Tag Archives: Pirates

28 Aug

into the wild

Joey Butler celebrated his return to The Show with a couple of hits, a game-tying RBI and the go-ahead run in Tampa Bay’s 5-4 win over Minnesota, which had won six straight. Pascagoula native Butler was recalled by the Rays on Thursday when Itawamba Community College alum Desmond Jennings went back on the disabled list. The Twins, along with the Rays two of the eight American League teams (excluding current division leaders) within 5 games of a wild card, got a 1-for-3 effort from ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier, who scored his 87th run. … In another battle of AL playoff contenders, Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland went 1-for-4 with an RBI (No. 67) to help Texas to a 4-1 victory over Toronto, the AL East Division leader managed by former Jackson Mets catcher John Gibbons. … Former State star Buck Showalter’s Baltimore club, another playoff hopeful, fell to AL Central leader Kansas City 5-3. Southwest Mississippi CC’s Jarrod Dyson had a tough day for ex-JaxMets star Ned Yost’s Royals: 0-for-4 with an error (just his second of the year). … In the slightly less crazy National League, Washington, which was supposed to run away with the East Division title, kept pace (though still 6.5 games out) with the first-place New York Mets by holding off San Diego 4-2. Former State standout Jonathan Papelbon notched his fourth save for the Nationals but yielded a run, a hit, a walk and a balk in his one inning. … Ex-JaxMets skipper Clint Hurdle’s Pittsburgh Pirates grinded out a 2-1 win over Miami and tightened their grip on the first NL wild card spot. The Chicago Cubs lost 9-1 to San Francisco, another postseason contender, and dropped 4 games back of the Bucs, who are trying to keep NL Central leader St. Louis in range. … September is coming, and it’s only going to get better for MLB fans.

28 Jul

clear a space

Former Richton High star JaCoby Jones got his first taste of Double-A ball on Monday and apparently liked it very much. Jones, a Pittsburgh prospect (No. 13 by mlb.com) at shortstop, went 3-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a stolen base to spark Altoona to a 3-2 win over Richmond in the Eastern League. Jones, the state’s Mr. Baseball in 2010 and a third-round draft pick out of LSU in 2013, was batting .253 with 10 homers and 58 RBIs at Class A Bradenton. Ex-Mississippi State star Adam Frazier also plays for Altoona and has started 26 of his 64 games for the Curve at short. He also has played the outfield and started Monday in center, hitting leadoff. He is batting .357.

10 Jul

the hot spot

On a night when the Yankees are at Fenway, the White Sox and Cubs are clashing at Wrigley and the Nats and O’s are dueling at Camden Yards, the best place to be might be PNC Park in Pittsburgh. That’s where former Ole Miss star Lance Lynn and his St. Louis teammates will meet the Pirates in a matchup of the two best teams in the National League. The pitching matchup is a dandy. Lynn, 6-4 with a 2.53 ERA, will be opposed by Pirates ace Gerrit Cole, 12-3, 2.28. The Cardinals won the opener of the four-game series 4-1 on Thursday night, snapping the Pirates’ four-game win streak and extending their lead in the National League Central to 5½ games. Lynn faced the Bucs in St. Louis on May 1, striking out 10 in seven innings in a game won by the Cards 2-1 in 10. Lynn has fared well against Andrew McCutchen (.132) and Pedro Alvarez (.182), not so well against Starling Marte (.381) and Neil Walker (.294, two homers, eight RBIs). Envy Jackson’s Chris Maloney, who, as the Cardinals’ first-base coach, will have a great view of what ought to be a great game. P.S. UM product Aaron Barrett, on the disabled list for Washington, has made three rehab appearances in Class A ball, working three innings with no earned runs allowed. Barrett has a 5.06 ERA in 30 games for the Nationals. … Former Picayune High star T.J. House remains on the DL in the minors for Cleveland. The left-hander last pitched on June 5. He was sent down by the Indians after going 0-4, 13.15 in four starts; he is 0-2, 3.86 in four games for Triple-A Columbus. … Meridian Community College product Cliff Lee reportedly will start throwing later this month, though his return to Philadelphia still appears iffy. The veteran lefty hasn’t pitched at all this season and made just 13 starts last year because of elbow problems.

30 Jun

that’ll work

The Toronto Blue Jays surely like what they’re seeing from Anthony Alford, who is 6-for-22 in his first five games in the high Class A Florida State League. The former Mr. Baseball from Petal began his first full pro season in the Midwest League, hitting .293 with 14 doubles, 16 RBIs, 12 steals and 49 runs in 50 games at Lansing. The righty-hitting outfielder, a third-round pick in 2012, already has two doubles, a triple, a homer, three RBIs and four runs for Dunedin. … The Los Angeles Angels surely like most of what they’ve seen from Alex Yarbrough in his last five games. The switch-hitting second baseman out of Ole Miss is 9-for-19 (.473), lifting his average at Triple-A Salt Lake to .247. He has 19 doubles, 29 RBIs and 36 runs in 73 games. However, Yarbrough has struck out six times in his last five games, giving him 81 in 299 at-bats. That’s an area where the 2014 Texas League player of the year needs to improve. P.S. Jacob Taylor, the Pearl River Community College alum from Picayune, pitched two scoreless innings (no hits, three walks, two strikeouts) in his pro debut today. Taylor, a fourth-round pick by Pittsburgh and the second Mississippian drafted this year, is with the Gulf Coast League Pirates.

