Tag Archives: Nationals

22 Aug

pitching in

J.T. Ginn made a pretty impressive big league debut on Wednesday night, one of several noteworthy pitching performances from Magnolia State products in pro ball. Ex-Mississippi State star Ginn, called up by Oakland on Tuesday (see previous post), struck out the side around a walk in his first inning and finished with two hitless innings of relief work in the A’s 4-2 loss against Tampa Bay. … Southern Miss alum Tyler Stuart, making his Triple-A debut in the Washington chain, went 6 2/3, allowing one hit and one run with six strikeouts, to notch the victory for Rochester in a 4-1 win over Lehigh Valley. … Landon Harper, another former USM standout, pitched the last three innings for the Mississippi Braves and earned his first Double-A save in a 4-2 win vs. Chattanooga at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Harper has a 1.46 ERA in 19 appearances, with three holds and two wins. … Tanner Hall, the 2022 Ferriss Trophy winner at USM, allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings in his second High-Class A start in Minnesota’s system. Hall (two hits, two walks, four K’s) got a no-decision in Cedar Rapids’ 4-3 loss to Dayton. … Cam Schuelke, a 2024 draftee out of MSU by Cleveland, got the last two outs for Low-A Lynchburg in a 3-2 victory vs. Salem and earned his second save. He has not allowed a run in four games. P.S. Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet, now working limited innings for the Chicago White Sox, yielded two runs in four innings and got a no-decision in the club’s 6-2 win at San Francisco. The All-Star lefty, who has a 3.64 ERA, has pitched four innings or fewer in his last eight starts and is 0-3 in that span. … In the independent Frontier League, ex-Itawamba Community College star Tyreque Reed hit two of the five homers allowed by Belhaven product Brett Sanchez in Washington’s 8-2 win over Joliet. Reed is batting .339 with 10 bombs. Sanchez slipped to 4-6, 4.48 ERA, after allowing eight runs in five innings.

21 Aug

return to form

At the end of June, Blaine Crim — a .290 career hitter in the minors — was batting .215 for the Round Rock Express, Texas’ Triple-A club. Suddenly, when the calendar flipped to July, he went off. The ex-Mississippi College star hit safely in 18 of his next 19 games and finished with a .453 average for the month. He hasn’t cooled off much in August. A 3-for-5 game on Tuesday that included his 13th home run boosted his average for the month to .328 (with four bombs) and for the season to .272. Crim was the Gulf South Conference’s hitter of the year in 2019, when he was drafted by Texas, and has been raking for much of his five-year minor league career. He batted .289 with 22 homers at Round Rock in 2023. The 27-year-old first baseman/DH has 96 homers in pro ball. Crim isn’t on the 40-man roster, so his chances of a call from the Rangers are probably slim. Teammate Justin Foscue, who has also had a hot August (.339, three homers), is on the 40-man and already has had a couple of MLB stints this season. With the Rangers fading from postseason contention, Mississippi State alum Foscue, their No. 7 prospect, may well get an extended look in September. In the meantime, the Mississippi products make for quite the tag team at Round Rock. P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Tyler Stuart is scheduled to make his Triple-A debut tonight for Rochester in the Washington system. The 6-foot-9 Stuart, a third-year-pro, had a 2.08 ERA in four starts in Double-A after the Nationals acquired him at the trade deadline from the New York Mets.

29 Jul

worth noting

Seven of the nine players picked out of the Magnolia State in the first two days of the MLB draft reportedly have signed. The exceptions are Jackson Prep product Konnor Griffin (ninth overall by Pittsburgh) and Mississippi State alum Dakota Jordan (fourth round, 116th overall, San Francisco). The slot value of those picks, per mlb.com’s Draft Tracker, are $6.22 million for the ninth pick and $624,800 for No. 116. The signing deadline is Thursday. Griffin has a college commitment to LSU in hand, and Jordan has two years of college eligibility remaining. Former Madison Central High standout Braden Montgomery, the 12th overall pick out of Texas A&M by Boston, also has not signed. All told, 15 of the 21 players picked from Mississippi schools have signed; Hunter Elliott (20th round, Los Angeles Dodgers) reportedly is returning to Ole Miss. … Ex-Southern Miss standout Tyler Stuart, formerly the New York Mets’ No. 17 prospect, was traded to Washington for big league outfielder Jesse Winker. Stuart, a 6-foot-9 right-hander, was 3-7 with a 3.96 ERA in Double-A for the Mets; he has a 3.09 career ERA in pro ball. … Justin Dean stole four bases on Sunday, setting a Mississippi Braves single-season record with 44 bags. Dean, who has spent parts of the last four years with the Double-A M-Braves, has 195 career steals, 114 with the M-Braves. … Former Magee High star Brennon McNair delivered a walk-off hit for Low-A Columbia on Sunday. The Kansas City Royals farmhand, 21, is 5-for-15 in his last four games, lifting his average to .209 with six homers and 24 RBIs. … Right-hander Michael Rucker, a Columbus native, recently was added to Philadelphia’s active roster from the injured list. Rucker, who has a career 4.96 ERA, grew up in Washington state and was drafted out of BYU by the Chicago Cubs. … Fun fact: Greenville native George Scott hit 271 home runs in the big leagues but only one inside-the-park job. It happened on this date in 1967, for Boston, at Fenway Park, against Minnesota’s Jim Perry. Scott, a two-time All-Star, was a big dude but could run a little: 69 steals, 60 triples in 14 MLB campaigns.

