Tag Archives: Ole Miss

29 Jul

field notes 3

Mason Robbins produced a four-hit game on July 22, and the ex-Southern Miss star has been raking ever since for Class A Kannapolis. Robbins, drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 25th round in 2014, is 11-for-34 (.324) during his seven-game hit streak, boosting his average to .260. A left-handed hitting outfielder, Robbins has three homers, 34 RBIs and 35 runs in 89 games. The George County High product, the state’s Mr. Baseball in 2011, has three four-hit games this season in the South Atlantic League. … Jonathan Holder, Mississippi State’s all-time saves leader, made his first relief appearance of the season on Monday for Class A Tampa, working 2 1/3 scoreless innings. Holder’s first 12 appearances for the New York Yankees’ Florida State League club were starts. The right-hander from Gulfport made three starts of just nine total innings during a brief stay with the rookie Gulf Coast League Yankees before returning to the Tampa club. Holder, a sixth-round pick in 2014, is 5-2 with a 2.44 ERA. He started eight of 12 games last year. … Ole Miss alumnus Chris Ellis continues to shine at Double-A Arkansas in the Los Angeles Angels’ system. He’s 4-1 with a 3.61 ERA in eight starts for the Travelers, striking out 35 and walking 22 in 42 1/3 innings. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander says command, not power, is key to his success. “When you can locate four different pitches, it’s easy. When you only locate two, it’s a little harder. When you locate one, it’s impossible,” Ellis, a 2014 third-round pick, told milb.com. … Alcorn State product Earl Burl III has experienced lots of ups and downs in his rookie season. The outfielder is batting .240 with 13 RBIs, 15 runs and eight steals over 33 games for rookie-level Vancouver in the Toronto organization. Burl, an outfielder, went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and three runs in his first game on June 18 and has six other multi-hit games. But he hasn’t been able to get his average above .268 since that debut effort.

28 Jul

the launch pad

Will Clark famously homered in his first at-bat as a pro and went on to hit .309 with 10 bombs that season in the Class A California League. Of course, the transition from college to pro ball doesn’t flow as seamlessly for everyone as it did for the ex-Mississippi State star in 1985. Typically, there are adjustments to be made. Sikes Orvis was a fearsome hitter at Ole Miss this past season. He belted 16 homers, drove in 53 runs, scored 41 and slugged .587. The Chicago White Sox picked the big first baseman in the 17th round of the draft, and 20 games into his rookie campaign, he is batting .224 and slugging .366 with two homers at Great Falls in the Pioneer League. James McMahon was the ace of the Southern Miss staff in 2015, going 11-1 with a 1.56 ERA and winning the Ferriss Trophy. The Colorado Rockies picked the right-hander in the 24th round, and eight games into his rookie campaign, he is 1-2, 8.41 with Grand Junction of the Pioneer League. For Orvis and McMahon, and others who recently launched pro careers, adjustments are required if they want to survive and advance. It can be tough – but it can be done. Aaron Barrett came out of Ole Miss in 2010 and went 0-5, 9.43 in his first pro season. Four years later, he made the big leagues and currently has a career 3.26 ERA as a key piece in the Washington Nationals’ bullpen. Ex-Rebels star Zack Cozart hit .239 and made nine errors in 46 games at shortstop in his pro debut in 2007. A regular for Cincinnati since 2012, he is now considered one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball and was on course for his best season at the plate before suffering a knee injury in June. P.S. Itawamba Community College alum Desmond Jennings, who hasn’t played for Tampa Bay since April (knee injury), has been working out for several days with the Rays’ Class A Port Charlotte club but there has been no report on when he might return to the big leagues. The veteran outfielder was batting .222.

