Tag Archives: Padres

24 Sep

bombs away

The first home run of Hunter Renfroe’s major league career sailed out of San Diego’s Petco Park on this date in 2016. The victim was San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner. Renfroe, the former Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs, had made his MLB debut three days earlier. He would go on to hit 191 more homers in a career that apparently has ended. He was released in May by Kansas City. Whether he ever plays again, the powerfully built outfielder will rate as one of the most prolific sluggers ever out of Mississippi. His 192 bombs are tied (with Brian Dozier) for the fifth-most in big league history among Mississippi natives. He also hit two homers in the postseason, one in the 2020 World Series with Tampa Bay. Among the pitchers he took deep are Jacob deGrom, Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Aroldis Chapman, Zack Greinke, Max Fried, Hunter Greene and Garrett Crochet. His last homer came against Atlanta’s Charlie Morton on Sept. 29, 2024, at Truist Park. Renfroe batted .236 with 510 RBIs over a 10-year career spent with seven different teams. He had a 33-homer season with San Diego in 2019 and a 94-RBI season with Boston in 2021. Also known for his strong arm, he notched 75 outfield assists. P.S. The leaders in career homers by Magnolia State natives: Ellis Burks 352, Dave Parker 339, George Scott 271, Chet Lemon 215, Brian Dozier and Hunter Renfroe 192, Mitch Moreland 186, Dmitri Young 171, Austin Riley 169, Bill Melton and Frank White 160. (Note: Riley was born in a Memphis hospital but grew up and went to school in Southaven.)

28 Aug

a door opens

After parlaying his monster season in an independent league into a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres, Christopher Sargent Jr. wasted little time making an impact in affiliated ball. In the fourth at-bat of his first game, the ex-Southern Miss standout belted a two-run homer. Sargent, 25, officially signed with the Padres on Wednesday and was in the lineup at catcher for Double-A San Antonio on Wednesday night. His homer helped the Missions beat Frisco 14-11. Sargent hit .384 with 35 homers and 130 RBIs this season for Ogden in his second season in the hitter-friendly Pioneer League. He hit .316 with 19 bombs in 2024. Ogden manager Evan Parker hailed Sargent as a “real dual-threat catcher.” Sargent, 5 feet 11, 185 pounds, played first base at USM from 2021-23 and hit 51 homers while batting .249. He wasn’t drafted after his senior season. A catcher in high school and junior college in Alabama, Sargent began playing that premium position again with Ogden. He joins a San Antonio team that includes former USM left-hander Ryan Och. P.S. In other minor matters: Blaze Jordan, DeSoto Central High product, hit a two-run double in the ninth inning that gave Triple-A Memphis an 8-6 win at Oklahoma City. Jordan has 19 RBIs in 19 games with St. Louis’ Triple-A club and 81 on the year with three different clubs. … Niko Mazza, ex-USM and MRA standout, threw 5 1/3 strong innings to get the win for Low-Class A San Jose in a 2-0 victory against Visalia. Mazza, in his first pro campaign, is 4-3 with a 2.04 ERA in 20 starts for the San Francisco affiliate. … Mason Nichols, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss and a Jackson Prep product, notched his first career save with a scoreless inning for Low-A Charleston (Tampa Bay system) in a 1-0 win vs. Augusta. Nichols has yet to allow a run in five relief appearances.

