds’ 14-5 win Wednesday night against Charlotte. Jordan, recently traded to St. Louis by Boston, has four hits in his last two games after a sluggish start for Memphis. His homer came against erstwhile big leaguer Bryse Wilson. Jordan, the Cardinals’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .292 with 71 RBIs on the year. … Madison Central alum Braden Montgomery, the No. 1 prospect in the Chicago White Sox’s system, went 2-for-4 with a double for Birmingham and boosted his average for the Double-A club to .278 in 14 games. He is hitting .271 with 12 homers and 61 RBIs over three levels in his first pro season. … Mason Nichols, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss and a Jackson Prep grad, threw a clean inning in his pro debut for Low-Class A Charleston in the Tampa Bay chain. He worked the sixth and got a hold in the RiverDogs’ 3-2 win against Hickory. … Ex-Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff tossed four scoreless innings in a scheduled short start as Milwaukee won its 12th straight, 12-5 over Pittsburgh. The Brewers are 7-0 in Woodruff’s starts; his ERA is 2.06. … Nathaniel Lowe, an MSU product, belted his first career grand slam, a first-inning bomb that helped propel Washington to an 8-7 win at Kansas City. The scuffling Lowe, who has 16 homers on the season, had not hit one since July 19 and is batting just .091 in August. … Former State standout Jake Mangum, also battling a slump, had an RBI knock, stole a base — his 17th — and scored during Tampa Bay’s four-run first inning against the A’s (and fellow Bulldogs alum J.T. Ginn). The Rays rolled on to an 8-2 victory at West Sacramento. Rookie Mangum is batting just .163 in his last 15 games but is at .275 overall. … And in the wild, wild Pioneer League, Kellum Clark, an MSU product from Brandon, went 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs to pace Rocky Mountain to a 16-1 win vs. Oakland. Clark is batting .386 with nine homers, 50 RBIs and 50 runs in 40 games in the independent league. He was released by the New York Mets last year after two seasons in their system.

12 Aug

prospecting

Major league clubs that went prospecting in Mississippi in the July draft turned up some intriguing talent. Nine players picked in this year’s draft have landed on the Top 30 prospect list in their respective organizations; MLB Pipeline has updated its rankings to include new draftees. JoJo Parker, drafted eighth overall out of Purvis High, is No. 2 on Toronto’s list, and Southern Miss alum Jake Cook (third round) checks in as the Blue Jays’ No. 11. J.B. Middleton, the 2025 Ferriss Trophy winner at USM and a second-round pick, is No. 6 on Colorado’s chart. Landon Harmon, former East Union High ace and a third-round pick, is No. 6 on Washington’s list, and ex-Lewisburg High star Talon Haley, a 12th-rounder, was slotted in at No. 14 on the Los Angeles Angels’ list. Mason Morris, Luke Hill, Nick Monistere and Pico Kohn also cracked the new Top 30s. … A pair of first-rounders from the 2024 draft, Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin and Madison Central alum Braden Montgomery, are ranked No. 1 in the Pittsburgh and Chicago White Sox systems, respectively. Griffin is the overall No. 1 minor league prospect. Cooper Pratt, a 2023 draftee out of Magnolia Heights, is up to No. 3 on Milwaukee’s chart. Dakota Jordan, a Jackson Academy and Mississippi State product drafted in 2024, remained No. 6 in San Francisco’s system. … Of note: Liam Doyle, who pitched at Ole Miss before transferring to Tennessee, is ranked second on St. Louis’ list; he was the fifth overall pick in July. P.S. A pair of Mississippi high school products went to the bump as starters in the big leagues on Monday. Only one got a good result. Will Warren (Jackson Prep) threw 6 2/3 strong innings for the New York Yankees to beat Minnesota 6-2; Warren is 7-5 with a 4.34 ERA. Garrett Crochet (Ocean Springs) was pulled after four innings — his shortest stint of the year — and took a loss as Boston fell to Houston 7-6. Crochet (13-5, 2.48) yielded a season-high five runs. … Ex-MSU standout Adam Frazier, a trade acquisition last month by Kansas City, went 3-for-4 with an RBI in the Royals’ 7-4 win against Washington on Monday and is batting .333 with nine RBIs and eight runs in 18 games for his new club. K.C. is 59-60 and hanging around in the American League wild card battle.

