Tag Archives: MLB

08 Sep

delayed delayed gratification

On this date in 2010, in his 16th season in pro ball, at age 33, John Lindsey made his big league debut. The former Hattiesburg High slugger was announced as a pinch hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Then the San Diego Padres changed pitchers, and Lindsey was called back. Another hitter took the turn. Lindsey did get his long-awaited first at-bat the next day and popped up, again as a pinch hitter. He would get 11 more ABs that season, delivering one hit, but that would be his only fling in the majors. Though he never hit a home run in the big leagues, Lindsey belongs in the conversation about the best mashers Mississippi has produced, right there with Dave Parker, George Scott, Luke Easter and the like. The 6-foot-2, 255-pound Lindsey bashed 377 homers in pro ball, according to numbers from baseball-reference.com, over a 22-year career that ended in the Mexican Pacific League in 2016. He hit his first homer for Colorado’s rookie league team in 1995 at age 18 and his last long ball for Novojoa in the MPL at age 38.

07 Sep

big league chew

First, the bad news from Sunday in MLB land. Anthony Alford, the former Petal High star, was placed on the 10-day injured list with a fractured elbow by Pittsburgh. He’s likely done for the season. It’s a cruel blow. A waiver claim by the Pirates on Aug. 28 from Toronto, Alford was getting regular duty in center field and was 3-for-12 with a homer and four RBIs. … For a bunch of Mississippians, Sunday was a good day. Former Mississippi State standout Dakota Hudson went five innings for St. Louis to beat Chicago at windy Wrigley Field; he improved to 2-2 with a 3.19 ERA. Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz threw another scoreless inning — his ERA is 0.00 over 13 appearances with six holds and four saves — in a win by San Diego. Ex-State standout Hunter Renfroe hit his sixth homer in Tampa Bay’s victory; Renfroe is batting just .155 but has 19 RBIs for the first-place Rays. DeSoto Central alum Austin Riley had a hit, two walks and a run in first-place Atlanta’s win; Riley’s average has climbed to .244. East Central Community College product Tim Anderson had a hit for the first-place Chicago White Sox and continues to lead the American League in batting at .351. Former State star Brent Rooker drove in two runs for Minnesota and is 3-for-11 in his first MLB stint. Surging Adam Frazier (.304 in his last 15 games, .234 for the year) went 2-for-4 for the Pirates, and fellow Bulldogs alum Chris Stratton worked a scoreless inning to trim his ERA to 3.79. Ex-Ole Miss standout Mike Mayers notched a win in relief for the Los Angeles Angels; he has a 2.93 ERA over 19 appearances for a bad team. MSU product Kendall Graveman worked a second straight scoreless inning for Seattle in his return from the IL with a neck problem (see previous posts). McComb native Corey Dickerson, scuffling of late, had a triple and scored twice for Miami. And, finally, former UM standout Henri Lartigue was added to Philadelphia’s 60-man roster and is in the alternate camp.

01 Sep

that’ll work

With a boatload of makeup games ahead for the St. Louis Cardinals in September, the durability of their pitchers will be tested as they try to make a playoff push. Ex-Mississippi State star Dakota Hudson gave them some length on Monday, working seven innings in a 7-5 win against Cincinnati that got the Cardinals to 13-13. The 25-year-old right-hander (1-2, 2.77 ERA in five starts) allowed just one earned run on four hits at the Reds’ so-called Great American Small Park. He struck out seven and walked none. While winning 16 games for St. Louis as a rookie in 2019, he led the majors in total walks (86 or 4.4 per nine innings), a stat that needs to improve. Through 26 innings in 2020, he has seven walks (2.4 per nine). He is reportedly throwing more curveballs and fewer sinkers this year. Hudson got a final swinging strike from three Reds batters on a different type of pitch in one inning. “It’s just me recognizing quality hitters that I’m facing and having a complete arsenal as a starter, rather than just being out there trying to overpower guys,” Hudson said in an mlb.com piece. P.S. Ke’Bryan Hayes, son of Hattiesburg native and longtime big leaguer Charlie Hayes, is slated for his big league debut tonight for Pittsburgh. The younger Hayes, one of the Pirates’ top prospects, is in the lineup at third base, batting seventh, against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. … Tampa Bay has recalled ex-MSU standout Nate Lowe from its alternate camp. Lowe batted .263 with seven homers as a rookie for the Rays in 2019. … Olive Branch native Kendall Williams, a second-round pick out of IMG Academy in Florida last year, has been traded from Toronto to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The right-hander was in the Blue Jays’ alternate camp.