09 Feb

left to wonder

Chances are A.J. Brown will do something impactful in today’s Super Bowl. The Starkville native and ex-Ole Miss star — now an All-Pro receiver for Philadelphia — has 261 catches with 24 touchdowns in his three seasons with the Eagles, nine catches for 120 yards and a score in the current postseason. Baseball fans will watch and wonder how impactful Brown might have been on a major league diamond had he chosen that path. The 6-foot-1, 226-pound Brown was a two-sport star at Starkville High and played in both the Under Armour Football and Baseball All-America Games in 2015. “He was elite at both sports,” Stephen Moritz, a San Diego Padres scout, said in an mlb.com story. Already committed to football at Ole Miss, Brown was drafted out of Starkville by the Padres in the 19th round in 2016 and was signed by Moritz. “You might have an All-Star center fielder on a championship team,” the scout said in the mlb.com article. “So that was the thought process: Hey, there’s way high upside here. It’s going to be relatively cheap. Why not take a chance?” Brown worked out for the Padres in extended spring training in Arizona several times while at Ole Miss but never actually played a pro game. An All-SEC pick and Conerly Trophy winner for the Rebels, Brown was a second-round pick by Tennessee in the 2019 NFL draft and football became his focus. Sorta. Brown, now 27, has said several times over the years that he might give baseball another crack. In the summer of 2023, he took batting practice at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park and impressed Phillies players with his powerful swing. (For the record, Moritz doesn’t want Brown to be too impactful in the Super Bowl: He’s a big Kansas City Chiefs fan.) P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Ryan Och has received a non-roster invite to San Diego’s big league camp. Drafted in the seventh round in 2021, the left-hander has a 3.61 career ERA, reaching Double-A last season. … Billy Hamilton, the ex-big leaguer from Taylorsville, made the All-Caribbean Series team. The speedy outfielder helped Mexico reach the CS title game before losing to the Dominican Republic team 1-0 on Friday. Hamilton went 3-for-14 with six walks (.450 OBP), three runs, an RBI and five steals in five games in Mexicali, Mexico.

23 Aug

spotlight on …

A trio of former Mississippi high school standouts stuffed the box score Thursday night in a High-Class A game at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Park. Bryson Ware and Emaarion Boyd combined for six hits for Jersey Shore in a 10-1 win over the host Cyclones, with Kellum Clark getting a knock for the losers while having a hand in four double plays. Ware, a Germantown High product who also passed through Pearl River Community College and Auburn en route to pro ball, picked up four hits with a double, a triple, an RBI and two runs. The third baseman, a 2023 draftee, is batting .348 in 14 games since Philadelphia moved him to Jersey Shore. He hit nine homers in Low-A ball. Boyd, who starred at South Panola, produced a triple, two runs, two RBIs and a stolen base, his 22nd. The Phillies’ No. 23 prospect (by MLB Pipeline) in his third pro season, center fielder Boyd is batting .238. Clark is an ex-Brandon High and Mississippi State standout who was drafted in the 20th round last summer. In 48 games for Brooklyn, the New York Mets’ High-A club, the first baseman is batting .217 with three doubles and eight RBIs. He smacked 30 homers in three seasons in Starkville but has yet to find that stroke in pro ball, with just one career bomb, none in 2024. P.S. Another state prep product, Spence Coffman out of Tishomingo High, got a shot at Low-A ball after hitting .295 with eight doubles, 24 RBIs and 19 steals this year in rookie ball, where he had been toiling since being drafted in the 19th round in 2022. Coffman, 20, a shortstop, is 6-for-27 (.222) in nine games for San Diego’s Lake Elsinore club; he was placed on the development list on Thursday but remains with the Storm.

16 Aug

slamming the door

Former Southern Miss standout Ryan Och shared in a bit of history with the San Antonio Missions on Thursday. The left-hander, in his fourth season in the San Diego system, got the last four outs (on 11 pitches) in a three-man no-hitter, the 16th in San Antonio’s long minor league history. Och has a 3.10 ERA in 12 appearances for the Double-A Missions and a 4.02 with two saves overall in 2024. He was a key bullpen arm for USM in 2021, posting an 8-0 record with a 1.27 ERA and a ton of strikeouts for a 40-21 team that reached the title game of the Oxford Regional. San Diego drafted Och in the seventh round that summer. In 59 career pro games, he has a 3.77 ERA and 141 strikeouts in 88 1/3 innings. … In Thursday’s game, an 8-0 win for the Missions against Amarillo, Ole Miss alum Kevin Graham went 0-for-3 (three strikeouts) for the Sod Poodles, an Arizona affiliate. (He didn’t face Och.) Graham, who played on UM’s 2022 national title team, is batting .222 in his first Double-A campaign.

