Tag Archives: Ole Miss

22 Feb

the way it was

There were hot starts (see Ole Miss and Southern Miss, who registered Opening Weekend sweeps). And there were lukewarm starts (Mississippi State went 2-2, with both losses to Florida Atlantic, and Jackson State also split its four games). Alcorn State celebrated the first win of the Brett Richardson era (6-2 vs. Southern University on Sunday) but lost its other two games in the MLB Urban Invitational. On the colder end of the scale, Mississippi Valley State went 0-4 at Nicholls State. Among the small four-year schools, Blue Mountain, now 8-4, swept three games over the weekend from Tougaloo, which fell to 0-14 on the year. William Carey beat NAIA No. 21 Missouri Baptist two of three. Delta State took two of three from West Alabama to start its Gulf South Conference schedule. (Worth noting: Tre Hobbs, a lefty out of Mississippi Delta Community College, threw a six-hit shutout for the Statesmen and is now 3-0 with an 0.47 ERA.) Mississippi College won one of three GSC games against West Florida, and Millsaps went 1-2 in a tournament at Piedmont College. Which brings us to the most inspiring performance of the weekend. That has to go to Belhaven, which bounced back from a 25-0 loss in its season opener last Tuesday to sweep a road series at Louisiana College. Senior slugger Adam Kowalczyk led the way with two homers, five RBIs and six runs in the three games. BU is slated to play at Millsaps on Tuesday in the first game of the Maloney Trophy Series.

21 Feb

boys of spring

Louis Coleman seems to have landed on his feet. Released by Kansas City – after reportedly agreeing to a contract for 2016 – the Greenwood native signed last week with the Los Angeles Dodgers, another club that figures to contend this season and has more room in its bullpen. Coleman, who spent most of 2015 in Triple-A, has a 3.20 career ERA in 152 big league games. He is in spring training camp with a host of other Mississippians. Here’s the list:

40-man roster members
Position players
Joey Butler (Mississippi Gulf Coast CC), Cleveland; Chris Coghlan (Ole Miss), Chicago Cubs; Zack Cozart (Ole Miss), Cincinnati; Brian Dozier (Southern Miss), Minnesota; Corey Dickerson (Meridian CC), Tampa Bay; Jarrod Dyson (Southwest CC), Kansas City; Billy Hamilton (Taylorsville), Cincinnati; Desmond Jennings (Itawamba CC), Tampa Bay; Tyler Moore (Mississippi State), Washington; Mitch Moreland (MSU), Texas; Seth Smith (Ole Miss), Seattle

Pitchers
Aaron Barrett (Ole Miss), Washington/injured; Louis Coleman (Greenwood/Pillow Academy), Los Angeles Dodgers; David Goforth (Ole Miss), Milwaukee; Kendall Graveman (MSU), Oakland; T.J. House (Picayune High) Cleveland; Jacob Lindgren (MSU), New York Yankees; Lance Lynn (Ole Miss), St. Louis/injured; Jonathan Papelbon (MSU), Washington; Drew Pomeranz (Ole Miss), San Diego; Tony Sipp (Gulf Coast CC), Houston; Chris Stratton (MSU), San Francisco

Non-roster invitees
Position players
Anthony Alford (Petal), Toronto; Tim Anderson (East Central CC), Chicago White Sox; Ed Easley (MSU), Pittsburgh; Adam Frazier (MSU), Pittsburgh; JaCoby Jones (Richton), Detroit; Alex Presley (Ole Miss), Milwaukee; Hunter Renfroe (MSU), San Diego; Kade Scivicque (Southwest CC), Detroit; Stuart Turner (Ole Miss), Minnesota; Wade Wass (Meridian CC), Los Angeles Angels; Alex Yarbrough (Ole Miss), Los Angeles Angels

Pitchers
Scott Copeland (Southern Miss), Toronto; Chris Ellis (Ole Miss), Atlanta; Chad Girodo (MSU), Toronto; Cody Reed (Northwest CC), Cincinnati

