Tag Archives: Ole Miss

04 Dec

new digs for mr. smith

Seth Smith is on the move again, this time via trade from Oakland to San Diego, where there is the promise of more at-bats than the ex-Ole Miss star got in 2013. The Padres, who have an abundance of outfielders, were seeking another left-handed hitter. Smith, a corner outfielder who got most of his 368 ABs last year against right-handers, batted .253 with eight homers and 40 RBIs, a rather lackluster stat line. He hit 14 homers for the A’s in 2012 and has 73 for his career, with a high of 17 in 2010. That was in Colorado, home to the best hitter’s park in MLB. Oakland’s O.Co Coliseum is a pitcher’s park, and San Diego’s Petco Park is even more pitcher-friendly. Bottom line: The 2014 season could be challenging for Smith, who may be battling for playing time with Carlos Quentin, Cameron Maybin, Will Venable and Chris Denorfia. Venable is the only other lefty swinger in that mix.

03 Dec

off the rails

The Miami Marlins have finally given up on Chris Coghlan, four years after the Ole Miss product won rookie of the year honors as their left fielder. Coghlan, 28, eligible for arbitration this year, was non-tendered by the Marlins on Monday and is now a free agent. The left-handed hitting Coghlan batted .321 with nine homers, 47 RBIs and 84 runs in 128 games in 2009. Plagued by injuries, he has played just 265 big league games since. He got into 70 games in 2013 and hit .256. Coghlan is a .270 career hitter (.337 on-base percentage) but isn’t really a power source (21 homers) or a speed merchant (27 steals). He has some versatility, having played second base in the minors and some third base this past season. He might fit in somewhere as a bench player, but one expects he’ll have to earn such a job on a minor league contract in spring training. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves ace Tommy Hanson, who once seemed to have such a bright future in Atlanta, was non-tendered by the Los Angeles Angels and also became a free agent. … Various reports have Miami among the teams interested in ex-M-Braves catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who had a solid 2013 season with Boston but wasn’t re-signed.

16 Nov

wintering

Edwin Maysonet, the former Delta State standout who has had some big league time, got three knocks Friday and is hitting .342 for Santurce in his native Puerto Rico. Maysonet, now 32, played at Triple-A Iowa in the Chicago Cubs system this past season, batting .242 with six home runs and 33 RBIs in 72 games. He last played in MLB with Milwaukee in 2012. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, also with Santurce, leads the Puerto Rican (Roberto Clemente) Winter League with six steals, and former Jackson Generals catcher Ramon Castro, a Puerto Rico native playing for Caguas, leads the league with seven RBIs. … Former Mississippi Braves star Ernesto Mejia belted two homers Friday for Zulia in the Venezuelan Winter League. Still Atlanta property, he is batting .235 with six bombs and 14 RBIs. Mejia had a monster year with the M-Braves in 2011: .297, 26 homers, 99 RBIs, 82 runs. … Tommy LaStella, the M-Braves’ second baseman in 2013, hit .290 with a homer and 10 RBIs for Scottsdale in the Arizona Fall League. He was named an MiLB Double-A All-Star for 2013 after batting .343 in 81 games for the M-Braves. … Also with Scottsdale were former Ole Miss hurlers Cody Satterwhite (2.77 ERA in 11 games) and Phil Irwin (1-2, 8.62 in five starts). Satterwhite is a New York Mets farmhand; Irwin is with Pittsburgh. … Noticed on the transaction wire: Washington released former M-Braves infielder Mauro Gomez, who reportedly is bound for Japan; ex-M-Braves outfielder Antoan Richardson signed a minor-league deal with the New York Yankees; and former M-Braves catcher J.C. Boscan inked a minor deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

27 Oct

weight for it

A year before the St. Louis Cardinals’ draft bonanza of 2009 (see Sports Illustrated, Oct. 28 issue), the team picked a stout right-hander from Ole Miss with the 39th overall selection. Lance Lynn, the career strikeout leader for the Rebels, reached the majors rather quickly, by 2011, and pitched effectively out of the bullpen for St. Louis as it won the world championship. Lynn works in a more prominent role now: He’ll start Game 4 of the World Series tonight at Busch Stadium with St. Louis holding a 2-1 edge. Lynn won 18 games for the Cardinals in 2012 but decided after a tough postseason loss to San Francisco that he needed to be stronger for longer. In the off-season, a revamped diet helped him drop some 40 pounds from his 2012 weight. Lynn reportedly weighed 239 when he checked in for spring training. He got off to a great start for the Cards, slumped after the All-Star break but bounced back to post a 2.12 ERA in September. He finished 15-10 with a 3.97 ERA and reached his goal of 200 innings (201 1/3). “I’m more flexible and I don’t have the aches and pains I’ve had in the past,” Lynn told mlb.com about the benefits of carrying less weight. Lynn, 2-1 with a 5.40 ERA this postseason, will face an aggravated Boston club tonight. Cardinals fans are hoping he is up — or should that be down? — to the task.

23 Oct

the fall guys

A fall intrasquad scrimmage may sound like a lackluster affair, and many tend to be just that. However, this was not the case at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday. Redshirt freshman Cody Brown robbed Wes Rea of a walk-off home run with a leaping catch at the left-field wall, preserving a wild and wooly 9-8 win for the Gray over the Black. Mississippi State’s fall scrimmages continue with a Thursday afternoon game. The Bulldogs are coming off a 51-20 season that ended in the College World Series finals. … Southern Miss, coming off a 30-27 season that ended in the Conference USA title game, starts its Fall World Series on Thursday at Taylor Park. The pitching matchup is a dandy: Jay Myrick (4-0, 2.79 as a reliever in 2013) vs. Conor Fisk (4-3, 3.23 in 12 starts). … Scrimmages are ongoing at Ole Miss, with the Rebels’ Fall World Series set to begin Oct. 30 at Oxford-University Stadium. UM has 22 players back from a team that won 38 games and earned an NCAA regional bid plus a recruiting class ranked as high as No. 8 in the country.

16 Oct

tough is enough

Lance Lynn might not have been strong on Tuesday night, but he was tough. The former Ole Miss standout worked 5 1/3 innings for St. Louis and left with a lead that the Cardinals’ lights-out bullpen protected for a 4-2 win over Los Angeles in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. The Cards now lead 3-1, and Lynn owns two of the wins, having picked up the first in relief in Game 1. He wasn’t dominant on Tuesday, didn’t appear to have his best stuff. He allowed six hits, three walks and two runs. (He also buzzed Yasiel Puig, which everyone said was unintentional.) Lynn was in trouble in the second inning and again in the fourth. But he “wasn’t afraid to make tough pitches in tough situations,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny told mlb.com. He got out of the second-inning jam — two on, one out, then bases loaded with two down — by getting a pop up and strikeout. In the fourth, three LA hits produced two runs and cut into a 3-0 deficit, but Lynn, a sinkerballer, induced a double-play grounder to escape the inning. He left with the tying run on in the sixth, but it was a job well done. And it’s now the Dodgers who are in a very tough spot.