11 Aug

transaction watch

Veteran big leaguer Kendall Graveman, a Mississippi State product, has been designated for assignment by Arizona. The 34-year-old Graveman, coming off 2024 shoulder surgery, has a 7.13 ERA in 19 games this season. He has a 4.03 ERA in 299 career MLB games and posted a 1.64 in nine games for Houston in the 2021 postseason. … Houston Roth, a former Ole Miss star, was designated for assignment by Baltimore, removing the minor league right-hander from the 40-man roster. He got a brief call-up to the big club but never made an appearance. He has a 2.08 ERA, five wins and two saves in 26 relief appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season. If he clears waivers, it’s likely the Orioles will want to keep him in their system. … Luke Hill and Will McCausland, 2025 draftees out of Ole Miss, have been assigned to Low-Class A Lynchburg in the Cleveland organization. Infielder Hill was a fourth-round pick, righty McCausland a seventh-rounder. (Most of this year’s draft picks have been sent to spring training facilities and will take part in Instructional League next month.) … Logan Forsythe, a D’Iberville native who spent a couple of years at Mississippi State, is now on the roster at Low-A Augusta in the Atlanta chain. The right-hander was drafted this year out of Louisiana Tech. … Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel was activated from the injured list on Saturday at Double-A Pensacola and went 0-for-3 in his first game. He was traded by Tampa Bay to Miami in July for Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes. Etzel is a .267 career hitter with 84 steals in three seasons. … Bryson Ware, a Germantown High product who also passed through Pearl River Community College and Auburn en route to pro ball, recently was promoted to Double-A Reading by Philadelphia. He is 5-for-14 in three games, though all five hits came in one game last Saturday. The third baseman was batting .229 with eight homers in High-A ball this season. Ware’s brother Conner, also a Germantown and PRCC alum, was drafted out of LSU this year — and signed — by the New York Mets. P.S. Former USM standout Landon Harper was named the Double-A Southern League’s pitcher of the week (Aug. 4-10) after throwing a seven-inning one-hitter on Aug. 7 for Columbus. Harper had a perfect game for 6 2/3 innings and is now 3-6 with a 3.67 ERA in his second Double-A season. He joins a lengthy list of Mississippians to win POW awards this season (see previous posts).

10 Aug

worth noting

Hurston Waldrep sure knows how to capture the moment. Last Sunday, the ex-Southern Miss and Mississippi Braves standout was the winning pitcher for Atlanta in the historic Speedway Classic. On Saturday, he threw six strong innings to get his second career MLB win in the first game of a twinbill, which also happened to be the debut for Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire an MLB regular season game. (She’ll be behind the plate today.) Waldrep is 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA and — probably? — has earned a spot in the Braves’ rotation. … Former M-Braves Michael Harris II and Drake Baldwin combined for eight hits and eight RBIs as the Braves swept Miami on Saturday at Truist Park. … M-Braves alum William Contreras and ex-Biloxi Shuckers star Brice Turang homered — 10th of the season for each — and Milwaukee beat the New York Mets for its eighth straight win. … Jacob Gonzalez, former Ole Miss All-American, homered for the second straight day and went 2-for-3 with two walks and three RBIs to power Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox system) to a victory. … Chuckie Robinson, Southern Miss product, put up a 2-for-4 — eight hits in his last five games — scored twice and threw out a base-stealer for Triple-A Oklahoma City (Los Angeles Dodgers) in a win against El Paso. … K.C. Hunt, ex-Mississippi State standout, threw six shutout innings for his seventh win as Double-A Biloxi (Milwaukee) beat Knoxville. … Konnor Griffin, the No. 1 prospect out of Jackson Prep, banged out three hits and scored three times as High-Class A Greensboro (Pittsburgh) rang up 27 runs against Asheville. … Emaarion Boyd, the speedster from South Panola, stole his 40th bag, drove in a run and scored one for High-A Beloit (Miami) in a 2-1 victory against Quad Cities. P.S. Kevin Roberts Jr., a Meridian native now playing at Jackson Prep, will play in the MLB-sponsored High School All-American Game on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The game features players, many of them top draft prospects, from the prep class of 2026. A Florida commit, Roberts hit .406 for Prep in 2025.