27 Jul

off the beaten path

One of the hottest hitters in the independent Atlantic League is Fred Lewis, the former Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star. The 34-year-old Lewis is hitting .389 over his last 10 games and is up to .264 for the year. Playing for Jackson native Stan Cliburn’s Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Lewis has three homers, 30 RBIs, 42 runs, six steals and a league-best six triples in 77 games. Lewis played parts of seven years (2006-12) in the majors, hitting .266. … Gulf Coast CC product Roy Corcoran, 35, has 17 saves and three wins (despite a 5.11 ERA) in 35 games for Aguascalientes in the Mexican League. The last of his 82 MLB games came in 2009 with Seattle. … Former Mississippi State standout Luis Pollorena is 5-1 with a 2.06 ERA for the Laredo Lemurs of the indy American Association. Pollorena, a 5-foot-8 lefty who won 17 games over three seasons at State, spent the previous two years in the Texas Rangers’ organization. … Ole Miss’ Errol Robinson rapped out three hits on Sunday to boost his average to .314 for Hyannis in the Cape Cod League. He is among the league leaders with 20 runs. … Also in the Cape on Sunday, Reid Humphreys of MSU blasted his fourth homer of the summer for Bourne. Humphreys is batting .239 with 11 RBIs. … Southern Miss’ Dylan Burdeaux hit a pair of homers on Saturday in the New England Collegiate League, giving him six for the season. His USM and Ocean State teammate Chuckie Robinson also has six homers, tied for fourth in the league behind another teammate, Tim Lynch, who has nine, which equals the league-best. … Delta State’s Will Robertson is hitting .479 with a homer, 13 RBIs and 24 runs in 18 games for the Tippah Tribe in the Cotton States League.

26 Jul

fun facts

Did you know that Rust College has produced one and only one professional baseball player? His name is Otis Edwards; he played one season in the minors in 1991. Stumbled across this fascinating bit of data on the wonderful web site baseball-reference.com. Atop the list of most pro players produced by a Magnolia State college is Mississippi State, with 196, including 49 major leaguers. Ole Miss is second (at 193 and 48), Southern Miss third (109/23) and Jackson State fourth (62/9). The rest: Delta State 47/10, William Carey 39/1, Mississippi Valley State 21/0, Alcorn State 16/1, Mississippi College 15/7, Belhaven 10/0 and Millsaps 8/4. More on Edwards: Undrafted out of NCAA Division III Rust, he signed with Cleveland and played 29 games at the rookie and short-season Class A levels, batting .152 with seven RBIs, eight runs and three steals. He also pitched a scoreless inning for Burlington of the rookie Appalachian League. The one Carey player to make The Show? John Stephenson, the ex-Crusaders coach. The one Alcorn player? Al Jones, a pitcher in the mid-1980s. … Stumbled across a couple more interesting items in the July/August issue of Baseball Digest. To wit: Don Kessinger was a six-time All-Star and a career .252 hitter with 1,931 hits over 16 years in the majors. But as a pinch hitter, he was 0-for-37, the worst drought of any player in MLB history with at least 20 pinch-hit appearances. Kessinger did draw four walks as a pinch hitter, but still, it makes you wonder, when he reached 0-for-36, why in the world did his manager send him up there again? Also on the list of pinch-hit futility: former Jackson Mets standout Stanley Jefferson, who was 1-for-32. Then there’s this: The dubious distinction of worst-hitting Gold Glove winner in any season belongs to Greenville native George Scott. “Boomer” hit .171 as the Boston Red Sox’s first baseman in 1968, his third year in the big leagues. Scott, a career .268 hitter with 271 home runs, won eight Gold Gloves over his lengthy career. P.S. The current issue of Sports Illustrated (July 27) has a cool photo essay and brief article on the Anderson Monarchs’ Civil Rights Barnstorming Tour that made a stop for a game at Jackson State’s Braddy Field last month. The 23-day, multi-state trip was a living history lesson for the Philadelphia (Pa.) area youth team, which included 2014 Little League World Series star Mo’ne Davis. It’s unclear whether any of the pictures were taken in Mississippi.

