Tag Archives: Padres

18 May

here and there

Brian Snitker, the manager of the first Mississippi Braves team in 2005 and a veteran of 40 years in the Atlanta organization, deserved the opportunity to manage in the big leagues. Just not sure if he deserved this: a 9-29 team that can’t seem to do anything right. It was difficult to watch on Tuesday night as the Braves, in Snitker’s debut as Fredi Gonzalez’s replacement, gave up seven runs to Pittsburgh in the first inning. Atlanta battled back – thanks in part to two homers by former M-Braves star Mallex Smith – but still lost 12-9. The Braves are last in MLB in runs, 25th in ERA and 29th in fielding percentage. How much difference can Snitker make? … Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs, homered for the third straight game with El Paso on Tuesday night. Renfroe, a right fielder, is batting .313 with eight bombs and 28 RBIs in 36 games for San Diego’s Triple-A club. The Padres, the worst hitting team in baseball, are last in the National League West. Seems like they could use some help. … Jackson State, which begins SWAC Tournament play today against Texas Southern, leads the SWAC in hitting and homers, but the Tigers do have some arms. While Alabama State’s pitching is far and away the best in the league, JSU’s ERA of 5.31 ranks second. Miguel Yrigoyen, an All-SWAC second-team pick, is 8-3 with a 5.16 ERA, and Jevon Jacobs (3.99), Jamal Wilson (4.42) and Vincent Anthonia (4.73) can get people out. … William Carey University faces an elimination game today in its NAIA regional at Santa Barbara, Calif. The Crusaders beat College of Idaho 7-6 (on Mitch Little’s two-run hit in the seventh) but lost to top-seeded Westmont (Calif.) 14-1 on Tuesday. … At the Clark/Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur on Thursday they can say with literal certainty that it gets no better than this: No. 1-ranked LSU-Eunice vs. No. 2 Jones County Junior College in the first round of the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament. The undercard isn’t bad either: MACJC champion East Central, ranked 14th, and Northwest.

12 May

good stuff

As the fifth overall draft pick in 2010 out of Ole Miss, Drew Pomeranz entered pro ball with some hefty expectations. The big left-hander is starting to live up to them. Pomeranz, now with San Diego, blanked the mighty Chicago Cubs over six innings at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night, striking out 10 and propelling the Padres to a 1-0 win. It was just the second time this season the Cubs have been blanked. Pomeranz, now 4-3 with a 1.80 ERA, threw five shutout innings at the New York Mets in his previous start and has allowed just one run over his last 18 innings. “In pro ball, this is the best I’ve ever felt in a stretch,” he told mlb.com. While people in the game rave about his stuff, the 6-foot-6 Pomeranz has been traded three times in six years. His career MLB numbers are 18-27, 3.80 as he has bounced between starting and relieving. He may finally have found his place. P.S. The Padres’ lone run in the game – the second in their sweep on Wednesday – came on a monstrous homer by former Mississippi Braves standout Christian Bethancourt, his third of the year.

21 Apr

check and check

It had been a while since Kendall Graveman last posted a win. It had been a whole lot longer since he took a bat to home plate. The former Mississippi State standout now with the Oakland A’s did both at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night. Graveman beat New York for his first win since last July 4 – a span of 10 starts – and, because the A’s had to put their DH on the field, he batted for the first time since he was in high school in Alabama, eight years ago. He struck out against Nathan Eovaldi. What Graveman did on the bump made that AB totally irrelevant. The right-hander went 6 1/3 innings, allowing just three hits and a run with a career-best eight strikeouts in the 5-2 victory. Graveman is 1-1 with a 2.04 ERA in three starts for the A’s. Former Ole Miss star Chris Coghlan drove in the game-tying run, scored the go-ahead run and made a big defensive play at third base in the seventh inning. P.S. Also notching a big win on Wednesday was Ole Miss alum Drew Pomeranz, who struck out a career-high 10 in San Diego’s 8-2 decision against Pittsburgh. Lefty Pomeranz, 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in his first season with the Padres, yielded four hits and an unearned run in 6 2/3 innings. … So far, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ idea of trying Jordan Schafer as a pitcher is working just fine. The former Mississippi Braves and big league outfielder, a left-hander, has a 0.00 ERA and six strikeouts over seven innings for Double-A Tulsa. He is a .228 career big league hitter.

14 Jan

managerial matters

Phillip Wellman, after a year out of the pro game, is a manager again. The former Mississippi Braves manager has been handed the reins of San Diego’s Double-A San Antonio club in the Texas League. Wellman managed the M-Braves from 2007-10 and won a Southern League pennant with the team in 2008. After leaving the Braves, he served as a hitting coach in the St. Louis system and then managed in Double-A in the Los Angeles Angels’ organization in 2014. … The Double-A Biloxi Shuckers have a new manager: Mike Guerrero, first-base coach in Milwaukee last year. A longtime minor league skipper, Guerrero replaces Carlos Subero, who was promoted to the Brewers’ big league staff. There are some familiar names in the Brewers’ system: Former Jackson Generals manager Rick Sweet will run the Triple-A team, Colorado Springs, and ex-Delta State star Edwin Maysonet is now a coach at Class A Brevard County, along with Ned Yost IV, a Jackson native and the son of the Kansas City manager.