08 Aug

they also serve …

Dave Clark and Travis Chapman won’t throw a pitch or swing the bat this weekend, but they’ll be on the field at Yankee Stadium and involved in the action. Clark, the former Jackson State star from Shannon, and Chapman, a Mississippi State alum, are first-base coaches for Houston and the New York Yankees, respectively. Those teams, rivals with a history and 2025 playoff contenders, will face off in a three-game series. With the likes of Jose Altuve and Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa and Jazz Chisholm taking hacks in this series, Clark and Chapman figure to be plenty busy playing traffic cop at first base. They are among a sizable group of former players with Mississippi connections who now work in managerial or coaching roles in the big leagues. At one time in 2018, there were seven major league managers with a Mississippi tie, either a school alum or a player or manager for Jackson’s old Texas League club. Today, Brian Snitker, 2005 Mississippi Braves skipper, and Ray Montgomery, who played for the Jackson Generals in the 1990s, are the only two. Snitker is retiring after this season on the heels of a great run in the ATL, the 2025 season notwithstanding. Montgomery is the interim manager for the Los Angeles Angels, presumably just keeping the seat warm for the return of Ron Washington next year. For the Milwaukee Brewers — MLB’s hottest team — Chris Hook, a former Biloxi Shuckers coach and a Jackson Generals pitcher, serves as pitching coach for an outstanding staff, and Starkville native Julio Borbon is the Brewers’ first-base coach. The Crew is hosting the New York Mets this weekend. John Gibbons, former Jackson Mets catcher, is the Mets’ bench coach, and Antoan Richardson, who starred for the Mississippi Braves, is their first-base coach. Laurel native Bobby Dickerson is the infield coach for Philadelphia. Marcus Thames, the Louisville native and East Central Community College star, is the hitting coach for the Chicago White Sox. Jim Hickey, a former Jackson Generals pitching coach, is the longtime pitching coach of the Washington Nationals. The Colorado staff includes Clint Hurdle, skipper of the last JaxMets team in 1990, as bench coach and ex-JaxMets first baseman Ron Gideon as first-base coach. Chris Truby, who manned third base for the Jackson Generals in the mid-’90s, is now a coach for Pittsburgh. P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Landon Harper came within one out of a seven-inning perfect game Thursday for Double-A Columbus in Atlanta’s system. Harper finished with a one-hitter and improved to 3-6 with a 3.67 ERA after the 2-0 win over Rocket City. … Former Jackson Prep star Konnor Griffin homered — his 15th overall this season — for High-Class A Greensboro (Pittsburgh). The minor leagues’ No. 1 prospect is batting .332 with 64 RBIs, 87 runs and 50 steals in 92 games over two levels of A-ball. … Blaine Crim, Mississippi College alum, hit his 19th homer of the year, his first for Triple-A Albuquerque since Colorado claimed him off waivers from Texas. The bomb came against his former team, Round Rock, and erstwhile big leaguer Craig Kimbrel. … The Los Angeles Dodgers reportedly will call up Justin Dean, who played center field for the 2021 Double-A South champion M-Braves. … The North Delta Dealers, behind the two-hit pitching of Eli Akins, won the Cotton States League championship last Sunday, beating regular season champ Tallahatchie 2-1. Hayden Short and Patrick Mangels drove in runs for North Delta. Akins, a 6-foot-6 righty at Delta State, went 6-1 in the New Albany-based college summer league. Tallahatchie finished 14-5-1 this season and led the loop in hitting and pitching.

05 Aug

just doing his thing

Minnesota Twins management may have waved the white flag on this season, purging the roster at the trade deadline, but Matt Wallner is still out there battling, doing Matt Wallner things. The Southern Miss product — the school’s all-time home run leader — hit his 15th homer on Monday night. The sixth-inning shot at Detroit’s Comerica Park gave the Twins a brief lead before they ultimately fell to the first-place Tigers 6-3. It was the Twins’ fifth loss in six games and they now stand 52-60. If the club is fading away, Wallner is not. The 6-foot-4 lefty slugger, at .217 on the season, is batting .368 over his last seven games and has four homers in his last eight. He is one of those proverbial “three true outcome” players: In 259 plate appearances this season — he missed a chunk of time early on with an injury — he has struck out 75 times and walked 32 (with four HBPs) in addition to his career-high homer total. He has 44 career bombs in 240 games. When Wallner hits the ball, he hits it hard: Of his 48 hits in 2025, 28 are for extra bases. In Monday’s game, his homer off Casey Mize carried 436 feet to center field. Wallner also walked once and struck out once. And, oh yeah, he has a cannon for a right arm; USM used him as a closer at times. Playing right field on Monday, he threw out two Tigers on the bases. The Minnesota native may give disheartened Twins fans something to cheer about down the stretch. P.S. Wallner is tied for third in the all-Mississippi home run derby for 2025. Brent Rooker leads with 23, followed by Austin Riley at 16 and Wallner and Nathaniel Lowe at 15. Jordan Westburg — hitting .419 in his last seven games — belted his 13th homer for Baltimore in a losing cause on Monday. … On the topic of homers, ex-Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison yielded a bomb in Colorado’s blowout loss to Toronto at Coors Field and has now allowed 10 homers in 34 2/3 innings this season, his first in MLB.