Tag Archives: Orioles

10 Jul

into the break

The MLB All-Star break likely comes at a good time for some players while there are others who no doubt would prefer to just keep going. Take Tim Anderson and Jordan Westburg as contrasting examples. Westburg, the ex-Mississippi State star, just arrived in the big leagues on June 26 and has sizzled in his 11 games for Baltimore. The infielder went 2-for-5 with a run in the Orioles’ 15-2 romp over Minnesota on Sunday. He is batting .325 (13-for-40) with three doubles, two triples, six RBIs and eight runs for the second-place O’s. Surely, he wishes there was a game today. On the other hand, Anderson, the former East Central Community College standout, enters the break in a major funk. He went 0-for-5 on Sunday and struck out with two runners on in the ninth as the staggering Chicago White Sox lost to St. Louis 4-3. He is batting .138 over his last 15 games and .223 for the season. He has no homers, 13 RBIs and 29 runs in 67 games. This time a year ago Anderson was headed to the All-Star Game. Today, he probably needs the break. … Ten years ago, Anderson was a first-round draft pick out of ECCC by the White Sox. Coincidentally, on Sunday the ChiSox took another shortstop out of Mississippi in the first round — Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez, who was the 15th overall selection. Rebels outfielder Kemp Alderman went in the second round, 47th overall, to Miami, and Mississippi State outfielder Colton Ledbetter went in Round 2, 55th overall, to Tampa Bay. Atlanta, with the 24th pick, took right-hander Hurston Waldrep, who starred at Southern Miss in 2022 and helped Florida reach the College World Series finals this year.

03 Jul

very cool moment

Before the Oakland A’s played on Sunday, manager Mark Kotsay addressed the team in the clubhouse and, in a very cool way, informed them that Brent Rooker had made the All-Star Game, voted in as a DH by his peers. Rooker, the former Mississippi State slugger, buried his face in his hands as his teammates applauded and cheered. (Watch the video; it’s emotional.) Rooker went to spring training with the A’s — his fourth organization in a year’s time — unsure of a roster spot. He not only made the club but was one of baseball’s hottest hitters in April, batting .358 with nine homers and 22 RBIs that month. He has cooled off of late (.191, three homers, 39 strikeouts in his last 30 games), but Kotsay stressed that Rooker was deserving of the All-Star nod and hailed his “perseverance and grit” in getting to where he is. “It’s overwhelming,” said Rooker, seemingly as humble a guy as you could hope to meet. He thanked his teammates for making him feel welcome as a newcomer in the spring. Rooker didn’t start Sunday’s game but entered as a pinch hitter and belted his team-leading 14th homer in the A’s 8-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox. He is batting .243 with 41 RBIs, also a team-high. P.S. Fingers are crossed in Baltimore after Jordan Westburg, the rookie out of MSU, was hit by a pitch on the left arm Sunday. He was expected to undergo an MRI. The HBP came with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and pushed the winning run across in a 2-1 victory against Minnesota. It was Westburg’s third RBI in six games in the majors; he is batting .263. He stayed in the game at second base in the ninth. … Braden Montgomery, the Madison Central High product and current Stanford star, hit a two-run homer for Team USA in a 10-0 romp over Chinese Taipei. He is 2-for-12 in the team’s three games to date; he has not yet pitched in the series.

27 Jun

‘like a movie’

Ex-Mississippi State star Jordan Westburg stood in the batter’s box for his first big league at-bat with both raindrops and chants of “Westy, Westy” cascading from above at Camden Yards in Baltimore. “It felt like something out of like a movie, or something that you dream, honestly,” he told mlb.com after Monday’s game, a 10-3 win over Cincinnati. Westburg walked (and later scored) in that first at-bat, picked up an RBI on a fielder’s choice grounder in his second and singled in his third. His debut was the lead story on MLB Network’s Quick Pitch. A first-round draft pick out of MSU in 2020, Westburg is the O’s No. 3-ranked prospect and was having a big year at Triple-A Norfolk before getting the call-up. He started at second base — where he made a slick play — and hit seventh in the order. … Westburg wasn’t the only Mississippi product to get a promotion on Monday. Detroit has moved former Biloxi High standout Colt Keith, its No. 1 prospect and the No. 43 overall (per mlb.com), to Triple-A Toledo. The 21-year-old third baseman is expected to debut on Wednesday at Columbus. Keith hit .325 with 14 homers and 50 RBIs at Double-A Erie and helped the club win a first-half championship. He also has been chosen to play in the All-Star Futures Game in Seattle on July 8. (Other Mississippians who have played in that game include Billy Hamilton, Hunter Renfroe, Nathaniel Lowe, Dakota Hudson, Ethan Small and Matt Wallner.) … Who’ll be next among Mississippians in the minors to move up the ladder? Possibly Blaze Jordan, the slugger from DeSoto Central who is currently at High-Class A Greenville in the Boston system. Jordan, 20, is hitting .328 with 10 homers and 47 RBIs in his first full season at Greenville, where he finished 2022. Red Sox GM Chaim Bloom recently said of the team’s No. 10 prospect, “(H)e’s definitely got our attention.” And then there’s Tim Elko, the Ole Miss product who is batting .297 with 17 homers and 57 RBIs at Low-A Kannapolis in the Chicago White Sox’s chain. Elko, at 24, is a little old for this level and seemingly deserves a bump up.

