Tag Archives: Nationals

09 Sep

comes a time

October gets the hype, but heroes can be made in September, as well. There are a handful of Mississippians on teams that are still contending for MLB playoff berths. Some hold prominent positions, some just occupy supporting roles. But you never know who the moment will find or when it’ll happen. That’s what makes the playoff push so compelling. In the heated American League Central race, outfielder Jarrod Dyson (Southwest Mississippi Community College) and right-hander Louis Coleman (Pillow Academy) are trying to help Kansas City make the postseason for the first time since 1985. Among the teams trying to catch the first-place Royals is Cleveland, which has found a reliable starting pitcher in lefty T.J. House (Picayune High). Oakland, still in the hunt in the AL West as well as the wild card race, has a stable full of quality arms, including left-hander Drew Pomeranz (Ole Miss), who can start or relieve in a pinch. Toronto, still standing in the AL wild card scrap, brought up minor league sensation Kendall Graveman (Mississippi State) to help in its bullpen. Graveman (see previous post) gave up a hit and a run in his MLB debut on Sept. 5. (Incidentally, he became the 25th Mississippi-connected player to appear in the big leagues in 2014.) In the National League, Washington may just be the best team out there, and Mississippians Tyler Moore (Mississippi State) and Aaron Barrett (UM) are contributing, Moore as a right-handed slugger off the bench and Barrett as a righty out of the pen. And for St. Louis, still in a dogfight in the NL Central, Lance Lynn (Ole Miss) already has won 15 games and will get the call in several more big ones. P.S. Desmond Jennings, the Itawamba CC product, may be shut down by Tampa Bay because of a nagging knee problem. Jennings hasn’t played since Aug. 28, and the Rays are fading fast from postseason contention. … A pair of Mississippi natives are on opposing sides in the Double-A Eastern League Championship Series. Jackson native and ex-Ole Miss star Cody Satterwhite has a 2.33 ERA and 15 saves for the Binghamton Mets, while Tupelo native and former MSU standout Chris Stratton (1-1, 3.52 in five starts) got the win for Richmond (Giants) in its division series clincher. … Houston native and Ole Miss alum Justin Henry (.251 in 73 games) is playing for Triple-A Pawtucket (Red Sox), which is in the International League finals.

02 Sep

back to work

Desmond Jennings got the Labor Day weekend off, thanks to a left knee problem. The former Itawamba Community College standout, who last played for Tampa Bay last Thursday, is expected back in the lineup soon, possibly today. Though the Rays are essentially out of the running for a postseason berth, it’s a safe bet they would like to see a strong finish from Jennings, who hasn’t had a stellar year. He is batting just .244 with 10 home runs, 36 RBIs, 15 steals and 64 runs in 123 games. Jennings, who plays center field and usually leads off, was riding a six-game hitting streak before he left the lineup. He was 9-for-28 (.321) in that span. … Washington, threatening to run away with the National League East, added Ole Miss alum Aaron Barrett and Mississippi State product Tyler Moore as September call-ups. Barrett, a right-handed reliever, was 3-0 with a 3.21 ERA in his prior stint with the Nationals, while Moore hit .214 with three homers in two brief tours. Moore, a former Northwest Rankin High and Meridian CC star, was hitting .265 with 10 homers and 44 RBIs at Triple-A Syracuse. P.S. Worth noting: Jonathan Papelbon, the ex-MSU standout, got the last three outs of Philadelphia’s no-hitter against Atlanta on Monday. The final out in the 7-0 game was a line drive to the first baseman off the bat of former Mississippi Braves standout Phil Gosselin.

02 Aug

hard knock life

It has been a season of hard knocks for many Mississippi-connected pitchers in the big leagues. Former Mississippi State standout Paul Maholm is the latest to suffer misfortune; he tore an ACL trying to make a play at first base for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night and has landed on the disabled list, possibly done for the year. He wasn’t having a very good year, either: 4.84 ERA in 30 games. Cliff Lee, the Meridian Community College product with Philadelphia, also may be done for the year with his latest elbow problem. On Friday, Washington sent Ole Miss alum Aaron Barrett to the minors. Barrett has a 3.21 ERA overall but an ugly 9.45 over his last 10 appearances since being called for a controversial balk and altering his mechanics (see previous post). Ex-UM star Drew Pomeranz of Oakland broke his right (non-throwing) hand punching a chair on June 16 and is now in the minors despite his 2.91 ERA. Former Picayune High standout T.J. House has been up and down a dizzying number of times for Cleveland. The lefty (4.50 ERA) is back on the Indians’ roster today to start against Texas. Louis Coleman, the Pillow Academy product, has put up a 7.48 ERA in a couple of stints with Kansas City and is now back in the minors. And Ole Miss alum Phil Irwin got one start for Texas last month, yielded three runs in four innings and was shipped out again.