25 Jul

noteworthy

Chris Coghlan set a career-high with his 10th homer on Friday for the Chicago Cubs, but the former Ole Miss standout is a long way back in the all-Mississippi home run derby. The leader, Southern Miss product Brian Dozier, shows no signs of powering down. He yanked his 21st of the year on Friday, a second-deck shot at Target Field in Minnesota. Second on the list is Mitch Moreland, the ex-Mississippi State star, who has 16 for Texas. … Several clubs are asking about Moreland’s availability in a trade, reports say. The left-handed hitting first baseman, having a big year, is making an affordable $2.95M; he is eligible for arbitration in 2016. The Rangers reportedly are not eager to deal him. … MSU product Jonathan Papelbon, who is on the trading block but with no apparent takers, notched save No. 17 (in 17 opportunities) for Philadelphia. … Meridian Community College alum Corey Dickerson returned to the Colorado lineup on Friday and banged out two hits in his first game since June 16 (plantar fasciitis). He is hitting .308 with five homers in 39 games. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton grounded into a double play on Friday, just the fourth time in 250 career MLB games that he has been doubled up. … Ex-State star Tyler Moore picked up a couple of RBIs for Washington, giving him 22 for the season in 139 at-bats, but he still hasn’t homered since June 12. … Pascagoula’s Joey Butler has gone 23 days without an RBI for Tampa Bay; he has 21 in 64 games. … Ole Miss alum Alex Presley was outrighted to the minors by Houston. There had been speculation that the lefty-hitting outfielder might be traded when the Astros designated him for assignment a week ago.

24 Jul

about-face

Things were going well for Drew Pomeranz in his role as a relief pitcher. Twenty appearances, a 1.56 ERA. Well, forget that. The big left-hander out of Ole Miss is back in the Oakland rotation. He made an emergency start on Thursday – after the A’s traded Scott Kazmir – and it didn’t go so well. Eight batters faced. Two hits, a walk, two runs allowed (on a home run). The A’s wound up losing 5-2 to Toronto. Pomeranz now has a 4.67 ERA in nine starts this season. Thursday’s was his first since May 18. The fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft, Pomeranz is with his third organization; he is 13-21 with a 4.14 ERA. He has always had trouble going deep into games as a starter. The move to the pen this season, which followed a stint on the disabled list, seemed like a good idea. And the results were good. Now he’ll have to readjust to starting for a team that’s out of the postseason hunt. “In five days I hope I’ll polish up a few things,” he told the San Jose Mercury News. Pomeranz’s next start figures to come against the Los Angeles Dodgers. P.S. David Goforth, another ex-UM star, was recalled by Milwaukee on Thursday and pitched in relief against Arizona. Didn’t go well for him either. Three hits, a walk and two runs allowed in one inning. Meridian native Goforth now has a 5.40 ERA in his five MLB appearances.

21 Jul

more field notes

Auston Bousfield, the ex-Ole Miss standout, extended his hitting streak to eight games on Monday with a single for Class A Lake Elsinore in the San Diego system. Bousfield, batting leadoff and playing center field for the California League club, is at .294 for the season with three homers, 30 RBIs, 45 runs and 18 steals in 79 games. He was a fifth-round pick by the Padres in 2014, one of the nine Rebels drafted that year. … Mississippi State product Hunter Renfroe, another Padres farmhand, saw his six-game hit streak end on Monday but, with 10 hits in his last seven games, has boosted his average to .269 at Double-A San Antonio. Renfroe, the first Mississippian picked in the 2013 draft, has 10 homers and 38 RBIs in 86 games. Renfroe, an outfielder, finished the 2014 season with San Antonio, hitting .232 with five homers in 60 games. … Bradley Roney, the former Southern Miss closer, has allowed just one run while notching three saves in his last five appearances for Class A Rome in Atlanta’s system. Roney, a 2014 fifth-rounder, missed a month with an injury. He has a 4.07 ERA and four saves in 16 combined games at rookie-level Danville and low-A Rome. … Jovany Felipe, Jackson State’s catcher in 2015 who signed as a free agent with Tampa Bay, is 3-for-16 with an RBI in seven games for the rookie Gulf Coast League Rays. He hit .317 with five homers and 54 RBIs for the Tigers. P.S. East Mississippi Community College alum LaDarious Clark is surging again with 10 hits in 24 at-bats over his last five games. Clark, a 12th-round pick this year by Texas, is playing at short-season Class A Spokane, where he is batting .367 with six homers, four triples and 14 steals.