26 Jun

watch for it

A lot of Baltimore Orioles fans, upon hearing the news of the latest call-up, are probably wondering, What took so long? Former Mississippi State star Jordan Westburg, having a terrific season at Triple-A Norfolk, reportedly will join the Orioles on Monday and will be in the lineup against Cincinnati at Camden Yards. The O’s No. 3-ranked prospect, Westburg has played second base, shortstop, third and some outfield this season, batting .295 with 18 homers and 54 RBIs in 67 games. Following Sunday’s 3-2 win against Seattle, second baseman Adam Frazier — another MSU alum — was batting .228, shortstop Jorge Mateo .224 and rookie third baseman Gunnar Henderson .244. Baltimore (47-29) is in second place in the American League East. Westburg, 6 feet 2, 210 pounds, was the 30th overall pick out of Starkville in the 2020 draft. He didn’t hit for a lot of power at State but has belted 60 homers in his three minor league seasons and carries a .285 average. … One has to wonder why Cincinnati hasn’t made room on its roster for former Southern Miss standout Chuckie Robinson. The Reds, in first place in the National League Central but coming off back-to-back losses to Atlanta, are carrying three catchers and none of them is hitting. Robinson is batting .335 for Triple-A Louisville and hit his ninth homer in 52 games on Sunday. He is reputed to be a good defensive catcher. The 28-year-old Robinson got some big league time last season (.136, two homers in 59 at-bats for an awful Reds team) but was waived after the season and re-signed with the club.

14 Jun

beware of dog

The Dogs were out and barking in MLB parks on Tuesday night. Four former Mississippi State Bulldogs enjoyed big nights at the plate, with two of them going head-to-head in a significant American League West clash. Hunter Renfroe hit a go-ahead home run — his 12th — to help the Los Angeles Angels beat AL West-leader Texas 7-3. The Angels have won three in a row and eight of nine to pull within 4.5 games of the Rangers. Nathaniel Lowe went 3-for-5 with his eighth homer for Texas, which has dropped three in a row but still leads second-place Houston by 3.5. The hottest team in the big leagues is the last-place team in the AL West, Oakland, which took down Tampa Bay 2-1 for its seventh straight win. Brent Rooker went 2-for-3 with an RBI double for the A’s; he is hitting .265 with 13 homers for the 19-50 club. The loss by the AL East-leading Rays enabled Baltimore to move within 4 games of the top with an 11-6 victory against Toronto. Adam Frazier went 2-for-5 with his eighth homer and three RBIs for the second-place Orioles, who have won five in a row. Also worth noting: Ex-Bulldogs star and big league pitcher Jeff Brantley, now a Cincinnati broadcaster, has had a lot to bark about lately as the Reds, infused with young talent, have won four straight. They beat Kansas City 5-4 Tuesday and are 33-35, very much back in the race in the National League Central.

