Tag Archives: MLB

07 Aug

fun with figures

JaCoby Jones, who has not played a game since Sunday, was tied for the major league lead in OPS – that abstruse stat everyone seems so in love with these days – with a 1.212 entering Friday’s action. The former Mr. Baseball from Richton High had a .419 on-base percentage and a .793 slugging percentage for a Detroit club that, because of COVID-19 issues, had been idle for four days before taking on Pittsburgh Friday night. Jones, in his fifth MLB season, is a career .216 hitter (.663 career OPS) but made some swing adjustments in 2019 that seem to be paying dividends. He is batting .379 with three homers and seven RBIs. … Lance Lynn, the ex-Ole Miss star, was leading MLB in ERA with a 0.49 through 18 1/3 innings over three starts for Texas. He is 1-0 for a 3-8 team. His next start is slated for Sunday against the Los Angeles Angels. … Jarrod Dyson, the McComb native and Southwest Mississippi Community College product, has the green light to steal whenever he’s on base for Pittsburgh. Problem is, the 35-year-old Dyson hasn’t been on much. He is 2-for-26 (.077). But he showed what he can do with his wheels on Thursday, drawing a walk, stealing second and third base and scoring – his first run of 2020 — on a ground out. Said Pirates manager Derek Shelton: “I tell him all the time he’s one of the oldest guys in baseball, and one of the things about it is his speed has not deteriorated. We knew that coming in.” … What in the world is wrong with Craig Kimbrel? The ex-Mississippi Braves standout has allowed seven runs on six hits (two homers), five walks and an HBP in 2 2/3 innings over four games for the Chicago Cubs. He has two strikeouts. He recorded 346 saves and a 2.15 ERA over his first 10 MLB years. … On this date in 1978, Columbus native Red Barber and Mel Allen become the first recipients of the Ford C. Frick Broadcasting Award. They were selected by the National Baseball Hall of Fame voters to receive the honor recognizing excellence among broadcasters. P.S. The Hattiesburg Black Sox semi-pro team bowed out of the National Baseball Congress World Series on Thursday night with a 5-4 loss to the Hutchinson Monarchs. Hinds CC alum Pablo Lanzarote homered for the third straight game, and Jackson State’s Jaylyn Williams had three hits and an RBI. Former Delta State star Tre Hobbs started and took the loss for the Sox, who trailed 5-0 after five innings. Williams and J.T. Hall, the 36-year-old Southwest Mississippi CC alum and ex-minor leaguer, both hit .385 over the club’s three games in Kansas.

06 Aug

cuts like a knife

Former George County High standout Justin Steele’s major league debut will have to wait. Added to the Chicago Cubs’ 30-man active roster on Sunday, the left-hander – drafted in 2014 — was sent back to the alternate camp today, when rosters were cut to 28. Also shipped out was Ole Miss product Jacob Waguespack, who had not allowed an earned run in three relief appearances for Toronto. Former Ole Miss star Bobby Wahl and Southern Miss alumnus Cody Carroll had previously been sent out by Milwaukee and Baltimore, respectively. Also missing from Opening Day rosters: East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, the 2019 American League batting champ, is on the injured list (groin injury) for the Chicago White Sox, where he was joined this week by Mississippi State alum Kendall Graveman (neck), who scuffled in his first two starts for Seattle this season as he returns from 2018 Tommy John surgery. In other news: Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton made his New York Mets debut on Wednesday, going 0-for-4 as the center fielder. … Former Mississippi Braves catcher Joe Odom made his big league debut for Seattle on July 28, then went back to the alternate camp on Aug. 2. … Southern Miss’ Chandler Best finished 2-2 with a 1.99 ERA for the Acadiana Cane Cutters, a Texas Collegiate League team that featured several Mississippi connections. A rising sophomore left-hander, Best ranked second in the college summer league with 33 strikeouts. Fellow USM pitcher Mathew Adams had a 5.78 ERA in 12 appearances; Ole Miss’ Drew McDaniel a 7.36 in five games; and Belhaven’s Reed Vincent a 4.62 in eight games. Trace Henry, a former Jones Junior College star from Mooreville, was one of the league’s top hitters at .341. USM’s Billy Garrity hit .213 in limited at-bats. … Ole Miss’ Gunnar Hoglund, a right-hander with mid-90s stuff, is rated the No. 14 draft prospect for 2021 by MLB Pipeline. He was a first-round supplemental pick out of a Florida high school in 2018. … The Hattiesburg Black Sox rebounded from a tough loss to win their second game in the National Baseball Congress World Series, the double-elimination event in Kansas. The Black Sox, the state’s semi-pro champs, play the Hutchinson Monarchs tonight. Pablo Lanzarote, a former Hinds Community College star, homered for the second straight game to help the Black Sox beat the Denver Cougars 9-4. Marcus Ragan, an East Mississippi CC alum, and Jamal Washington drove in two runs each for Hattiesburg, and Austin Sanders, another Hinds CC product, picked up the win.