28 Nov

totally random

Exavier Pente Logan, better known as Nook, was born on this date in 1979 in Natchez. A switch-hitting center fielder, he had a nice, though brief, big league career, batting .268 with 56 steals in 321 games over four seasons. He likely was one of the fastest players ever from the state. All told, Logan stole 322 bases in pro ball. He was a third-round draft pick out of Copiah-Lincoln Community College by Detroit in 2000 and reached the majors in 2004. Twice he swiped 23 bases in a season, including his final season, 2007, with Washington, when he hit .265 with 21 RBIs and 39 runs in 118 games. In December of 2007, Logan — who played at 6 feet 2, 180 pounds and hit two career home runs — was among the players named in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs. He later admitted to using HGH to help him recover from an injury he suffered while in the minors. He never played another game in affiliated ball after 2007, though he did spend a couple of seasons in independent leagues.

03 Aug

ups and downs

Up: Dakota Hudson showed signs that he may be back on track for St. Louis, throwing seven strong innings Wednesday night in a 7-3 win against Minnesota. Once a solid member of the Cardinals’ rotation, the Mississippi State product made just his second start (eighth appearance) of 2023 and carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He wound up with a two-hitter — one of those a three-run homer by ex-Southern Miss star Matt Wallner — while striking out seven and walking three. He is 2-0 with a 4.10 ERA this season, having spent most of the year in Triple-A. The 28-year-old right-hander mixed his sinker and slider to great effect against the first-place Twins. “It’s just about staying clean with my delivery, not trying to overdo stuff and letting the ball move,” he told mlb.com. Hudson, who debuted with St. Louis in 2018 after a stellar minor league career, is 34-17, 3.64, for his MLB career. An arm injury in 2020 knocked him off course, and he has battled inconsistency the past couple of years. With St. Louis in retool mode and looking for starters for 2024, Hudson will get a chance to make his case the next two months. More ups: DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley hit his 25th homer of the year in Atlanta’s win over the Los Angeles Angels and went back-to-back with Matt Olson for a franchise record sixth time. … The Braves have assigned first-round pick Hurston Waldrep, who pitched for USM in 2021-22, to Low-Class A Augusta. … Ex-MSU star Colton Ledbetter went 2-for-4 with a homer in his pro debut today for Tampa Bay’s Florida Complex League team, and USM product Tanner Hall and Ole Miss alum Jack Dougherty, both 2023 draftees, have been assigned to Minnesota’s FCL club. … Olive Branch native Kendall Williams has been named the Class A Midwest League’s pitcher of the month for July by Minor League Baseball. Williams was just promoted from Great Lakes to Tulsa in the Dodgers’ chain.
Down: Big league veteran Corey Dickerson was released by Washington on Wednesday. The McComb native was batting .250 with two homers and 17 RBIs in 50 games for one of the National League’s worst teams. At 34, Dickerson may have tough time getting back in the game. The lefty-hitting outfielder is a .280 career hitter with an All-Star Game nod and a Gold Glove on his resume but has been mostly a platoon player in recent years. Originally drafted by Colorado out of Meridian Community College, Dickerson has played for eight different MLB teams, four over the last three seasons. He signed a $2.25M free agent deal with the Nationals in the off-season. … More downs: Ex-USM star Nick Sandlin, on in relief for Cleveland, gave up a home run to Houston’s Chas McCormick on his first pitch and took the loss as the Guardians fell to Houston 3-2. … MSU product Jordan Westburg got picked off first base for the final out as Baltimore squandered a game at Toronto. … Former UM standout James McArthur, recalled by Kansas City on Tuesday, was sent back to Triple-A on Wednesday without getting in a game. He made his big league debut on June 28 and it remains his lone appearance.