26 May

main attraction

Like so many of his Mississippi Braves teammates this season, Drew Lugbauer doesn’t hit much. But when the left-handed Lugbauer does get into one, it typically goes a long way. He hit his 10th home run of the season on Thursday night, a majestic blast into the Farm Bureau Grill beyond the right-field fence at Trustmark Park. It was the third homer in as many games on this homestand for the 6-foot-3, 220-pound former Michigan star who is nicknamed “Slugbauer.” He is, at present, the main attraction on a team that is last in the Southern League in runs and last in the South Division with an 18-23 record that includes a 6-2 loss to Pensacola on Thursday. Lugbauer, 26, is batting just .217, actually one of the better averages in Thursday’s lineup. Ten of his 26 hits this season have left the yard. He leads the SL in homers and is on pace to break the M-Braves’ single-season record of 28 homers that he set last year. (For the record, the Jackson Mets/Generals record at Smith-Wills Stadium is Darryl Strawberry’s 34 in 1982.) In his third season with the M-Braves, Lugbauer is also the career homer leader with 56. Many a fearsome slugger has passed through Pearl since 2005: Jeff Francoeur, Matt Esquivel, Kala Ka’aihue, Jason Heyward, Michael Rosamond, Ernesto Mejia, Evan Gattis, Dustin Peterson, Ronald Acuna, to name a few. Lugbauer has bragging rights over all of them. … Austin Riley, another of those former M-Braves sluggers, had quite the night for Atlanta on Thursday, hitting two monstrous homers in an 8-5 win against Philadelphia at Truist Park. Riley, a former DeSoto Central standout, is just the third player to hit two homers of 455 feet-plus in one game in the last nine years; the other two did it at Coors Field in Colorado. Riley has nine homers on the season for the first-place Braves. P.S. Surprising Baltimore (second-best record in MLB) just completed a 5-1 road trip through Toronto and New York (Yankee Stadium) and ex-Mississippi State star Adam Frazier went 10-for-27 with two homers, seven RBIs and six runs in the six games. Frazier is hitting .253 with six homers and 23 RBIs in his first season with the Orioles. … Shout-out to former M-Braves ace Julio Teheran, who threw five solid innings (but took a loss) for Milwaukee on Thursday in his first big league game since 2021. Teheran, part of a combo no-hitter for the M-Braves in 2010, has 78 career MLB wins. He ranks with the best of the many standout pitchers who have come through Pearl. … Southern Miss is 2-0 in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament after Danny Lynch delivered a walk-off win against Troy. Jackson State bowed out of the SWAC Tournament with a second straight one-run defeat.

01 May

tales of the west

Three former Mississippi State hombres are certainly stirring things up out West. In Oakland, Brent Rooker emerged as an American League player of the month candidate for April despite toiling for the worst team in the West Division. In Texas, Nathaniel Lowe has helped the Rangers ride into first place in the division, and in Los Angeles, Hunter Renfroe has added punch to an Angels team lurking 2.5 games back of the Rangers. Rooker hit his ninth home run of 2023 on Sunday as Oakland beat Cincinnati 5-4. With a .417 average, five homers and 11 RBIs in his last seven games, Rooker is batting .353 for the year and has driven in 22 runs in just 68 at-bats for the 6-23 A’s. “That kind of production for a month’s worth of games is probably past even my expectations of myself, so that’s been a pleasant surprise for me,” Rooker said, in understated fashion, in an mlb.com story. Lowe also went yard on Sunday, taking Nestor Cortes deep for his fourth homer of the season — 60th career — in the Rangers’ 15-2 rout of the ailing New York Yankees. Lowe is hitting .257 with 19 RBIs for the 17-11 Rangers. Renfroe, hitting cleanup for L.A. behind superstars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, went 1-for-4 Sunday as the Angels (15-14) beat Milwaukee 3-0. Renfroe has seven homers — matching Trout and Ohtani — and is batting .259 with 20 RBIs, which leads the team. (Back East, another ex-Bulldogs batslinger, Adam Frazier, hit his third homer of the year Sunday for Baltimore, which stands 19-9, second in the AL East.)

30 Apr

whatever happened to …

Garrett Crochet, the former Ocean Springs High star who went straight from the Tennessee campus to the big leagues in 2020, is expected to make an injury rehab appearance today for Double-A Birmingham. Crochet missed all of the 2022 season for the Chicago White Sox after Tommy John surgery in the spring. The left-hander was the 11th overall pick in the abbreviated 2020 draft and made his MLB debut that September, throwing 100-mph gas over five scoreless appearances. Crochet was a key piece of the White Sox’s bullpen in 2021, when the team won the American League Central. He posted a 2.82 ERA with 65 strikeouts (27 walks) in 54 1/3 innings that year and made three scoreless postseason appearances. The current White Sox could use some help, having lost 10 in a row to fall to 7-21, tied for last in the AL Central. Ole Miss product Lance Lynn threw six hitless innings against Tampa Bay on Saturday, then gave up four runs in a 10-run seventh as the ChiSox lost 12-3. Lynn is 0-4, 7.16. At Triple-A Charlotte, ex-East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson went 1-for-3 in his second rehab game, but the Knights lost to Norfolk 20-1. (Mississippi State alum Jordan Westburg, a Baltimore prospect, went 3-for-6 with three RBIs in that game to boost his average to .329.)