04 Aug

feel good story

You kinda wanna root for Trent Grisham, even if you’re not a San Diego Padres fan. It’s kinda nice to see that the former Biloxi Shuckers star is off to a hot start in 2020. He hit his fourth home run on Monday night, helping the surprising Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4. Grisham, starting in center field for a 7-4 club, is batting .293 with seven RBIs and 11 runs. He seems to be in a good place, quite a contrast to where he was last October. You remember. Grisham, a rookie then with Milwaukee, in his first postseason game, misplayed a single in right field that allowed Washington to score the go-ahead run in the National League Wild Card Game. The Nationals won. The Brewers’ season ended. Grisham faced the media afterward and, appearing crushed, made no excuses for his error. You had to feel for him. It would be, coincidentally, his last game in a Milwaukee uniform. He was traded in November to the Padres, who were looking for a left-handed hitting outfielder and were willing to part with touted infield prospect Luis Urias to get Grisham. “He can do a lot of positive things on the baseball field,” Padres GM A.J. Preller told mlb.com at the time. Grisham, the 15th overall pick by Milwaukee in 2015, scuffled early in his pro career. He batted just .233 at Double-A Biloxi in 2018 but kept grinding. He hit .254 with 13 homers in 63 games for the Shuckers in 2019, got an All-Star nod and earned a promotion to Triple-A San Antonio, where he raked (.381, 13 homers in 34 games). He debuted for Milwaukee last Aug. 1, then found himself taking the place of the injured Christian Yelich in right field. No pressure there. Grisham, only 23, seems determined that the incident last October won’t define him. “Failing is not fun, and I like to have a lot of fun,” he told The San Diego Union-Tribune during spring training. “I play this game because I enjoy it. … That’s why I work, so when I get in the game it can be fun.” P.S. Ex-Petal High star Anthony Alford is slated for his first start of the season for Toronto tonight at Atlanta. Alford, who is 0-for-2 in 2020, has just 57 career at-bats (eight hits) since his MLB debut in 2017. He’s in left field batting ninth. DeSoto Central High product Austin Riley is starting at third base and batting sixth for the Braves. They were the top prep players in the state their senior year, Alford in 2012 and Riley in 2015.

02 Aug

transaction watch

Billy Hamilton, the speedster from Taylorsville, is on the move again. The New York Mets have traded for the veteran center fielder, who had been in San Francisco’s alternate camp. Hamilton is valued for his defense and speed on the bases, a skill that has gained importance with the new extra-inning rule in MLB this season. “The guy is incredible, and he’s got tons of energy,” Mets pitcher Jared Hughes, who played with Hamilton in Cincinnati, told the New York Post. “He’s a good influence in the clubhouse. Everybody loves him.” Hamilton, a .242 career hitter with 299 steals, came up with the Reds in 2013 and spent last season with Kansas City and Atlanta. He joins fellow Mississippi native Brian Dozier (Tupelo/Fulton) on the Mets’ roster. … Former George County High standout Justin Steele, a left-hander, has been added to the Chicago Cubs’ 30-man roster. Steele, a fifth-round pick in 2014, has not pitched above Double-A. He has a 3.62 career ERA.

01 Aug

smooth sailing

The San Diego Padres gave free agent Drew Pomeranz a nice chunk of change — $34 million over four years – to bolster their bullpen. They have to be pleased with the investment. The 6-foot-6 lefty out of Ole Miss is almost perfect in five appearances for a team that has won six of its first eight games. Pomeranz, nicknamed “Big Smooth,” has allowed one hit, one walk and no runs in 4 1/3 innings, notching two holds and two saves. He got the final out Friday night in a crazy 8-7 win at Colorado. After struggling as a starter in San Francisco early in 2019, Pomeranz moved to the pen and then to Milwaukee in a trade and was outstanding as a reliever for the Brewers. He had a 2.39 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 26 1/3 innings for the playoff-pound club, parlaying that success into a nice contract with the Padres. This is his second stint in San Diego, one of the six MLB teams the former first-round pick has pitched for since making the majors in 2011. He was an All-Star as a starter with the Padres in 2016 and won a ring with Boston in 2018, though he had a rough time that year. It’ll be interesting to watch how the Padres deploy the 31-year-old Pomeranz, who has a 4.02 career ERA as he has bounced between starter and reliever. He’s never been a closer, per se. P.S. Kudos to Madison Central High product Spencer Turnbull, who notched his first victory since May 31, 2019, going six innings (3 hits, 2 runs, 6 K’s) for Detroit to beat Cincinnati 7-2. Turnbull, now 1-0 in two starts, went 3-17 in 2019 and lost his last 13 decisions.