31 Aug

game on

The stakes have been raised for three Mississippians who changed MLB teams in recent days. Jarrod Dyson, Cody Reed and Mitch Moreland have moved from losing clubs to contenders as the abbreviated 2020 season enters its final month. Dyson, the former McComb High and Southwest Mississippi Community College standout, went from lowly Pittsburgh to the Chicago White Sox. Dyson, a .245 career hitter with 254 stolen bases, was acquired primarily for his speed on the bases and in the outfield. He entered Sunday’s game as a pinch runner in the 10th inning and scored on Luis Robert’s walk-off homer; the win put the ChiSox in a tie for first in the American League Central. Reed, a Horn Lake High and Northwest Mississippi CC product, went from scuffling Cincinnati to Tampa Bay, which sits atop the AL East. Reed, a left-hander who worked as both a starter and reliever with the Reds, joins a Rays staff that has been hard hit by injuries. He was activated today, just in time for the Rays’ visit to the New York Yankees tonight. Moreland’s move from the struggling Boston Red Sox to surging San Diego was described by Padres manager Jayce Tingler as “impactful.” “Not only the bat, but somebody like Mitch with 80-grade makeup, a very, very tough man … that’ll blend in really well to this clubhouse,” the rookie skipper told mlb.com. Moreland, a former Amory High and Mississippi State star, is a .253 career hitter with 174 homers in 11 seasons; he was leading the Red Sox in homers and RBIs at the time of Sunday’s trade. Moreover, he has played in 48 postseason games and been in three World Series, winning a ring with Boston two years ago. That’s what the Padres appear all-in to do in 2020. … In other news, Lance Lynn did NOT get traded by Texas, a non-contender, though many in the media believed the Ole Miss product could have been a difference-maker for a contender, such as the Los Angeles Dodgers. “Even though he went to Ole Miss, I still like him,” Buck Showalter, the ex-Mississippi State star and former big league manager joked today on MLB Network’s trade deadline show. Lynn is 4-1 with a 1.93 ERA for the 12-21 Rangers.

30 Aug

stuff

Ole Miss alum Lance Lynn, facing a team he might be traded to, allowed a season-high four runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers and lost for the first time this season on Saturday. The Texas Rangers ace is 4-1 with a 1.93 ERA. … Ex-East Central Community College star Tim Anderson went 4-for-5 for the Chicago White Sox on Saturday and now leads the American League in batting at .361. He won the batting crown in 2019. … DeSoto Central High product Austin Riley, playing everyday at third base for Atlanta, has started to heat up, batting .360 over his last seven games and .283 in the last 15. He’s at .220 with five homers and 14 RBIs on the season. … Drew Pomeranz, the veteran lefty out of Ole Miss, was activated from the injured list Saturday by San Diego and made his 11th straight scoreless appearance in the Padres’ loss against Colorado. … Northwest CC alum Cody Reed was traded by Cincinnati to Tampa Bay (for a prospect). Lefty Reed has a 5.44 career ERA but is at 2.72 as a reliever. … Southwest CC product Jarrod Dyson, traded by Pittsburgh to the White Sox on Thursday, made his debut Friday night as a defensive replacement in left field. Dyson has been with five teams in the last five years. … Former Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff (2-2, 3.19) goes to the mound for Milwaukee today against Pittsburgh. On Monday, he’ll come home to Mississippi, where his pregnant wife, Jonie, is to be induced on Tuesday with the couple’s first child, a girl.

28 Aug

circle in pencil

Can’t really ID the proverbial “defining moment” until a season is over, but Atlanta might have experienced that event on Wednesday. The New York Yankees led all of baseball in OPS (on base-plus-slugging) and were among the best with 5.4 runs per game heading into the doubleheader at Truist Park. Ian Anderson and Max Fried, a couple of recent Mississippi Braves standouts, held the Yanks to six hits and two runs over 12 combined innings as the Braves won 5-1 and 2-1. Former M-Braves Ronald Acuna, Dansby Swanson and Freddie Freeman hit big home runs as the Braves scored the sweep in games started by New York aces Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka. This day belonged to the Braves’ young guns, Anderson and Fried. Anderson, a strapping, 6-foot-3 right-hander making his MLB debut, started with five no-hit innings before Luke Voit took him deep in the sixth. Anderson walked two and fanned six. It was precisely the kind of step-up effort the Braves needed from one of their touted but untested young guns. In Game 2, left-hander Fried, an emerging ace at age 26, yielded four hits – only one extra-base knock – walked one and struck out five. He is 5-0 with a 1.35 ERA. Atlanta reached the midpoint of its season with an 18-12 mark, good for first place in the National League East. More work — more solid pitching — must be done, but there may come a day in October when the Braves will look back at Aug. 26 as their defining moment.

