Tag Archives: Pirates

20 Dec

around the horn

Jake Mangum took to social media to thank the Tampa Bays Rays for giving him his first opportunity in the big leagues. The club may also have done the ex-Mississippi State standout a solid by trading him to Pittsburgh, where the outfield situation is much less crowded. Mangum was part of a three-team trade on Friday. “Absolutely fired up to get to work for the Pittsburgh Pirates. I’m going to give yall everything I got,” Mangum posted on X. Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz are likely set as starters in the Pittsburgh outfield, but the other spot appears wide open. Mangum can play all three positions. A switch-hitter, he batted .296 with 27 stolen bases in 118 games as a 29-year-old rookie with the Rays. He also plays plus-defense. Drafted in the fourth round as an MSU senior in 2019 by the New York Mets, Mangum bounced via trade to the Miami Marlins and then to the Rays before making The Show. He left Starkville as the Bulldogs’ all-time hits leader and is a .297 career hitter in the minors. … Chuckie Robinson, former Southern Miss star, is back in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ system, signing a minor league deal on Thursday. He’ll likely go to big league spring camp as one of the many catchers they’ll bring in. Robinson, 31, spent a chunk of the 2025 season in the Dodgers’ organization and got one MLB at-bat with the eventual World Series champs. He ended the season in Atlanta’s system. In pro ball since 2016, Robinson has appeared in 52 MLB games since 2022 and carries a .131 average. … JoJo Parker, drafted eighth overall this past summer out of Purvis High, is projected to be Toronto’s top prospect a year from now by MLB Pipeline. (He is currently No. 2.) The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Parker, a shortstop who has yet to make his pro debut, “has an intriguing mix of hit and power tools from the left side at a premium position,” per MLB Pipeline’s report. … Plans are under way for the Legacy League — a new wood-bat college summer league — to begin play in late May at Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium, per an announcement from Tim Bennett of the Hank Aaron Sports Academy. Six teams, representing metro area communities, will play 32-to-36 games each, all at Smith-Wills. (The league was originally slated to begin with 10 teams in 2025.) The Legacy League is similar in structure to the Cotton States League, which has operated in New Albany for many years and was once based in Jackson.

06 Nov

names in the news

Bobby Halford: Congratulations to the longtime William Carey University coach on his election to the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. Halford is the state’s all-time winningest college coach with 1,375 wins over 40 years at the Hattiesburg school. His teams have made 26 appearances in the NAIA Tournament and three trips to the World Series. Halford has won more coach of the year honors than you can count.
Konnor Griffin: The former Jackson Prep star added a minor league Gold Glove award to the numerous player of the year honors he has collected. The first-year pro, Pittsburgh’s top prospect, had a .980 fielding percentage at shortstop with seven errors in 89 games. He also played some center field while moving through three levels.
Antoan Richardson: The ex-Mississippi Braves standout has joined new Atlanta manager Walt Weiss’ staff as first-base coach. Richardson, who coached with the New York Mets in 2025, played in Pearl in 2010-11 and made the majors in 2011 with Atlanta. He also played for the Yankees and is remembered for scoring the run on Derek Jeter’s walk-off hit in his final MLB at-bat.
Brandon Woodruff: The Mississippi State product from Wheeler declined his mutual option with Milwaukee and became a free agent. Woodruff went 7-2 with a 3.20 ERA in 12 games in 2025 but ended the season on the injured list. He missed all of 2024 following arm surgery. He is 53-28 over an eight-year big league career.
Michael Fowler: The former Southern Miss pitcher has made six appearances in the Arizona Fall League without allowing an earned run over seven innings. Milwaukee signed Fowler off the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters’ roster last summer, and he put up good numbers in A-ball.

13 Oct

it happened one october, take 1

On this date in 1960, Pittsburgh’s Bill Mazeroski hit his famous walk-off home run in Game 7 of the World Series, stunning the New York Yankees and much of the baseball world. Mississippi natives Joe Gibbon and Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell won rings — the only ones they would get in lengthy big league careers — thanks to Mazeroski’s blast at old Forbes Field. Gibbon, from Hickory via Ole Miss, yielded three runs in two appearances in that Series, and Leakesville’s Mizell took the loss as the starter in Game 3 and had a 15.43 ERA over two appearances. The Yankees, who had won six championships in the 1950s, outscored the Pirates 55-27, losing Game 7 10-9.