30 Jul

numbers game

Fast starts have been deemed vital in this truncated, long-delayed MLB season. A check of the stat sheets reveals a handful of Mississippi-connected players who have come out with their engine running hot. To wit: JaCoby Jones, the ex-Richton High standout, is hitting .421 after a 3-for-3 performance for Detroit on Wednesday and is tied for the big league lead with three home runs, two of which have been game-winners. … Mitch Moreland, the Mississippi State product from Amory, is batting .357 after a 2-for-4, two-RBI effort for Boston on Wednesday that included his 200th career double. … Brandon Woodruff, the MSU alum from Wheeler, allowed two baserunners and punched out 10 batters in 6 1/3 innings for Milwaukee on Wednesday, retiring 17 straight at one point. … And Lance Lynn, the ex-Ole Miss star, yielded one hit and two walks with eight K’s in six innings for Texas on Wednesday and remains unscored upon in 2020. Details, details: Jones was starting to put things together last summer when he was hit by a pitch and suffered a broken wrist, ending his year. He was hit in the faceguard of his helmet by a Kansas City pitcher on Tuesday night, a scene scarily reminiscent of April 2017, when he was hit in the face by a pitch and went on the injured list for a long spell. He bounced back with a vengeance on Wednesday with a homer and two doubles. “I’m just trying to be smooth, nice and easy, just letting my hands work. It’s paid off,” Jones told mlb.com. He’s also made some big plays in center field. … The veteran Moreland, 34, who also missed a chunk of the 2019 season with injuries, has two home runs and five RBIs for a scuffling Red Sox team that was 1-4 entering Wednesday’s game against Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets at CitiField. Moreland’s fourth-inning double ended deGrom’s 31-inning scoreless streak. Moreland picked up another RBI in the eighth on an infield hit, helping Boston rally to a 6-5 win. … Woodruff, mixing a fastball that hit 99 mph and a devastating changeup against Pittsburgh, got 20 swings-and-misses. The one hit he yielded was an infield dribbler. Said Brewers manager Craig Counsell in an mlb.com piece: “Overpowering, I think, is probably the word that best describes it.” Woodruff is 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA, 15 K’s (tied for fourth-most in MLB) and two walks in 11 1/3 innings on the season. … Lynn actually has been more dominant than Woodruff. His 0.00 ERA is tied for the majors lead, and he’s the only pitcher with two starts at that number. His 17 strikeouts rank third in MLB, and he has allowed just three hits in 12 innings of work. Lynn (1-0) is stuck on 99 career wins after taking a no-decision on Wednesday against Arizona, though the Rangers won the game late. “(I)f you give your team a chance to win every day, that’s what I’m about. So far I’ve done that,” Lynn told the Dallas Morning News. P.S. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier, making his New York Mets debut tonight, has now been with five MLB teams in three years: Minnesota, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Washington, San Diego and now the Mets. The 33-year-old second baseman has been an All-Star, won a Gold Glove and earned a World Series ring. … USM product Cody Carroll and UM alum Bobby Wahl have been sent to the alternate camp by Baltimore and Milwaukee, respectively.

29 Jul

something familiar

There was a case of Bulldog on Rebel crime on Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. Former Mississippi State star Adam Frazier belted a go-ahead, two-run home run off Ole Miss product Bobby Wahl in the eighth inning at PNC Park, lifting Pittsburgh to an 8-6 win against Milwaukee. It was the first homer – and just the third hit – of the season for Frazier, the Pirates’ leadoff batter. “First ball I’ve driven all year, so I kind of forgot what it felt like,” Frazier said in an mlb.com story. “It felt pretty good.” It was the second homer allowed in 2 1/3 innings this season by Wahl, who missed the 2019 season because of a torn ACL. For Frazier and Wahl, there may have been something familiar about their encounter. The two had never faced each other in an MLB game before, but they did cross paths during their college careers. Wahl left the field disappointed each time then, too. In 2011, when both were freshmen, Wahl took the loss in relief in a game won by the Bulldogs 7-6. Frazier struck out in his one appearance vs. Wahl. In 2012, State – and Chris Stratton, who pitched in relief for the Pirates on Tuesday – beat UM and Wahl 4-0. Frazier went 1-for-3 with a run against Wahl. And on May 12, 2013, in Oxford, Frazier and the Bulldogs rallied from an early six-run deficit to beat the Rebels 7-6. Frazier had a single and a walk against Wahl, who started but wasn’t in the game in the seventh when Frazier delivered a two-run single that put State ahead. Both were drafted that June, Wahl by Oakland in the fifth round, Frazier by the Pirates in the sixth. Both were in the New York-Penn League that summer as they began their climb to the majors, Frazier arriving in 2016, Wahl the next year. On Tuesday, they met up again, much to Wahl’s chagrin. P.S. Frazier will face a former State teammate tonight when Brewers ace Brandon Woodruff gets the start in Game 3 of the series between the National League Central rivals. Frazier is 4-for-10 career vs. Woodruff.