22 Aug

alternate universe

They labor in a sort of netherworld, an alternate universe, so to speak. Every major league club has an alternate camp, where 30 or so players are working out and scrimmaging, mostly out of the view of media. News from these camps is sparse, but the transactions page on mlb.com is always humming. Players come and go from the active big league roster to the alternate camp on a fairly regular basis. “Our job is to just be ready to go whenever we’re called upon,” Mississippi State alum Brent Rooker, who is in Minnesota’s alternate camp in St. Paul, Minn., told the Columbus Commercial-Dispatch last month. “With this being a shortened season we kind of know anything can happen and we’re all just trying to stay ready to go.” Rooker, a first baseman/outfielder, hasn’t yet gotten the call for what would be his MLB debut. Former George County High star Justin Steele, also anticipating his first big league game, was summoned by the Chicago Cubs earlier this month, but the left-hander was sent back to their South Bend, Ind., camp a couple of days later. Southern Miss product Cody Carroll (Baltimore) and ex-Ole Miss standout Bobby Wahl (Milwaukee) were playing real games to start the season but are now in the alternate universe, where a bundle of other Mississippians work and wait. UM alum Jacob Waguespack was sent to Toronto’s alternate camp on Friday. Former State star Nate Lowe had an impact with Tampa Bay as a rookie in 2019, batting .263 with seven homers in 50 games, but the lefty-hitting first baseman hasn’t gotten a call from the Rays this summer. Ditto for Bobby Bradley, the Harrison Central High product who made his MLB debut last year with Cleveland and is no doubt itching for another crack. That would also be true for Jacob Lindgren, the injury-plagued former State ace who is in the Chicago White Sox’s alternate camp. His last MLB appearance was in 2015. Ex-Petal High standout Demarcus Evans, a hard-throwing reliever, appears to be on the cusp of his first call-up with Texas but for now is honing his command at Globe Life Park, the Rangers’ former home and current alternate camp. MSU product Ethan Small, Milwaukee’s first-round pick in 2019, is among a handful of inexperienced prospects who have been in alternate camp primarily to get specialized work. That group would include Southern Miss alum Nick Sandlin (Cleveland) and two 2020 draftees, former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet (White Sox) and ex-Ole Miss star Tyler Keenan (Seattle). Justin Foscue, the 14th overall pick out of MSU by Texas in June, was just added to the Rangers’ 60-man pool and assigned to the alternate camp on Thursday. Crochet, who pitched at Tennessee, recently told the Chicago Tribune he would welcome a big league shot this year but is focused on other things in Schaumburg, Ill. “I feel as each side (session) has passed, I’m getting more and more comfortable in the environment and with the coaching staff,” he said. “I’m trusting the little tidbits of information they are feeding me. … I definitely would say each bullpen has progressed, but I’ve got a ways to go.” Still, in 2020, anything can happen. He might have to go fast.

17 Aug

big league chew

Pitching on 20 days “rest,” Mississippi State product Dakota Hudson went four innings for St. Louis on Sunday and allowed just two hits and a lone run. Hudson had last pitched on July 26; St. Louis’ season was interrupted three days later by COVID-19 issues. Hudson (0-2, 5.40 ERA) was the tough-luck loser as the Cardinals fell to the Chicago White Sox 7-2 in their third game back from the hiatus. Hudson’s replacement, rookie Roel Ramirez, gave up the record-tying four straight home runs in the fifth inning. … If anyone was wondering, no Mississippi-connected hitters have been involved in any of the 10 occurrences of the back-to-back-to-back-to-back blasts. But … on June 8, 1961, when the Milwaukee Braves became the first team to do it, Jackson native Marshall Bridges, pitching for Cincinnati, yielded the last two homers to Joe Adcock and Frank Thomas. (Bridges actually had a nice MLB career: 23 wins, 25 saves, a 3.75 ERA and a World Series ring over seven seasons.) … Ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz already has a career-best four saves for San Diego and may get even more opportunities now that Kirby Yates, the erstwhile closer, has gone on the injured list with an ailing elbow. Pomeranz has not allowed a run in nine appearances (7 2/3 innings) entering Monday’s play. … Former Petal High standout Anthony Alford hit his second career homer on Sunday in a rare start for Toronto. He is 2-for-10 this season. Alford’s first career homer was a memorable walk-off bomb last year. … Meridian Community College alum Corey Dickerson went on the bereavement list on Saturday, which means he’ll miss a minimum of three games for Miami. He is batting .208 in his first year with the Marlins. … Wondering what’s next for Brian Dozier, the former Southern Miss star who was designated for assignment by the New York Mets on Sunday. The veteran second baseman, who got only 15 at-bats with the Mets after joining the club on July 30, could be traded or claimed on waivers by another club, but it seems more likely he’ll become a free agent — again. Over a two-year span, the one-time All-Star has been with five different teams. He batted .238 with 20 homers for Washington last season.