20 Jul

twin valleys

The Chicago Cubs, trying to stay relevant in the playoff chase, sent their hottest pitcher to the Wrigley Field mound on Friday. Visiting Arizona sent Justin Steele to the showers in the fifth inning. Not what the Cubs were expecting. The Diamondbacks, also aiming for a second-half push, rolled to a 5-2 win, stopping Lucedale native Steele’s streak of quality starts at seven. The left-hander allowed five runs in his 4 2/3 innings and fell to 2-4, his ERA rising to 3.07. He had allowed just one run in 16 innings in winning his previous two starts. The Diamondbacks got to him for nine hits, two walks and an HBP. “It’s a good lineup over there,” Steele said in an mlb.com piece. “Obviously — they were in the World Series last year.” The Cubs fell to 47-52, last in the National League Central and 3.5 games back of the wild card cut. … Meanwhile, Chicago’s other team, the White Sox, suffered what was not a wholly unexpected result in their first game after the All-Star break. The worst team in baseball lost at Kansas City 7-1. Former Southern Miss standout Chuckie Robinson, called up from Triple-A Charlotte on Friday, watched from the bench as the ChiSox fell to 27-72. Maybe he can help. The 29-year-old catcher was batting .246 with seven homers and 32 RBIs for the Knights. Now in his eighth pro season, Robinson got into 25 games with Cincinnati is 2022, batting .136 with two homers. P.S. Down in the minors, Mississippi State product Preston Johnson threw two innings as part of a four-man no-hitter by Aberdeen, Baltimore’s High-Class A affiliate. A 2022 draftee, Johnson has a 5.64 ERA this season. … David Fletcher, erstwhile MLB infielder and current Mississippi Braves knuckleballer, notched his first win of the season as Atlanta’s Double-A club rallied to beat Pensacola 5-4. Fletcher (1-2, 4.82) allowed four runs (three earned) in six innings. … Ole Miss alum Josh Mallitz, a right-hander, has signed as an undrafted free agent with San Diego, per Baseball America.

02 Jul

whatever happened to …

Reed Trimble, the oft-injured ex-Southern Miss star, is having a terrific season at High-Class A Aberdeen in the Baltimore system. The switch-hitting outfielder, 24, is batting .296 with two homers, seven doubles, three triples, 16 RBIs, 16 runs and 13 steals in 40 games. On Monday, he flashed his all-around skills against Greensboro, going 2-for-4 with a homer, a double, a steal, two RBIs and three runs. Drafted 65th overall by the Orioles in 2021 — after hitting .345 with 17 homers for USM — Trimble has been on and off the injured list many times over four pro seasons. He has played in just 104 games, hitting .245 overall, but may be finding his stride this summer. … Drafted 570th overall by San Diego in 2022, former Tishomingo County High standout Spence Coffman is blossoming in his third tour of the Arizona Complex League. Coffman, 20, a shortstop, ranks among the league leaders with a .326 average and 14 steals. He has driven in 21 runs and scored 22 for the Padres’ rookie-level club. … Drafted 60th overall in 2018 (by Milwaukee) and released last month (by Kansas City), Joe Gray Jr. has landed in the independent Atlantic League, where he is batting .250 in nine games for Gastonia. P.S. Ole Miss alum Andrew Fischer — who reportedly has entered the transfer portal (again) — is among the top sluggers in the Cape Cod League with three homers and 12 RBIs for Brewster. Fischer hit 20 homers for the Rebels in 2024 after transferring in from Duke. Other notables in the Cape: Southern Miss’ Davis Gillespie is hitting .276 with four runs for Bourne; Ole Miss’ Campbell Smithwick is batting .304 for Chatham; and Mississippi State’s Gavin Black has a 0.00 ERA with 10 strikeouts over 8 1/3 innings for Wareham. … The Tupelo Thunder has bolted to a 9-2 start in the Cotton States League, led by two-way standout Hayden Roberts. The Itawamba Community College product from Belden leads the New Albany-based college summer league in hitting at .545 and has 12 RBIs and 12 runs. He also has a 2-0 record and 2.33 ERA in four starts on the mound. Left-hander Chris Robinson, a former Eupora High star, is 3-0, 2.21, in four starts for the Thunder.