28 Jul

one step forward

The pitching line from Monday’s game wasn’t pretty for Kendall Graveman: 4-plus innings, 6 hits, 3 walks, 7 runs (6 earned), 7 strikeouts. But, as Seattle manager Scott Servais told The Seattle Times, “I thought he threw the ball a lot better than what his line will look like. It was his first time out in 800 some days.” Indeed, just being healthy and back on a big league mound for the first time since May 2018 was a measure of success for Graveman, the Mississippi State alum who made his Mariners debut in an 8-5 loss at Houston. Graveman, 29 and entering his sixth MLB season, had Tommy John surgery in 2018 and made only a couple of minor league appearances in the Chicago Cubs’ system last summer. He signed with Seattle as a free agent in the off-season and reportedly had been sharp both in spring training and summer camp. After posting two scoreless innings Monday, he ran into trouble in a four-run third, giving up a three-run homer to Alex Bregman. Graveman was lifted after a fifth-inning homer by Jose Altuve, disappointed but not discouraged. “It was a blessing and a privilege to be back out there, but, man, I wanted the outcome to be better as I’m sure many people did,” he told The Seattle Times. Drafted out of MSU by Toronto in 2013, Graveman spent four years (2015-18) with Oakland, going 23-29 with a 4.38 ERA. Houston, defending American League champion, might not be the team you’d want to make your comeback against, but it won’t get any easier for Graveman. His next start will come next weekend against the A’s, another AL West power. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Bobby Wahl, who also last pitched in the majors in 2018, has made two appearances for Milwaukee to date. He got a one-pitch out vs. the Cubs last Friday, then yielded a homer in his one inning of work on Sunday.

27 Jul

‘absolutely annihilated’

If you were watching, this might seem hard to believe: According to Statcast, Austin Riley’s home run on Sunday night was just the fifth-longest by an Atlanta player since this type of data began to be collected in 2015. Former DeSoto Central star Riley’s blast, part of the Braves’ 17-hit assault in a 14-1 win against the New York Mets, was measured at 458 feet. That’s 8 feet shorter than the Braves’ best, per Statcast, a 466-footer by Ronald Acuna on May 10, 2019. Freddie Freeman has a 464-footer, Acuna a 463 and Freeman a 460. Though somehow short of the team record, Riley’s majestic homer, which struck a façade on one of CitiField’s upper decks while still rising, will no doubt stick in the memory of Braves fans. “This ball was absolutely annihilated,” said ex-Braves star Chipper Jones, who was part of the ESPN broadcast team. The 6-foot-3, 240-pound Riley, only 23, now has 19 homers in 284 big league at-bats, plus 86 bombs over parts of five minor league seasons. Yes, he needs to make more consistent contact (.225 average), but when he does barrel one up, take cover. “My God, that’s a big strong kid,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told mlb.com.

26 Jul

put it on the board

Let the record show, the first home run by a Mississippian in this long-delayed major league season was struck Saturday by Mitch Moreland, the Amory native and ex-Mississippi State standout who went yard for Boston. His 167th career bomb was a wall-scraper to right field at Fenway Park, and it came in a 7-2 loss to Baltimore. Moreland did not play in the Red Sox’s opener, a 13-2 win on Friday. Let the record also show that the first game-winning homer by a Mississippian in 2020 also was struck on Saturday. Richton High product JaCoby Jones blasted a 400-footer in the top of the ninth inning at the Great American Ball Park, giving Detroit its margin of victory in a 6-4 takedown of Cincinnati. The backstory is a good one: Jones had been directed to bunt a runner over from first but fouled off two attempts. So, swinging away with a 2-2 count, he hit his 25th career homer, beating Reds closer Raisel Iglesias. “Screw bunting,” Jones reportedly, jokingly, told Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire after he reached the dugout. “Let me hit.” … Former Mississippi Braves star Phil Gosselin went deep twice for Philadelphia on Saturday and is currently tied for the MLB lead. But Gosselin wasn’t the first former M-Brave to homer in 2020. Rio Ruiz hit one out Friday for the Orioles.