16 Aug

golden oldies

The old Negro Leagues, which Major League Baseball is celebrating today, produced not only great players but great teams. Mississippians played major roles on some of the best. There is surely ample debate about which Negro League team deserves to be called “the best,” but the short list would have to include the 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords. There were four future Hall of Famers on that team, five if you count Satchel Paige, who was on the roster but held out most of the season. The center fielder and leadoff batter for the Crawfords, the Negro National League champs in ’35, was James “Cool Papa” Bell, the Starkville native and Hall of Famer whose speed is legend. Clarksdale native David “Lefty” Harvey was a pitcher on that team, which also featured the incredible slugger Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston and Judy Johnson. Bell was also the leadoff man for the 1930 St. Louis Stars, another NNL champion with a stacked lineup that included Willie “The Devil” Wells, Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe (from the Ken Burns films) and George “Mule” Suttles. Nicknames apparently were a Negro Leagues staple. William Foster, who grew up in Rodney and played and coached at Alcorn A&M, didn’t have a nickname — he was known simply as Bill or Willie — but did have a great arsenal of pitches as the left-handed ace of the 1927 Chicago American Giants. That team won the NNL pennant and the Negro World Series, with Hall of Famer Foster throwing a shutout in the decisive eighth game. The Giants’ roster also featured Pythias Russ, “Gentleman Dave” Malarcher, Walter “Steel Arm” Davis and Willie “Pigmeat” Powell. The 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes, with Jackson native Buddy Armour playing center field, won the Negro American League pennant and the World Series in a sweep against a Homestead Grays team that trotted out a 42-year-old Bell and Greenwood native Dave Hoskins. The Buckeyes, 53-16 in the regular season according to “Only the Ball Was White,” were led by future major leaguer Sam “The Jet” Jethroe and the brothers Jefferson, Willie and George, both pitchers. Hattiesburg’s Rufus Lewis was the ace of the 1946 Newark Eagles, who won the NNL title and the World Series in seven games against Kansas City’s Monarchs. Lewis won Game 7. Future big leaguers Larry Doby and Monte Irvin and Max “Dr. Cyclops” Manning were other stars on that great Newark team. … All MLB players, managers, coaches and umpires will wear today a patch commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League. The logo is based on the official logo created by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.

10 Aug

pitched battles

Seven Mississippi products went to the bump across the major leagues on Sunday, and each one of them did a commendable job. But the best in show nod goes to Spencer Turnbull, the former Madison Central High standout who went seven innings, allowing a single run, to beat Pittsburgh and improve to 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA for Detroit. Turnbull’s manager and catcher and the opposing manager all lauded his performance, but the big right-hander, nicknamed the Red Bull, didn’t feel like his command was very good. He was observed talking to himself on the mound at various stages. “I think that’s a big testament to the mental side of the game that I’ve worked on really hard, being able to find a way to get the job done,” Turnbull, in his third season, said in an mlb.com story. The seven innings matched his career-best. He allowed just five hits and two walks while fanning four in the 2-1 victory. The Tigers, a ghastly 47-114 in 2019, are a surprising 8-5. Turnbull was 3-17 last year and lost 13 straight decisions down the stretch. … Lance Lynn, the ex-Ole Miss star, also picked up a win Sunday – the 100th of his career – but the Texas ace lasted only five innings (109 pitches) while battling a squeezed strike zone against the Los Angeles Angels. Lynn gave up two runs – on a homer by Mississippi Braves alum Tommy LaStella – after having yielded only one run over his first three starts. He struck out six, a season-low; he’s fourth in MLB with 30. He is now 2-0, 1.16. Mississippi State product Brandon Woodruff also labored a bit in his start for Milwaukee, throwing 91 pitches in four innings but allowing just two runs. He got a no-decision in a Brewers win over Cincinnati and is 1-1, 2.53 on the year. Elsewhere: Ex-State star Chris Stratton fanned six of the 12 batters he faced and gave up one run in a relief effort for Pittsburgh. Jonathan Holder, another former Bulldog, threw 1 2/3 scoreless for the New York Yankees; Ole Miss product Mike Mayers – making his eighth appearance — yielded an unearned run in an inning of work for the Angels; and Northwest Mississippi Community College product Cody Reed tossed a scoreless 2/3 for the Reds. P.S. Kendall Graveman, the former State standout now with Seattle, reportedly will miss “significant time” with a neck injury that sent him to the injured list last week following his second start. He is coming back from 2018 Tommy John surgery. … No doubt itching for his next start is Dakota Hudson, the former State ace now with St. Louis. Because of positive COVID-19 tests within the team, the Cardinals haven’t played since July 29. Hudson pitched on July 26 and took a loss against Pittsburgh, allowing four runs in 4 1/3 innings. It’s unclear when St. Louis will play again.