04 Dec

odds and ends

Joey Butler, the former Pascagoula High standout, has lost his roster spot with Tampa Bay, but Rays officials reportedly want to keep the outfielder/DH in the organization. Butler hit .276 with eight home runs and 30 RBIs in 88 games in 2015, getting his first extended playing time in MLB at age 29. He was designated for assignment on Thursday after the Rays acquired Hank Conger. … Will anyone take a chance on 37-year-old free agent Cliff Lee, the Meridian Community College alum who missed all of the past season with a shoulder injury? Left-hander Lee, who has 143 wins, a 3.52 career ERA and a Cy Young award on his ledger, hasn’t pitched in a big league game since July 31, 2014. Philadelphia cut him loose after last season, but he has been medically cleared to pitch again. … The next Mississippian to make The Show could well be Mississippi State alum Hunter Renfroe, who reached Triple-A in the San Diego system in 2015 and hit .333 with six bombs in 21 games. Speculation is that Renfroe, now rated the No. 3 prospect in the Padres’ system by Baseball America, will get a shot in right field in San Diego at some point in 2016. … Three former Mississippi Braves pitchers recently signed minor league contracts: Todd Redmond with Baltimore, Paul Clemens with Miami and Scott Diamond with Toronto. Mike Minor, non-tendered by Atlanta, probably will land somewhere, as well.

02 Dec

this just in

For the third time in a pro career that began in 2010, Drew Pomeranz has been traded. The left-hander out of Ole Miss was dealt today by Oakland to San Diego in a four-player trade that moved Yonder Alonso to the A’s. Pomeranz was 5-6 with three saves and a 3.66 ERA for Oakland in 2015, starting the season in the rotation and ending it as a closer. He had minor shoulder surgery in October but was expected to be ready for spring training. Pomeranz, 27, has a career ERA of 4.07 in 107 games, 49 of them starts. The fifth overall pick by Cleveland in 2010, he was traded to Colorado in 2011 and from the Rockies to Oakland in 2013.

24 Aug

summer fun

Biloxi Shuckers fans were given quite a treat this summer. The first team Milwaukee sent to its new Double-A home won a first-half championship and was packed with prospects, including Orlando Arcia, who is still there and still raking. The Venezuelan shortstop, rated the Brewers’ No. 1 prospect and No. 13 overall by mlb.com, had his first career two-homer game on Sunday at MGM Park. He is batting .342 over his last 10 games and .302 for the year, with eight homers, 62 RBIs, 34 doubles and 23 steals. Arcia turned 21 earlier this month. Biloxi hitting coach Sandy Guerrero told milb.com that Arcia is not quite big league-ready, but “he’s not that far.” … Meanwhile, the Mississippi Braves have moved into first place in the second-half race in the Southern League South. Lucas Sims, one of Atlanta’s top pitching prospects, threw six strong innings, fanning 10, and Rio Ruiz, another prospect, homered as the M-Braves beat host Pensacola 3-1. If the M-Braves win the title — there are 14 games left — they would meet the Shuckers in the first round of the SL playoffs. That would be quite a treat for both fan bases. P.S. Former Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe hit his third homer in five Triple-A games for El Paso (San Diego Padres) on Sunday. … Ex-State standout Kendall Graveman threw six shutout innings for Oakland on Sunday but got a no-decision and remains winless in his last eight starts. What’s worse, he suffered an oblique injury and may have to go on the disabled list.

20 Aug

smashing debut

Hunter Renfroe moved a step closer to the big leagues on Wednesday — and looked very comfortable in doing so. In his Triple-A debut, the former Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs for El Paso. Playing at Memphis’ AutoZone Park, where he played some games in college, and with family and friends in the seats, Renfroe singled in his first at-bat, homered in his final AB and rapped a sac fly and a two-run double in between. “It was like I was supposed to be there,” Renfroe told milb.com. Renfroe, 23, San Diego’s first-round pick in 2013 and currently the Padres’ top prospect, was batting .259 with 14 homers and 54 RBIs at Double-A San Antonio when he got the promotion. He now has 42 bombs in 285 career minor league games. P.S. Billy Hamilton’s tough season (.226 average, .272 OBP) continued in that vein on Wednesday when Cincinnati put the ex-Taylorsville High star on the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder injury. With 54 steals, Hamilton may already have wrapped up the MLB stolen base crown.

10 Aug

numbers game

Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State slugger from Crystal Springs, took a curious tumble in mlb.com’s latest Top 100 Prospects chart. Though he is batting .262 with 14 home runs and 51 RBIs in his first full season in Double-A, Renfroe slid to No. 84 from a preseason rank of 48. The concern seems to be his strikeout tendencies: 104 K’s this season with just 33 walks. Still, it’s not hard to imagine the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Renfroe playing right field for the San Diego Padres on opening day 2016. Justin Upton likely will leave San Diego as a free agent, opening up an outfield spot. Renfroe’s power – 41 homers in 2-plus seasons — might even play at spacious Petco Park, and his defense is a major asset; he has 33 career assists. … Other names of note on the prospect chart – the top 50 were revealed on MLB Network on Sunday – include No. 45 Tim Anderson, No. 37 Ozhaino Albies, No. 30 Jose Peraza and No. 14 Orlando Arcia. East Central Community College product Anderson, tearing up the Double-A Southern League (.308, 45 steals, 10 triples, 67 runs) as a shortstop in the Chicago White Sox’s system, jumped from No. 76 in preseason. Albies is an 18-year-old shortstop (now injured) who hit .310 with 29 steals at low Class A Rome in Atlanta’s system. Former Mississippi Braves second baseman Peraza, now in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization, moved up from 38 in preseason. One of the biggest jumps was made by Arcia, the slick shortstop at Double-A Biloxi in the Milwaukee system who started the year ranked No. 88. He had a walk-off hit in the Shuckers’ victory over the M-Braves in their second of two games on Sunday.

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.