20 Jul

on the move

Corey Dickerson has taken another step on the path to returning to the Colorado Rockies’ lineup. The former Brookhaven Academy and Meridian Community College star played left field and went 1-for-3 on Sunday in the first game of his rehab assignment. He is with Class A Modesto in the California League. Dickerson, dealing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, has only 127 MLB at-bats this season and is hitting .299 with five home runs and 16 RBIs. He last played a game for the Rockies on June 16. Colorado manager Walt Weiss told the Denver Post that Dickerson would get about 25 rehab at-bats and should be back with the Rockies “real soon.” Dickerson had a breakout year in 2014, when he batted .312 with 24 homers, 76 RBIs and 74 runs in 131 games. He was All Mississippi Baseball’s Cool Papa Bell Award winner, given for the best season by a Mississippian in the majors. … Ole Miss product Alex Presley, designated for assignment by Houston on Saturday, may soon land with another MLB club, according to various reports. Presley, a lefty-hitting outfielder who had just 12 ABs with the Astros this season, is a .259 career hitter who can do a lot of little things well.

19 Jul

going coastal

First impression of MGM Park in Biloxi: intimate. Listed seating capacity of the new ballpark is 5,000, and each one is relatively close to the field. (On the downside, the park offers very little cover from the rain or sun.) The power alley distances are marked as 350 feet, which would seem to be a hitter’s dream. But on this particular night, when the air was heavy from a pregame storm, none of the 23 hits mustered by the Shuckers and visiting Chattanooga Lookouts came close to leaving the yard. The stadium backdrop is unique. The Beau Rivage towers above the center-field wall and dominates the view. MGM owns the Beau, and Shuckers ads and paraphernalia are everywhere in the Casino & Hotel. Construction is ongoing at the park, which is obvious. Lots of orange barrels, cones and tape. An announced crowd of 4,482 turned out for this Friday night game despite a 1-hour, 41-minute rain delay. (Yes, there were postgame fireworks.) The product they’re seeing on the field is a good one. The parent Milwaukee Brewers stacked the Double-A club with prospects, and the Shuckers won the first-half title in the SL South despite playing mostly road games. (MGM Park opened June 6.) They lost on this particular night, 6-5, but had the winning run on second base in the ninth. Shortstop Orlando Arcia, who’ll be in the big leagues soon, went 1-for-3 with two RBIs, and center fielder Michael Reed shined on defense, throwing out two runners. One of Chattanooga’s stars was former Ole Miss player Stuart Turner, who had three of the team’s 14 hits. In sum: Nice park, good game, fun time. P.S. Continuing on a Coastal theme, former Vancleave High standout Colin Bray is on a tear at Class A Kane County in the Arizona system. The switch-hitting outfielder, in his third pro season, is batting .296 with 15 doubles, 30 RBIs and 15 steals. He won Midwest League player of the week honors for July 6-12. And ex-George County High star Justin Steele, a fifth-round pick by the Chicago Cubs in 2014, is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in five starts at short-season Class A Eugene.

16 Jul

breaking away

The big league All-Star break, which continues through today, means different things to different players. Those who are slumping likely welcome the respite, while those on a roll are hoping not to lose their mojo. Seth Smith, the Ole Miss product from Jackson, falls into the latter category. He homered for Seattle in the last game before the break, giving him eight for the year. He is hitting .333 over his last 15 games to lift his average to .268. Former Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore had a big two-run double for Washington last Sunday and has seven RBIs in eight July games for the first-place Nationals. He would like to find his home run stroke, however; his last blast came on June 12. UM alum Drew Pomeranz, who has been rock solid since moving to the Oakland bullpen, had a 1.50 ERA over his last seven appearances heading into the break. The break might have been a good thing for Pascagoula native Joey Butler. So hot for Tampa Bay just a couple of weeks ago, he is batting .098 with one RBI over his last 15 games, dropping his average to .287. Ex-UM star Chris Coghlan’s consecutive games streak ended at 150 when he sat out on Sunday, getting a pre-break break. Coghlan hasn’t produced much of late for the Chicago Cubs, with just one RBI and four runs in 11 games in July. Tony Sipp, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College product, has a 5.06 ERA – two runs higher than his season number — over his last seven games for Houston, which fell out of first place in the American League West on the last day before the break.