10 Jul

sounds like a yes

Under the category of “Duh,” we have this: When asked about whether he would welcome a trade from Philadelphia, the unabashed Jonathan Papelbon reportedly replied: “Some guys want to stay on a losing team?” Former Mississippi State star Papelbon racked up his 22nd save on Wednesday night as the Phillies (40-51, last in the National League East) beat Milwaukee 4-1. He reduced his ERA to 1.24 and has just two blown saves. Papelbon, who recently topped the 300 career save mark, is in the third year of a 4-year, $50M contract (with an option in 2016), which might make him hard to deal. Still, a quality closer is a valuable commodity in September and beyond. P.S. On the topic of trades, former MSU standout Tyler Moore might be a chip that NL East leader Washington can throw in. Moore is batting .305 with four homers and 18 RBIs in 34 games at Triple-A Syracuse; there appears to be no room for him (other than as a pinch hitter) with the Nationals. … Ole Miss product Seth Smith, who recently got a new contract from San Diego, hit his 10th home run on Wednesday; the Jackson native has reached double digits in five of his six full MLB seasons. … Ex-UM star Lance Lynn notched his 10th win as St. Louis beat Pittsburgh 5-2 in an NL Central showdown. … Ole Miss alum Chris Coghlan saw his nine-game hit streak end in the Chicago Cubs’ 4-1 loss to Cincinnati. But over his last 10 games, Coghlan is batting .400 with two homers, six RBIs and 10 runs. … Taylorsville product Billy Hamilton has seven hits, three walks, seven RBIs, three runs and two steals in the four games (all wins) of the Reds’ current five-game series with the Cubs. However, Hamilton left Wednesday’s game with a tight hamstring and could sit today’s series finale. … Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson (hitting .327) sat out Colorado’s game on Wednesday with a sore left wrist. … If the Cardinals have to put catcher Yadier Molina (thumb) on the disabled list, former MSU star Ed Easley, now at Triple-A Memphis, might get that long-awaited first call-up. Easley, on a recent tear, is batting .259 with five homers and 20 RBIs. … The MLB DL includes Mississippians Cliff Lee, Mitch Moreland (out for the season), Drew Pomeranz and Alex Presley, and down in the minors, ex-East Central CC standout Tim Anderson is out (possibly until mid-August) with a broken right wrist. The Chicago White shortstop prospect is batting .297 with six homers, 31 RBIs and 10 steals at high Class A Winston-Salem.

08 Jul

number crunching

1 — Major league starts by Phil Irwin, the Ole Miss alumnus who’ll make his second tonight for Texas against Houston. It’ll be his Rangers debut.
4 — Hits by Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan (now batting .252) and RBIs by Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (34 for the season) in Monday’s Chicago Cubs-Cincinnati game, won by the Reds 9-3.
4 — Runs allowed (in three games) by former UM standout Aaron Barrett since a controversial balk call against him on June 30. Barrett, pitching for Washington, had yielded just five runs in 30 previous appearances.
5 — Number of Mississippi Braves alums slated to play in All-Star games next week: Current M-Brave Jose Peraza (Futures); Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman, Craig Kimbrel and Julio Teheran (MLB); and Gwinnett’s Phil Gosselin (Triple-A).
5 — Home runs in 2014 for ex-Rebels star Alex Presley, who hit his latest Monday to help Houston stop a seven-game losing streak with a 12-7 victory over Texas.
9 — Consecutive seasons of at least 20 saves for former Mississippi State star Jonathan Papelbon, who reached that number Monday in Philadelphia’s 3-2 win against Milwaukee.
10 — Starts by Meridian Community College product Cliff Lee (4-4, 3.18), who won’t make another for the Phillies until after the All-Star break. He has been on the disabled list since May 19.