05 Sep

something special

Congrats to former Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier, who got his 1,000th career major league hit on Thursday night. And it wasn’t just a garden variety knock. It was a home run, a solo shot, and it came with his team, the Kansas City Royals, in an early hole and in need of a spark against the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals, a contender in the American League wild card chase, hit three more solo homers and won 4-3 at Kauffman Stadium. Frazier’s second-inning bomb came against Kyle Hendricks, against whom he was batting .412 with two homers (per The Baseball Buffet). A 10-year MLB vet, Frazier has been a catalyst for K.C. ever since the club traded for him in July. The lefty hitter, who can play virtually anywhere, is batting .298 with three homers, 17 RBIs and 15 runs in his second stint with the team. A .264 career hitter — 66 homers — with five MLB clubs, he set an MSU record for hits in a single season in 2013, the year he was drafted by Pittsburgh. He got a hit in his first big league at-bat on June 24, 2016, and was an All-Star in 2021 with the Pirates. He had a down year with the Royals in 2024 and went back to Pittsburgh as a free agent in the off-season. The Royals traded a minor leaguer to the Pirates for Frazier on July 16, an under-the-radar move that has paid dividends. … For the record, the leader in career hits among MSU alums is Rafael Palmeiro with 3,020. Will Clark got 2,176, Buddy Myer 2,131, Hughie Critz 1,591 and Del Unser 1,344. Among active ex-Bulldogs, Nathaniel Lowe trails Frazier with 780 hits, and Brent Rooker is at 471.

20 Aug

rise and shine

Hit? Check. RBI? Check. Stolen base? Check. Win? Check. Baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, batting second and playing shortstop, checked off several notable accomplishments in his Double-A debut on Tuesday night, helping Altoona beat Reading 6-5. He singled in his first at-bat. We shouldn’t be surprised, really. The former Jackson Prep star also got a hit in his first pro at-bat back in April and got two knocks in his first game at the High-A level in June. On the season, Griffin is now batting .331 with 16 homers, 73 RBIs, 97 runs and 60 steals. And he is only 19. “It’s just like popcorn,” Andy Fox, manager of Pittsburgh’s Double-A club, told milb.com. “People pop at different times. He’s just an early popper.” The 2024 Gatorade player of the year in Mississippi is the third recent winner of that award to reach Double-A this season, quite a testament to the caliber of high school baseball in the state. Magnolia Heights alum Cooper Pratt, the 2023 Gatorade winner and Milwaukee’s No. 3 prospect, is playing at Biloxi, while Madison Central grad Braden Montgomery, the 2021 winner and the Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 prospect, is with Birmingham in his first pro season. Of note: The 2022 Gatorade winner, Dakota Jordan (Jackson Academy), is one of the top hitters in the Low-Class A California League in the San Francisco system; a couple of injury setbacks likely have kept him from being promoted. And the 2020 winner, Blaze Jordan (DeSoto Central), is at Triple-A Memphis — at age 22 — in St. Louis’ chain. … Emaarion Boyd, an 11th-round pick out of South Panola in 2022, was promoted to Double-A Pensacola by Miami but did not play Tuesday. He was batting .235 with 43 steals in High-A; he is a .251 career hitter with 134 bags in four years, the first three in Philadelphia’s system. P.S. Jake Mangum, the ex-Jackson Prep and Mississippi State star, got a couple of hits, an RBI and a steal for Tampa Bay — but he also had to watch seven of the New York Yankees’ nine home runs sail over his head in right field at Steinbrenner Field. The Bombers, tying a franchise record for homers in a game, won 13-3. … Nathaniel Lowe hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth in his second game with Boston, but the former MSU standout then watched Baltimore win 4-3 in 11 innings … Four former Mississippi Braves catchers were in big league lineups on Tuesday: Drake Baldwin (Atlanta), William Contreras (Milwaukee), Shea Langeliers (A’s) and Alex Jackson (Baltimore). Baldwin delivered the game-winning RBIs for the Braves against the Chicago White Sox, and Langeliers hit his 27th home run in an A’s victory.