13 Feb

minor matters

Former Petal High star Anthony Alford and ex-Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz have found new teams for 2024, Alford signing a minor league contract with Cincinnati and Pomeranz agreeing to a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Angels, per reports. … Alford, a 29-year-old outfielder, spent the last two seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization, batting .288 with 29 homers overall. He hit .209 over scattered parts of six MLB campaigns, including two games with Pittsburgh in 2022. He was a third-round draft pick out of Petal by Toronto in 2013, but his baseball career went on the back burner while he played football at Southern Miss and Ole Miss. Alford did not receive an invitation to the Reds’ big league camp in Arizona, according to redlegnation.com, but surely will get a look there. … Pomeranz, 35, who has been injured much of the last two years, reportedly will get a non-roster invite to the Angels’ Arizona camp. The tall left-hander has appeared in 289 MLB games, posted a 3.91 ERA, won a World Series ring and earned an All-Star game nod. A former fifth overall draftee (2010), he had a 1.75 ERA with San Diego in 2021. His four-year, $34 million contract with the Padres expired after last season.

01 Aug

whatever happened to …

Drew Pomeranz, the veteran left-hander out of Ole Miss, has been throwing — not pitching — and still plans to rejoin the San Diego Padres this season, according to a recent report in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I’m determined to get back to where I was,” Pomeranz said. Where he was in 2021 was in the Padres’ bullpen as a valued short reliever. He had a 1.75 ERA in 27 games that season before suffering a forearm injury in August that required surgery and kept him out most of 2022. He made five rehab appearances late last year and three more early this season before being shut down in May and having some cleanup surgery. The SEC’s pitcher of the year and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner in 2010, Pomeranz was the fifth overall pick out of Ole Miss that summer by Cleveland. He has logged 851 1/3 innings in the big leagues, posting a 3.91 ERA, making an All-Star Game and winning a World Series ring. At 34, he is battling to get back, though there is no real urgency in San Diego, where the underachieving Padres appear to be out of playoff contention. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn is slated to make his Los Angeles Dodgers debut tonight against Oakland. He was 6-9 with a 6.47 ERA for the Chicago White Sox before being traded. … Former Mississippi State standout Brandon Woodruff is expected to make his third and final rehab start for Triple-A Nashville tonight and possibly return to Milwaukee’s active roster soon thereafter. He has been out since April. … MSU product Kellum Clark, a 20th-round pick by the New York Mets last month, went 1-for-3 in his pro debut Monday in the Florida Complex League. … Southern Miss alum Justin Storm, a seventh-round pick by Miami, has been assigned to the Marlins’ FCL team but hasn’t pitched yet. … Jacob Gonzalez and Calvin Harris, both drafted out of UM by the White Sox, have been moved up from rookie ball to Low-Class A Kannapolis. … Will Verdung, a 13th-round selection out of Itawamba Community College, is batting .357 (5-for-14) in five games for Atlanta’s FCL team.

07 Jun

in keystone state news …

There were a couple of rare occurrences in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Oakland won a game, just its 13th of the season, and Brent Rooker hit a home run, ending his personal 20-game drought. Former Mississippi State star Rooker, one of the hottest players on the planet in April when he blasted nine home runs, has cooled off of late. He has three homers since the calendar flipped to May, and he hit .198 for the month after finishing April with a .353 average for the season. (Note: He was hitting .333 on May 5 when he went on the MLB Central show to talk hitting with Mark DeRosa.) On the positive side, Rooker has hit safely in three of four games this month and is sitting at .261 with 34 RBIs on the year. The awful A’s, now 13-50, hit four homers all told in their 11-2 win at PNC Park. … Across the Keystone State in Philadelphia, the best display of power might have come in a pregame exhibition by a football player. Before the Phillies put up three hits to beat Detroit 1-0 at Citizens Bank Park, Eagles All-Pro receiver A.J. Brown, the ex-Ole Miss football star, took batting practice and impressed onlookers with a smooth, powerful swing. Brown, a two-sport standout at Starkville High, is the rare prep player to participate in both the Under Armour Football and Baseball All-America Games. He was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 19th round out of high school in 2016 and signed a pro contract. He worked out for the Padres in extended spring training several times while at Ole Miss but never actually played a pro game. Currently listed at 6 feet 1, 226 pounds, the 25-year-old Brown has teased the idea recently that he might give baseball another shot.