04 Feb

choosing nine

Time to take a break from the football recruiting blather and Super Bowl hype. Enough already with the Golden State Warriors. Opening Day Eve for college baseball is upon us. To get in the spirit of the new season, here’s a list of nine Magnolia State players to watch over the coming months:
1. Seth Davis, Blue Mountain, first baseman. No player in the state made a bigger leap forward in 2015 than Davis. A .195 hitter as a sophomore, the 6-foot-5, 225-pounder raked at a .396 clip last season, belting eight homers and driving in 40 runs. He was BMC’s first first-team All-SSAC selection.
2. Adrian Brown, William Carey, outfielder. Brown was a first-team All-NJCAA Region 23 pick for Copiah-Lincoln CC in 2015 after batting .318 with seven homers and 12 steals. If the name sounds familiar, it should. Brown’s father, also named Adrian Brown, played in the big leagues from 1997-2006.
3. Isaac Glenn, Millsaps, outfielder. Glenn, who played in the shadow of Keith Shumaker in 2015, will get a bigger share of the stage now. He led the Majors with a .436 average and 45 RBIs last year and earned first-team All-SAA honors. He’s now getting NCAA Division III preseason All-America notice.
4. Ethan Gill, Delta State, third baseman. Slugging is making a comeback, and the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Gill can accurately be called a slugger. He came in last year as a transfer from Itawamba CC and led the Statesmen in homers (10), RBIs (51) and slugging percentage (.610). He also batted .325.
5. Gavin Collins, Mississippi State, catcher/third baseman. Collins made the SEC All-Freshman team at catcher in 2014 and was a preseason All-SEC pick last year but was set back by a hand injury. He wound up hitting just .228 in 35 games. Expect a bounce-back season.
6. Brady Bramlett, Ole Miss, right-hander. Drafted in the 22nd round by Oakland last summer, Bramlett opted to return to Oxford. That’s a real shot in the arm (pun intended) for the Rebels. After missing the 2014 season with an injury, Bramlett went 7-4 with a 3.74 ERA in 2015.
7. Nick Johnson, Southern Miss, right-hander. The former Ridgeland High star is poised for a bigger role with the Golden Eagles, who lost a lot from a very good 2015 staff. Johnson was 4-0 with a 2.93 ERA in 12 games and 27 2/3 innings. He limited batters to a .198 average.
8. Jesus Santana, Jackson State, third baseman. As a freshman in 2015, the Puerto Rico native led the SWAC in homers with 12 while batting .283 with 48 RBIs. He was All-SWAC last year and is now showing up on some black college preseason All-America charts.
9. Collin Carroll, Alcorn State, first baseman. Carroll won’t sneak up on anyone in 2016. Collegiate Baseball has pegged the senior as the SWAC’s projected player of the year and a third-team All-America. Carroll, a transfer from Southwest Mississippi CC last year, batted .337 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs.

03 Feb

spotlight on …

Wade Wass first commanded attention at Meridian Community College, where the Florida native crushed 34 homers and hit .400 over two seasons (2011 and ’12). After two unspectacular years at Alabama, he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Los Angeles Angels in the summer of 2014. After two seasons in pro ball, the burly catcher (6 feet, 210 pounds) is commanding attention again. Wass has earned a non-roster invitation to the Angels’ big league camp. Scout.com has labeled Wass as “someone the Angels will be forced to take notice of” after a 2015 season that saw him hit .261 with 11 homers and 43 RBIs at two levels of A-ball. He also is reported to have made big strides defensively. Joining Wass as an invitee in the Angels’ Arizona camp will be former Ole Miss star Alex Yarbrough, a second baseman who had a disappointing 2015 season at Triple-A Salt Lake (see previous posts). P.S. A.J. Brown, the two-sport star from Starkville High, has signed with Ole Miss as a wide receiver. Brown, also a center fielder, could be a pro baseball draftee in June. He is one of only two players to ever participate in Under Armour All-America Games for both football and baseball.

