Tag Archives: Padres

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.

22 Jun

touching the bases

Hunter Renfroe, the ex-Mississippi State standout, hit a pair of home runs in a game for Double-A San Antonio on Sunday. San Diego’s 2013 first-round pick, Renfroe is batting .343 over his last 10 games and is at .244 with five homers and 26 RBIs on the season. This is his first full year in the Texas League. … JaCoby Jones, the former Richton High star, had a two-run triple in Saturday’s Florida State League All-Star Game. The Pittsburgh shortstop prospect is in his first full year at high Class A Bradenton. … Jacob Lindgren’s season may be over. The State product, who made his big league debut for the New York Yankees this season, is having elbow surgery and is expected to be down about 12 weeks. The left-hander had a 5.14 ERA in seven MLB innings. … Ole Miss alum Lance Lynn is slated to come off the DL and start Thursday for St. Louis at Miami. Lynn, out two weeks with a forearm strain, is 4-4 with a 3.07 ERA. … The Mississippi Braves lost 12 of their last 15 to finish 33-35 in the first half of the Southern League season. Following the SL All-Star break, the M-Braves begin the second half at home on Thursday. … Ole Miss’ Errol Robinson is among the Cape Cod League batting leaders with a .322 average over nine games; he has scored 10 runs and stolen five bags. His Hyannis team is 8-3. Robinson hit .297 as a sophomore for the Rebels this year. … Blue Mountain College’s Dylan Earnest threw a five-hitter with six strikeouts to lead the Tupelo Thunder to a 4-1 win over the Tallahatchie Rascals on Sunday in Cotton States League play. Tupelo is 5-3, a half-game back of the Tippa Tribe (6-3) in the Deep South Division of the New Albany-based college summer circuit. The Golden Triangle Jets (6-4) lead the Rascals (5-3) in the Delta Division. … Zach Penprase, the onetime Mississippi Valley State star, is now playing his eighth season for Fargo-Moorhead in the independent American Association and hitting .292. Shortstop Penprase, 30, had a brief fling in affiliated ball; he was drafted by Philadelphia in 2006.

17 Jun

pitching in

In a game notable primarily for the eight home runs belted by Baltimore hitters, former Mississippi Braves star Jeff Francoeur made his MLB pitching debut on Tuesday. It was an adventure, to say the least. The erstwhile outfielder threw 48 pitches, 25 for strikes, in two innings of mop-up duty in Philadelphia’s 19-3 loss. He struck out a batter, hit a batter, walked three and gave up a home run. The fact that he was left in for two innings — the bullpen phone was off the hook? — seemed to rile up Phillies second baseman Chase Utley, who reportedly was concerned Francoeur would hurt his arm. Francoeur, who has a cannon, pitched in high school and also threw in eight games in Triple-A in 2014. … Meanwhile, another ex-M-Braves standout, Charlie Morton, who actually pitches full-time, tossed seven shutout innings against the Chicago White Sox to lead Pittsburgh to its sixth straight victory, five of them shutouts. Morton is 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA in five starts for the surging Pirates. Morton was an unspectacular 4-6, 4.29 for the M-Braves in 2007, but he threw a memorable gem in the Southern League playoffs that likely boosted his career. He made the big leagues with Atlanta in 2008, then was traded to Pittsburgh the next year. … Then there’s Craig Kimbrel, the former M-Braves closer who now toils for San Diego. His outing against Oakland on Tuesday was almost as rocky as Francoeur’s. Kimbrel allowed a hit, two walks and the go-ahead run in a 6-5 loss. Though he has 16 saves, Kimbrel’s ERA this season is 3.81; his career mark is 1.63.