24 Jun

ghostbuster

Lance Lynn seems to have the counter curse for the demons that haunt pitchers at Coors Field. The ex-Ole Miss star threw eight shutout innings on Monday night, yielding just three hits with seven strikeouts in St. Louis’ 8-0 win over Colorado. The skidding Rockies were shut out at home for the first time in almost a year. Lynn, now 8-5 with a 2.90 ERA, has faced 77 batters at Coors in his career and never yielded a home run. The big right-hander reportedly has made some changes in his delivery to avoid tipping pitches, and he has allowed just two runs in his last 22 innings. He retired 17 of the first 18 batters he faced on Monday. Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson, who always seems to be in the middle of something (witness his pratfall between third base and home on Sunday), had two of the Rockies’ three hits. P.S. Jarrod Dyson, the former Southwest Mississippi CC standout, went 3-for-3 with two RBIs, a run and a pair of stolen bases in helping Kansas City beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3. Dyson is batting .305 with 12 stolen bases in 51 games (105 at-bats). … UM product Aaron Barrett (1.75 ERA) pitched a scoreless inning as Washington beat Milwaukee 3-0 in a matchup of National League division leaders.

19 Jun

a few small things

Just for the record, Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson was the only Colorado batter to reach base (via an error) during Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night. And Dickerson also made the final out, fanning at a breaking ball to become Kershaw’s 15th strikeout victim in the 8-0 gem. … Resurgent Cincinnati, which beat Pittsburgh 11-4 to reach .500 (35-35) for the first time since April 2, has gotten contributions of late not only from Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (now batting .278) but also from the other Mississippi connection on the team, Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart. Cozart had two hits on Wednesday and is batting .306 during the Reds’ current 7-3 run. … Former Southwest Mississippi CC star Jarrod Dyson went 1-for-3 as Kansas City won its 10th straight game, 2-1 over Detroit. Dyson is batting .300 with seven RBIs, 14 runs and 10 steals in 46 games for the first-place Royals. … UM product Aaron Barrett got one out and the win — he’s 3-0 — in first-place Washington’s 6-5 victory over Houston. The Nationals and slumping Atlanta start a big National League East series tonight. … Ex-Rebels standout Seth Smith went 1-for-4 as San Diego beat Seattle 2-1 on Tony Gwynn tribute night at Petco Park. … Lance Lynn, another UM product, took a loss for St. Louis against the New York Mets despite allowing just two runs in six innings of a 3-2 defeat. Lynn is 1-3 in his last four starts, 7-5 with a 3.15 ERA overall.

03 Jun

ups and downs

Former Delta State star Eli Whiteside is back in the big leagues, promoted by the Chicago Cubs today when No. 1 catcher Welington Castillo went on the disabled list. Whiteside, who last appeared in the majors in 2012 (see previous post), was batting .171 at Triple-A Iowa. He is not in tonight’s lineup, but when he does get in, he’ll be the 24th Mississippian to appear in the majors in 2014. … Meanwhile, former Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore is going back to Triple-A Syracuse, sent down by Washington when Ryan Zimmerman was activated from the DL. Moore, an outfielder/first baseman, has been on an elevator ride: He started the season in Syracuse, was recalled on April 6, went down on May 7, was recalled on May 11 and now is shipped out again. He was batting .214 with three homers in 70 at-bats for the Nationals.

20 May

worth noting

When former Picayune High star T.J. House made his big league debut last Saturday for Cleveland, he became the 23rd Mississippi-connected player to appear in the majors in 2014. House, a left-hander, pitched a scoreless inning in his only appearance to date. He was called up last season but didn’t get in a game. The only other Mississippian to debut this year is Aaron Barrett, the Ole Miss product who has been outstanding working out of Washington’s bullpen. Barrett, a righty, has a 0.53 ERA and a 2-0 record in 18 games for the Nationals, who are battling Atlanta for first place in the National League East.

13 May

big league chew

Oakland will hand Drew Pomeranz the ball again tonight for his second start of the season. The former Ole Miss standout threw five scoreless innings as a starter last Wednesday after working only in relief in his first nine appearances and posting a sub-2.00 ERA. The former first-round draft pick is 16-9 with a 2.97 ERA as a starter in the minors but has not had that kind of success in the big leagues. His career ERA is 4.75, working primarily as a starter for Colorado since 2011. The A’s got left-hander Pomeranz in an off-season trade. He’ll go tonight against the Chicago White Sox at O.Co Coliseum. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore, back up with Washington, hit his third home run of 2014 (in 37 at-bats) on Monday night. He hit just four last season in 167 ABs after blasting 10 in 156 as a rookie in 2012. … Keep an eye on Ole Miss product Seth Smith, of the San Diego Padres, who was named the National League player of the week on Monday on the heels of a 14-for-28 streak that has lifted his average to .330. Ex-Itawamba Community College star Desmond Jennings, with Tampa Bay, is 2-for-24 since winning American League player of the week honors on May 5.