02 Feb

lists and stuff

Former Petal High star Anthony Alford leads a group of five Mississippi-connected players appearing in MLBPipeline’s Top 100 minor league prospects list for 2016. Alford, an outfielder in the Toronto system who gave up football at Ole Miss last year to focus on pro baseball, is ranked No. 42. East Central Community College product Tim Anderson (shortstop, Chicago White Sox) is No. 47; Horn Lake High and Northwest Mississippi CC alum Cody Reed (left-hander, Cincinnati) is No. 66; former Copiah Academy and Mississippi State standout Hunter Renfroe (outfielder, San Diego) is No. 92; and Harrison Central High product Bobby Bradley (first baseman, Cleveland) is No. 93. Renfroe is the only one among the five that has reached the Triple-A level. The full Top 100 list is on mlb.com. … Ex-Pillow Academy star Louis Coleman has been taken off of Kansas City’s 40-man roster and designated for assignment. … Ole Miss is ranked 16th in the Sporting News preseason poll that appears in the magazine’s 2016 Baseball Yearbook. The Rebels are the only state school appearing in that poll. … Defending MHSAA Class 5A champion Oxford High (35-1 in 2015) is ranked No. 3 in the Perfect Game preseason prep poll that appears in the Sporting News yearbook. Senior Jason Barber, the state’s 2015 Gatorade player of the year and a MaxPreps preseason All-America pick, is the star on a loaded club that also includes Grae Kessinger (grandson of ex-big leaguer Donnie) and Ben Bianco (son of Ole Miss coach Mike). Oxford plays Amory and Center Hill on Feb. 20 in a home jamboree. … Walker Robbins of George County is a third-team All-America pick by Perfect Game.

29 Jan

a rebel shout-out

Ole Miss hasn’t gotten a lotta love in the preseason polls, but Baseball America saw fit to rank the Rebels No. 24. In the preview capsule on its web site, BA notes UM’s “strong core” of returnees from 2015 and a recruiting class, rated 19th in the nation, loaded with pitchers. Ole Miss returns six regulars from a 30-28 team that made the NCAAs. One of those regulars is shortstop Errol Robinson, an All-America candidate and potential high MLB draft pick. Also back are likely Friday night starter Brady Bramlett and closer Wyatt Short. A key could be how and where the new arms factor in. “That’s very important as you enter into conference play that guys have those roles,” coach Mike Bianco told BA. P.S. Hinds Community College is ranked ninth in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll. The Eagles went 43-7, were ranked first for several weeks and won the MACJC championship in 2015.

26 Jan

who’s next?

It’s a good question for a rainy day: Who’ll be the next Mississippian to break into the major leagues? A lot of unpredictable factors that impact opportunity come into play over the course of a season. Still, it’s a good bet that the next Magnolia State big leaguer will come from among this group:
Chris Stratton, San Francisco. The former Mississippi State ace reached Triple-A in his fourth pro season and made the Giants’ 40-man protected roster. A right-handed starter, he went 5-10 with a 3.95 ERA at two levels in 2015, pitching better at Triple-A Sacramento than in Double-A. The Giants have a deep rotation, so it might take an injury for Stratton to get a shot this year.
Chris Ellis, Atlanta. The Ole Miss alum hasn’t pitched above Double-A, but reports are the 6-foot-5 right-hander will get a long look in Atlanta’s spring camp. Ellis, described as “polished” and “athletic,” went 7-4 with a 3.92 ERA at Double-A Arkansas in 2015, his second pro season. Acquired by Atlanta from the Los Angeles Angels this off-season, he is rated the Braves’ No. 11 prospect by mlb.com.
Hunter Renfroe, San Diego. The Mississippi State product, ranked as the Padres’ No. 2 prospect by mlb.com, is not on the 40-man roster but will be in camp. At Triple-A El Paso last year, Renfroe batted .333 with six homers, and he totaled 24 bombs for the year. He also has a right fielder’s arm. Matt Kemp is penciled in as San Diego’s right fielder but could be moved to center if (when?) Melvin Upton struggles.
Cody Reed, Cincinnati. The former Northwest Mississippi Community College standout has been labeled a player to watch in the Reds’ camp this spring. A power left-hander who goes 6 feet 5, 225 pounds, Reed posted a 6-2 record and 2.17 ERA at Double-A Pensacola after the Reds got him in a mid-summer trade with Kansas City. Baseball America rates Reed the No. 2 prospect in Cincy’s system.
Bobby Wahl, Oakland. The ex-Ole Miss star may contend for a bullpen role this spring as a non-roster player. Wahl, who has had some injury issues, made Double-A in 2015 and put up a 4.18 ERA with four saves in 24 appearances at Midland. Scouts rave about his stuff, which is better than his numbers might suggest.
Chad Girodo, Toronto. The lefty reliever out of Mississippi State reached the Triple-A level last year and has popped up in some of the Blue Jays’ prospect charts. He has a 2.30 ERA in 160 2/3 minor league innings and pitched well in the Arizona Fall League. He’ll be in the Jays’ camp as a non-roster invitee. And again, he’s a lefty.