24 Apr

finding a way

Adam Frazier was the recipient of two celebratory Gatorade showers over the weekend, and he didn’t even get a hit. Ex-Mississippi State standout Frazier, now with the Baltimore Orioles, scrambled home with the game-winning run as a pinch runner on Sunday as the red-hot O’s beat Detroit 2-1 in 10 innings at Camden Yards. On Friday, Frazier drove in the winning run with a fielder’s choice grounder in the ninth inning of a 2-1 win against the Tigers. “These kinds of wins, at the end of the season, they add up,” a soaking-wet Frazier told mlb.com after Sunday’s game. The Orioles (14-7) have won six in a row. Playing in the rugged American League East, they certainly need every win they can squeeze out. Frazier, a lefty-hitting second baseman, hasn’t hit much, just .213 through Sunday, in his first year with Baltimore. But in a lineup with Ryan Mountcastle, Adley Rutschman, Austin Hays and Jorge Mateo, he doesn’t have to carry a heavy load. He was brought in as a free agent to add some veteran flavor to a young club. The 31-year-old Frazier has contributed 12 runs, eight RBIs and three steals while playing in every game. Chances are he’ll start to get more knocks. He is a .272 career hitter (since 2016) with an All-Star Game appearance on his resume, though he had a tough year in Seattle in 2022, batting just .238. He did, however, get to celebrate the end of the Mariners’ long postseason drought. P.S. While Frazier mans second base in Baltimore, waiting in the wings at that spot is ex-State star Jordan Westburg, the Orioles’ No. 4 prospect. Westburg is batting .281 with three home runs and 14 RBIs at Triple-A Norfolk. He has hit 45 homers over his three minor league seasons.

31 Mar

opening acts

One of the most disappointing MLB teams in 2022, the Chicago White Sox needed to get off to a good start this season. With the aid of Mississippi products Tim Anderson and Kendall Graveman, they did exactly that on Thursday, beating the world champion Houston Astros 3-2. Anderson, former East Central Community College star, went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run — both in a ninth-inning rally — and Mississippi State product Kendall Graveman earned the win after throwing a scoreless eighth inning. Ole Miss alum Lance Lynn, like Anderson and Graveman a star in the WBC, gets the start for the ChiSox today at Minute Maid Park. Elsewhere on Opening Day, MSU alum Adam Frazier, in his Baltimore debut, went 2-for-4 with three runs and a stolen base as the Orioles beat Boston 10-9. Ex-Bulldogs standout Nathaniel Lowe had a hit, an RBI and a run, all in a nine-run fourth inning that propelled Texas past Philadelphia 11-7. Austin Riley, the former DeSoto Central High star, went 0-for-2 with three walks and an RBI in Atlanta’s 7-2 victory against Washington. Meridian CC product Corey Dickerson was 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter in his Nationals debut. Hunter Renfroe was 0-for-4 (with a nice catch in right field) for the Los Angeles Angels and fellow former State standout Brent Rooker 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter for Oakland in the A’s 2-1 surprising win. P.S. The exhibition game between the Double-A Mississippi Braves and Jackson State scheduled for April 5 has been cancelled, reportedly due to concerns about field conditions at Trustmark Park in Pearl. (Tuesday night’s Southern Miss-Ole Miss game was cancelled in the fourth inning because recently installed infield sod was not holding up, and Belhaven University’s weekend series against Covenant College has been moved to Holmes Community College’s field in Goodman.) The M-Braves-JSU game — billed as the Hank Aaron Tribute Game by the Hank Aaron Sports Academy — was originally slated for Smith-Wills Stadium, home of the Double-A Jackson Mets and Generals from 1975-99. It would have been the first such contest between JSU and a Jackson-area pro team since 1991, when the Generals — a Houston affiliate — beat Jackson State 6-3 in an April exhibition at Smith-Wills. The M-Braves, Atlanta’s Double-A club now in its 19th year at Trustmark Park, open their Southern League season April 7 at home against Biloxi. The Shuckers, Milwaukee’s Double-A club, have slated an exhibition vs. Pearl River Community College on April 5 at MGM Park.