18 Aug

a new frontier

Having handled both levels of Class A ball with aplomb, Konnor Griffin will get a shot at Double-A, generally considered the big jump in the minor leagues. Former Jackson Prep standout Griffin, only 19 and the No. 1-rated prospect in the minors, will suit up for Altoona in the Eastern League, presumably as soon as Tuesday, when the Pennsylvania-based Curve hosts Reading. “He fills up the box score,” Pittsburgh Pirates GM Ben Cherington said on a recent radio show. “You look at the box score, and he’s doing this, this and this. And that’s not even counting his defense … .” Griffin, who has played shortstop and center field in his first pro season, is batting .332 overall with 16 homers, a .510 slugging percentage, a .938 OPS and 59 stolen bases. He went 2-for-5 Sunday to boost his average at High-A Greensboro to .324. Of note: On the Reading roster is Bryson Ware, a Germantown High product in his third year in the Philadelphia system. He hit his first Double-A homer Sunday and is batting .280 in six games. P.S. The official “dog days of summer” may be over, but don’t tell Jordan Westburg and Adam Frazier, a pair of old Bulldogs from Mississippi State who enjoyed a mighty fine Sunday. Westburg had a four-hit, five-RBI game for Baltimore in a 12-0 win vs. Houston; he is batting .277 with 15 homers and 34 RBIs. Frazier went 2-for-4 with a homer for Kansas City in a 6-2 victory vs. the Chicago White Sox; he is batting .329 with two bombs, 13 RBIs and 11 runs in 23 games for the Royals since arriving in a July trade. … MSU alum Nathaniel Lowe is reported to be close to signing with Boston; the veteran first baseman, hitting .216 with 16 homers, was released last week by Washington. … In the minors: Ex-Ole Miss star Tim Elko homered for the fifth time in six games for Triple-A Charlotte (Chicago White Sox) and now has 24 homers with the Knights. Former Southern Miss standout Matthew Etzel, in his second Triple-A game for Jacksonville (Miami), went 3-for-4 with a steal and two runs, including the game-winner in a 6-5 victory vs. Norfolk.

24 Jul

striking it rich

The Pioneer League appears to be a great place to go searching for hits. That’s certainly been the case for a trio of Mississippians who have found their way to the independent league in the Great Northwest. Christopher Sargent, former Southern Miss slugger who went undrafted in 2024, is batting .395 for the Ogden Raptors with 21 homers and 56 RBIs in 54 games. His batting average ranks just seventh in a league that features five .400 hitters, including a .484 at the top. Spence Coffman, 21, former Tishomingo County star who was released by San Diego in April, is hitting .394 for the Grand Junction Jackalopes; he has six homers and 51 RBIs in 38 games. Kellum Clark, 24, the ex-Mississippi State standout from Brandon released by the New York Mets last fall, has been with the Rocky Mountain Vibes for 22 games and is raking at a .424 clip. He has seven homers and 34 RBIs. Bradley Pelle, undrafted out of NCAA Division III Millsaps this year after winning SAA player of the year honors, is 1-for-5 in two games for Ogden. Give him time. Sargent surely must be on the radar of some MLB clubs. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound first baseman hit 51 homers in three seasons at USM, though he batted just .249. With Ogden in 2024, he belted 19 bombs, drove in 95 runs and batted .316. Clark, a .270 hitter in three years at MSU, batted just .213 in two years in the low minors with the Mets. Coffman hit .260 over three years, playing mostly in rookie ball, in the Padres’ chain. P.S. The Greensboro Grasshoppers, Pittsburgh’s High-Class A club, have one of the best overall records (64-27) in the minors as well as one of the best players, former Jackson Prep standout Konnor Griffin, their shortstop/center fielder. Another Mississippi product also has played a key role for Greensboro: reliever Landon Tompkins, a Hinds Community College and Northwest Rankin alum in his third pro season. Tomkins, who has been with the Grasshoppers all season, is 5-2 with a 1.99 ERA, nine holds and six saves. He threw two scoreless innings for the W in a 3-1 victory vs. Brooklyn on Wednesday night. … Aiden Moffett, former Taylorsville High standout who pitched at LSU and Texas, has signed as an undrafted free agent with the Chicago Cubs. The 6-3 right-hander, lightly used at his college stops, pitched in the MLB Draft League earlier this summer and put up a 2.61 ERA in eight appearances. … Kevin Graham, a member of Ole Miss’ national title team, has been released by Arizona; he was a .221 hitter in four minor league campaigns.