28 May

worth noting

With a sixth-inning double Saturday at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Corey Dickerson reached a pretty cool milestone: 1,000 career hits. McComb native Dickerson, 34, got his first big league hit in 2013 with Colorado, which drafted the lefty-hitting outfielder out of Meridian Community College in 2010. Now with Washington, Dickerson has played for eight different clubs over his career and has been an All-Star and a Gold Glove winner. He has 136 career homers and 460 RBIs. The career hits leader among Mississippi natives is Dave Parker with 2,712. Three others (Buddy Myer, Ellis Burks and Frank White) reached the 2,000-hit level. … Former Southern Miss star Matt Wallner now has 18 career hits after a 4-for-4 effort for Minnesota on Saturday. Wallner, who has played in just 28 games over his young MLB career, hit his first homer of 2023 in the win against Toronto; he hit two last season. … USM will play for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament title Sunday in Montgomery, Ala., after beating Appalachian State 11-1 in an elimination game on Saturday. USM lost an earlier game to the Mountaineers. In the win, Will Armistead threw a seven-inning four-hitter and Matthew Etzel and Reece Ewing banged out three hits apiece in a 15-hit attack. … East Central Community College got run-ruled 12-2 by Southeastern Iowa on Saturday in the NJCAA Division II World Series and plays an elimination game Sunday vs. Frederick (Md.) CC in Enid, Okla. … William Carey University won its opener Friday against Bellevue (Neb.) and will play again Monday in the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. R.J. Stinson hit an RBI double and scored on a Jake Lycette sac fly to give the Crusaders a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth. Preston Ratliff pitched the ninth to nail down the win, Carey’s 48th of the season.

13 May

crushing it

Your first thought as you watch the highlight footage of Brent Rooker’s walk-off home run on Friday night is, “Wow, he got all of that one.” Rooker, the ex-Mississippi State slugger, crushed a line drive to left field at Oakland Coliseum for a three-run homer that gave the A’s a 9-7 win in 10 innings against Texas. “It’s pretty close to as good and clean as I can hit a ball,” Rooker told mlb.com after his first career walk-off hit. “That one felt good.” How hard was it hit? Well, they measure such things these days, and according to Baseball Savant, the exit velocity of Rooker’s rocket was 110.7 mph. Impressive, yes, but not his hardest hit ball of 2023. He has a 112 on his ledger. The hardest hit ball by a Mississippian this year belongs to Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High alum who plays for Atlanta. He has a 113.3 exit velo, a tick ahead of ex-MSU and current Los Angeles Angels star Hunter Renfroe’s 113.2. (Matt Olson’s 118.6 is the big league best.) At any rate, Rooker’s other numbers in this breakout season are also pretty impressive. He now has 11 homers, tied for the American League lead, and a .673 slugging percentage, which leads all of MLB. He is batting .319 with 29 RBIs for the woeful A’s, who have won just nine of 40 games. P.S. Props to ex-State standout J.P. France, who notched his first big league win for Houston, throwing 6 2/3 innings (three hits, one walk, one run) against the Chicago White Sox. He is 1-0 with a 0.77 ERA in two starts. … McComb native Corey Dickerson went 1-for-3 on a rehab assignment at Triple-A Rochester in Washington’s system. Dickerson has been on the injured list since April 2. … Detroit placed Spencer Turnbull on the IL. The Madison Central product, recently sent to the minors, joins a list of Mississippi-connected pitchers on the major or minor league IL that includes: Drew Pomeranz, Garrett Crochet, Dakota Hudson, Demarcus Evans, Ryan Rolison, Zac Houston, Gunnar Hoglund, Will Bednar and Landon Sims.

13 Mar

as the wbc turns

If you’re not paying attention to the World Baseball Classic, you should be. Italy — Italy! — has advanced to the quarterfinals. The Venezuela-Dominican Republic game, loaded with MLB stars, had the feel of a World Series Game 7. Canada put up a record 18 runs in its win on Sunday. And then came Team USA vs. Mexico on Sunday night. Before a very pro-Mexico crowd of 47,534 at Arizona’s Chase Field, former Mississippi Braves standout Joey Meneses blasted two home runs to power the Mexicans to a stunning 11-5 victory. “I have never played in an atmosphere like that,” Patrick Sandoval, an MLB pitcher who plays for Mexico, told mlb.com. Meneses’ story is a great one. Signed by Atlanta in 2011, he played for the Double-A M-Braves in 2017, hitting .292 with nine homers and 45 RBIs. The Culiacan native moved on in 2018, changing organizations three times — and playing 894 minor league games all told — before getting a big league call from Washington last August. He hit an impressive .324 with 13 homers in 56 games as the Nationals’ regular first baseman. Then he took a major star turn on Sunday, driving in five runs to stun Team USA. “I have no words,” Meneses said. East Central Community College product Tim Anderson went 2-for-4 with three RBIs for the U.S., now 1-1 in pool play and facing a virtual must-win game tonight against Canada. Canada (1-0) features former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman and Mississippi State alum Jacob Robson, both of whom had productive games on Sunday. This is worth your attention.