19 Jan

try that again

Alex Yarbrough has some work to do in 2016. The Ole Miss alum, a highly rated prospect in 2015, has fallen out of the top 30 in Baseball America’s rankings of the Los Angeles Angels’ best minor leaguers. Yarbrough, a switch-hitting second baseman, hit .236 with three homers, 48 RBIs and 56 runs in 128 games at Triple-A Salt Lake City last season, not a disaster but less than what was forecast for the 2014 Texas League player of the year. “It now looks like most of the industry was too high on Yarbrough coming into the 2015 season, when he didn’t make adjustments after struggling at the plate in Triple-A and struck out far too often,” BA’s Bill Mitchell wrote on the magazine’s web site. “That’s a big issue since he’s not a good defensive second baseman (14 errors in 2015) and is a below-average runner (one steal).” Yarbrough, 24, a fourth-round pick by the Angels in 2012, is expected to get another shot in Triple-A this season. Sometimes it takes two tours at the same level for things to click.

12 Jan

from the stove

Having agreed to terms with free agent Gerardo Parra, Colorado may look to deal an outfielder, and Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson is a candidate to be moved. Not only is Dickerson a quality left-handed bat, but he is four years from free agency. Baltimore, where Parra finished 2015, is a possible destination. … Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan, who figures to see limited playing time with the talent-laden Chicago Cubs, might be a fit in Baltimore, some have speculated. Coghlan has enjoyed a career resurgence with the Cubs the last two years. … Former Ole Miss standout Zack Cozart’s time in Cincinnati could be coming to an end soon. The Reds are in the process of signing 21-year-old Cuban shortstop Alfredo Rodriguez, the 2014-15 Serie Nacional rookie of the year. Rodriguez is labeled “a glove-first prospect with good speed” whose bat still needs some polish. He’ll likely start 2016 in the minors but could eventually push Cozart out of his starting role. There already had been rumors that Cozart might be dealt this season by the rebuilding Reds. … Southern Miss and William Carey alum Dan Jennings, the ex-Miami Marlins GM and manager, is now a special assistant to the president of baseball operations for the Washington Nationals. (Can he help concoct a trade involving closer Jonathan Papelbon, the controversial ex-Mississippi State standout? Probably not.) … Months of wheeling and dealing by Atlanta’s front office has left just 11 Mississippi Braves alumni on the Braves’ current 40-man roster. Only three of those are position players: Freddie Freeman, Daniel Castro and Mallex Smith. The latest to go was power-hitting outfielder Joey Terdoslavich, put on waivers last week and claimed by Baltimore, which really must have a need for outfielders.

08 Jan

being there

Ex-Ole Miss star Chris Ellis is among the contingent (27, all told) of non-roster players invited to big league camp by the Atlanta Braves. Right-hander Ellis, acquired from the Los Angeles Angels in the Andrelton Simmons trade, went 7-4 with a 3.92 ERA in 15 Double-A starts in 2015. He was a third-round pick in 2014, one of the nine Rebels drafted that summer. Ellis likely will open 2016 at Triple-A Gwinnett, but when you check out the rotation candidates from the Braves’ 40-man roster – Julio Tehran, Bud Norris, Matt Wisler, Williams Perez, Ryan Weber – you have to think there are opportunities there. Also getting camp invites are 2015 Mississippi Braves Rio Ruiz, Lucas Sims and Ryan Kelly (who was in the big leagues for a period last year) and potential 2016 M-Braves Joseph Odom, Braxton Davidson, Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson. P.S. The lack of support Billy Wagner, the former Jackson Generals star, received in the Hall of Fame voting is hard to fathom. He was named on just 46 ballots, 10.5 percent, barely enough to stay on the ballot. Said Hall of Famer John Smoltz to mlb.com: “I was a little surprised by that. Billy was an incredible left-handed closer.” Wagner posted 422 saves, a 2.31 ERA, averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings and made seven All-Star Games. Fellow closer Trevor Hoffman, also a first-timer on the ballot, was named on 67.3 percent; 75 percent is needed for induction. The third closer on the ballot, Lee Smith, was named on 34.1 percent. Little-known fact: Smith pitched in two games for the 1998 Generals during a comeback attempt at age 40. That was his final pro season.