07 Jul

arrivals and departures

July 7 is a red-letter date for a large number of players with Mississippi ties. On this date in 2011, former Ole Miss standout Zack Cozart made his MLB debut with Cincinnati. He went 1-for-3 against Milwaukee, launching a nine-year big league career that saw him bat .247 with 85 homers and make the 2017 All-Star Game. Three former Jackson Generals debuted on July 7 (per Baseball Almanac): Todd Jones in 1993, Trent (Trenidad) Hubbard in ’94 and Wade Miller in ’99. Jones and Miller debuted with the Double-A Gens’ parent Houston Astros, Hubbard with Colorado. On July 7, 2005, former Mississippi Braves star Jeff Francoeur crashed The Show with Atlanta, homering in his first game. Two years later, M-Braves alum Jo-Jo Reyes got the call from the big Braves. Also on July 7, in 1990, former Jackson Mets ace Jay Tibbs threw the final pitch of his seven-year MLB career, and in 1996, Jeff Ware — a player/coach for the 2002 Jackson Senators — threw his last MLB pitch, capping an 18-game career. Most notably, July 7, 2012, marked the final game of Tim Dillard’s major league career — but not his pro career. The former Itawamba Community College standout posted a 4.70 ERA over four seasons with Milwaukee. The colorful right-hander, now a Brewers TV analyst, would continue pitching in various leagues until 2020, working 18 pro seasons overall. P.S. Konnor Griffin, the former Jackson Prep star, swiped three bases for High-Class A Greensboro on Sunday, running his season total to 40 over two levels in the Pittsburgh system. He is batting .333 overall with a .532 slugging percentage and 13 homers, but speed might be his best tool. He swiped a jaw-dropping 85 bases at Prep last year, when he won Gatorade national player of the year honors. … Former Southern Miss and Meridian CC star Dalton McIntyre was recently promoted by Atlanta from rookie ball to High-A Rome, where he joins forces with ex-ICC standout Will Verdung. McIntyre hit .388 at USM in 2024 and is batting .259 with 18 steals in his first pro season. Verdung, a 2023 Braves draftee after earning MACCC player of the year honors, is hitting .285 for the Emperors.

30 Jun

in right field …

In picking an all-time Dream Team of Mississippi-born major league players, there would be no debate about the right fielder. Dave Parker. The Grenada native, who passed away on Saturday at 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s, is one of the most decorated players ever to come out of the state. Seven-time All-Star, three-time Gold Glove winner, three-time Silver Slugger winner, two-time batting champion, two-time World Series champ and one-time National League MVP. Drafted out of a Cincinnati high school by Pittsburgh in 1970, he played 19 years in the majors (1973-91) and batted .290 with 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, 1,493 RBIs and 154 stolen bases. A throw he made from right field in the 1979 All-Star Game is still talked about. He ranks No. 2 among Mississippi natives in career homers behind Ellis Burks (352 to 339) and first in RBIs, runs and doubles. “The Cobra” was a big man — 6 feet 5, 230 pounds in his prime — with a big personality, a clubhouse leader. In an mlb.com article about the origin of his iconic “Me and the Boys Boppin'” T-shirt, Parker is described as “colorful, endlessly quotable, don’t-turn-away-or-you’ll-miss-something-magical.” It wasn’t all rosy: There were weight problems, feuds with media and fans in Pittsburgh, the ’80s cocaine scandal. He is in both the Pirates and Cincinnati Reds Halls of Fame, but the BBWAA passed him over in National Baseball Hall of Fame balloting. He finally got in this past year, selected by one of the special committees, and is slated for formal induction next month. So sad that he won’t be there.

26 Jun

carolina clash

They aren’t going head-to-head exactly, but they are on the same field in Greensboro, N.C., playing for opposing teams in a South Atlantic League series. Konnor Griffin and Braden Montgomery — former Mississippi prep stars, first-round draft picks last summer and among the top prospects in the minor leagues – are clashing this week as Winston-Salem visits Greensboro at First National Bank Field. Griffin, former Jackson Prep star and Pittsburgh’s No. 2 prospect, went 1-for-3 on Wednesday in the host Grasshoppers’ victory in Game 2 of the series. He was 0-for-3 with a walk and a run in a win in Game 1 on Tuesday. Montgomery, out of Madison Central and the No. 4 prospect in the Chicago White Sox’s chain, is 4-for-8 in the two games with a homer and three RBIs. Both started this season, their pro debut, in Low-Class A but quickly moved up. Griffin, 19, is batting .337 with 11 homers, 46 RBIs and 34 steals over the two levels of A-ball. Montgomery, 22, who played three years of college ball at Stanford and Texas A&M, is at .280 with 10, 49 and nine overall. One or both might be invited to the All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta next month. Both have certainly lived up to expectations as first-round picks. P.S. Blaine Crim’s brief MLB tour with Texas did not go very well – 0-for-11 in early May – but the ex-Mississippi College star hasn’t gone into a funk since returning to Triple-A Round Rock. He went 3-for-4 with his 13th homer and four RBIs on Wednesday and is batting .299 with 60 RBIs on the season. He is hitting .315 in June. … Madison Central product Spencer Turnbull was designated for assignment by Toronto on Wednesday when Max Scherzer came off the injured list. Veteran righty Turnbull had a 7.11 ERA in three games with the Blue Jays and might be headed back to free agency.