10 Jan

a capital idea

Corey Dickerson, the former Meridian Community College star from McComb, reportedly has found a good home for 2023, reaching agreement with Washington on a 1-year, $2.25 million contract. The rebuilding Nationals, who have a need for lefty-hitting outfielders (among other things), will be Dickerson’s fourth team in three seasons. He spent 2022 with St. Louis, batting .267 with six homers (and a 0.0 WAR) in 96 games on a 1-year, $5M deal. Dickerson, 33, who broke in with Colorado in 2013, is a .281 career hitter with 134 homers, 27 of those during his All-Star season with Tampa Bay in 2017. He joins Mississippi State alum Adam Frazier (Baltimore) and Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (Chicago White Sox, minor league deal) as Mississippi-connected MLB free agents to sign this off-season. A handful of minor league free agents also have inked for 2023. The start of spring training is just a few weeks away. P.S. Jackson Prep junior Konnor Griffin has been named the top high school prospect in the 2024 draft by Baseball America. Griffin, an LSU commit who goes 6 feet 3, 180 pounds, batted .472 with six homers as a shortstop/outfielder and went 6-2 with a 1.64 ERA on the mound in 2022. BA’s new Top 100 list for the ’24 draft includes seven players committed to Mississippi State and four Ole Miss commits. … Belhaven University opens its season Feb. 7 against Rhodes College at Trustmark Park in Pearl, the Blazers’ new home field. BU and fellow NCAA Division III member Millsaps will play two their three Maloney Trophy games at the TeePee on Feb. 21 and March 7. The third game is March 28 at Millsaps’ Twenty Field. Belhaven’s first Collegiate Conference of the South game is March 17 at Maryville (Tenn.). (The CCS is a group of schools that recently broke away from the USA South.)

02 Sep

hit parade

Matt Wallner’s power isn’t in question. The key to the ex-Southern Miss star’s long-term success, according to the scouting report by MLB Pipeline, is improving his overall hit tool. Minnesota Twins brass have to be beaming over what they saw on Thursday night, when their No. 5 prospect put on a veritable hitting clinic at Triple-A St. Paul. Wallner hit for the cycle, banging out five hits all told, including his fifth homer for the Saints, and driving in six runs in an 18-6 victory against Omaha. “It felt pretty good,” Wallner told milb.com. “It was the first time I’ve ever been able to do something like that in my life, so it was pretty fun.” The career home run leader at USM, Wallner now has 26 homers this season, not including the jaw-dropping one he blasted in the All-Star Futures Game. The 6-foot-5, lefty-hitting outfielder batted .299 with 21 homers at Double-A Wichita before being promoted to St. Paul on July 14. He is at .245 in 37 games for the Saints. He is still striking out at a high clip — 49 in 139 at-bats — but has 27 walks, boosting his on-base percentage to .379. A Minnesota native, Wallner was the 39th overall pick in 2019 by the Twins, the team he dreamed of playing for as a kid. He is close. … Jordan Westburg, the former Mississippi State star and Baltimore’s No. 5 prospect, homered for the third straight game for Triple-A Norfolk, giving the infielder 14 for the Tides and 23 on the season. Overall, between Double-A and Triple-A, Westburg is batting .253 with 85 RBIs. The 30th overall pick in 2020, he is also close to his MLB debut. P.S. In MLB, it was quite a night for Mississippi Braves alums. Rookie Spencer Strider set a franchise record with 16 strikeouts in a dominating performance during Atlanta’s 3-0 win vs. Colorado; Austin Riley hit his 33rd homer for the Braves, and rookie Michael Harris II hit his 14th. Joey Meneses, up after 10 years in the minors, hit a walk-off homer for Washington to cap a four-hit game and is batting .354 with seven homers in 25 games. In that same game, a 7-5 Nationals win, 2021 M-Braves star Shea Langeliers hit his third homer and drove in three runs for Oakland.