09 Jun

minor matters

D.J. Davis, the first Mississippi-connected player chosen in the 2012 draft, is making a strong bid for promotion in the Toronto system. The ex-Stone County High star drove in eight runs on Monday for the low Class A Lansing Lugnuts. The lefty-hitting outfielder, who went 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles in the game, is batting .294 with three homers, 30 RBIs, 32 runs, four triples and nine steals over 53 games in his second tour of the Midwest League. A key for Davis this year has been cutting down on his strikeouts. … Chris Stratton, also a first-rounder in 2012 (No. 20 overall to Davis’ 17), made his Triple-A debut in the San Francisco system last Friday. Stratton, from Tupelo by way of Mississippi State, allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings in a victory by Sacramento. He was 1-5 with a 4.14 ERA at Double-A Richmond before his promotion. … Knocking on the Double-A door is Horn Lake’s Cody Reed, a second-round pick out of Northwest Mississippi CC by Kansas City in 2013 (and the third Mississippian picked in that draft, after Hunter Renfroe and Tim Anderson). The 6-foot-5, 220-pound left-hander is 5-3 with a 1.29 ERA for Wilmington in the high-A Carolina League. … Anderson, the East Central CC alum who missed a couple days with a shoulder injury, is playing again at Double-A Birmingham (Chicago White Sox) and is hitting .304 with 21 bags. MSU product and Crystal Springs native Renfroe, at Double-A San Antonio in San Diego’s system, has scuffled a bit (.226, three homers). … Ole Miss alum Bobby Wahl, another 2013 draftee, is also toiling in Double-A and has a 3.76 ERA with four saves for Midland (Oakland) in the Texas League. P.S. Ed Easley, drafted way back in 2007 out of MSU, got his first big league RBI on Monday for St. Louis. He is still looking for his first hit; he is 0-for-2 in three plate appearances. … Hinds CC’s Randy Bell was named an NJCAA first-team All-America pitcher. The South Alabama signee was 12-0 with a 2.37 ERA for the state champion Eagles.

29 Jan

this just in …

Hunter Renfroe, the former Mississippi State standout from Crystal Springs, has been ranked as the ninth-best outfield prospect by mlb.com. Renfroe, a 2013 first-round pick by San Diego, has belted 27 homers in two seasons of pro ball. He reached the Double-A level last summer and played in the prospect-filled Arizona Fall League. Not yet on the Padres’ 40-man roster, he will go to spring training with the major leaguers.

29 Jan

a spring in their step

Former East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson has been rated the No. 10 shortstop prospect in the minors by mlb.com. Anderson also has received an invitation to the Chicago White Sox’s major league spring training camp next month. A first-round pick in 2013, Anderson batted .301 with nine homers and 40 RBIs in an injury-interrupted 2014, finishing the season in Double-A. He also played well in the Arizona Fall League. … Other Mississippians who have received non-roster invites to big league camps include Petal High alumnus and former Mr. Baseball Anthony Alford (Toronto), Mississippi State product Hunter Renfroe (San Diego), ex-Hattiesburg High star Robert Carson (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC alum Joey Butler (Tampa Bay). … Also of note: Former Mississippi Braves catcher J.C. Boscan has signed a minor league deal with Kansas City and will report to the Royals’ big league camp. P.S. Hinds Community College is ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA’s preseason poll, and Jones County Junior College is slotted at No. 11. Hinds, 40-21 and a Division II World Series finalist last year, opens on Feb. 7 against Mineral Area (Mo.) in Raymond. Jones, 46-11 and MACJC state champion in 2014, starts Feb. 7 against Jeff Davis (Ala.) in Ellisville.

31 Dec

changing places — again

Seth Smith will suit up for a third team in three years in 2015 – and once again the former Ole Miss standout is moving to a home park that’s tough on hitters. Smith, a left-handed hitting outfielder entering his ninth MLB season, was traded from San Diego to Seattle on Tuesday (for pitcher Brandon Maurer). Since coming up in 2007 with Colorado at the hitters’ paradise known as Coors Field, Smith has moved to O.Co Coliseum in Oakland, Petco Park in San Diego and now Safeco Field. All are notorious pitchers’ parks, with Safeco generally regarded as the most pitcher-friendly. Smith hit .266 with 12 home runs (plus 31 doubles and five triples) in 443 at-bats for the Padres in 2014 and .253 with eight homers in 368 at-bats for the A’s in 2013. This looks like a good move for Smith, who escapes the crowded outfield in San Diego. He’ll likely platoon with right-handed hitting Justin Ruggiano in right field for the Mariners, a team on the rise. With 85 career homers, Smith brings some pop. And he has played in four postseasons, including the 2007 World Series.

19 Dec

coming soon?

Mallex Smith, one of the minor leaguers acquired by Atlanta in the Justin Upton deal, is an intriguing player. And he could start the 2015 season in the Mississippi Braves outfield. Mallex is a left-handed hitter with speed, a good skill to have at Trustmark Park. A fifth-round pick by San Diego in 2012, the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Mallex has 169 stolen bases in 265 minor league games. He also has a .290 career average. He played at two levels of A-ball in 2014, batting .327 with five homers, 16 RBIs, 43 runs and 40 bags in 55 games in the high Class A California League. If Smith doesn’t start next season at the TeePee, it shouldn’t be long before he gets there.