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.

18 Jun

bear tracks

Though he is not the main attraction on a star-studded LSU team, Kade Scivicque, a two-time All-Stater at Southwest Mississippi Community College, has been much more than an extra on the big stage in Omaha. LSU’s senior catcher, the team’s leading hitter at .352, is 4-for-8 with two RBIs and a couple of runs in the Tigers’ two games in the College World Series. He drove in a run and scored two in Tuesday’s do-or-die, 5-3 win against Cal State Fullerton. LSU faces TCU in another elimination game tonight. Scivicque, who has six homers and 47 RBIs and is also regarded as a strong defensive catcher, was first-team All-SEC this year, along with fellow Tigers Alex Bregman, Conner Hale, Andrew Stevenson and Alex Lange. Scivicque was a second-team All-America choice by Baseball America and was drafted in the fourth round by the Detroit Tigers. He played for Southwest’s Bears in 2012 and ’13, batting over .300 with nine career homers. … Also on the LSU roster is Hunter Devall, a Centreville Academy product who has a 4.20 ERA in 17 appearances. He allowed three runs in 2/3 of an inning in a 10-3 loss to TCU on Sunday. P.S. Former Harrison Central High star Bobby Bradley, the reigning Midwest League player of the week, is batting .264 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs in just 40 games at Class A Lake County in the Cleveland system. The lefty-hitting first baseman, only 19, is coming off a 9-for-22, four-homer week and is on pace for 30 bombs. … Mississippi State alum Adam Frazier, who, like Bradley, missed some time with an injury, is hitting .352 with 10 RBIs and 17 runs in 28 games at Double-A Altoona in the Pittsburgh organization. Frazier, a lefty-hitting shortstop, has a .412 average over his last 10 games.

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.

31 Oct

lefty for hire

The list of free agent pitchers includes some big names: Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, James Shields, Ervin Santana, to name a few. It also includes many more names from the MLB rank-and-file, role-fillers such as Paul Maholm, the former Mississippi State star from Greenwood. Maholm, a 32-year-old left-hander, was a late signee last off-season by the Los Angeles Dodgers and had a generally lackluster year: 1-5, 4.84 ERA in 30 games (eight starts). Over 70 2/3 innings, he yielded 82 hits and 28 walks with just 34 strikeouts. And he finished the season on the disabled list. Maholm was a first-round draft pick by Pittsburgh in 2003 and spent his first seven MLB campaigns with the then-lowly Pirates. He has bounced from the Chicago Cubs to Atlanta to the Dodgers over the past three seasons. His career numbers: 77-100, 4.30 ERA. Since he is a lefty who can start or come out of the pen, Maholm should get another shot in 2015. But he again might have a long wait this off-season. P.S. Read an interesting comment from Kansas City’s Alex Gordon, who was held at third base while his two-out hit was misplayed in left field in the bottom of the ninth inning of World Series Game 7. “I’m not as fast as Jarrod Dyson,” Gordon told mlb.com. “If I was, I probably would’ve scored (the tying run).” He’s probably right. Of course, a pop up ended the game and gave San Francisco the title. Former Southwest Mississippi Community College standout Dyson, who swiped 36 bags during the season, didn’t get to use his speed much in the Series. He wasn’t on base very often and never attempted a steal.

21 Oct

see how they run

You have to be hoping that McComb native Jarrod Dyson gets on base tonight in Game 1 of the World Series. Even some San Francisco Giants fans have to be hoping for that. You want to see the Kansas City Royals speedster run. And you want to hear what he says about it afterward. Dyson has always been fast — and he’s always been outspoken. “That’s J-Rod,” said Chuck Freeman, Dyson’s coach at McComb High from 2002-04. “We tried to keep the reins on him, but his personality always shined through. That’s how he is.” Dyson, who stole 36 bases for KC in the regular season — four against the Giants in the Royals’ three-game sweep back in August — and is 120-for-140 in his big league career, has gotten just one bag in the postseason. But he’s a major threat to steal, as are several of his teammates, which makes for compelling theater. As Dyson told mlb.com, “They give us an inch, we are going to run a mile.” P.S. Both Pittsburgh and Oakland made the postseason this year but both lost in the wild card round (to the Giants and Royals, as a matter of fact.) Still, both towns have reason to celebrate this month. The Pirates won the World Series in 1979 — 35 years ago — and the A’s captured the Fall Classic in 1989 — 25 years ago. Significant anniversaries, to be sure, and Mississippi native Dave Parker was a common thread. He batted .345 with four RBIs for the Pirates in the ’79 Series and contributed a homer and two RBIs for the A’s in ’89. The oft-controversial slugger, one of baseball’s first big-money players, batted .290 with 339 homers over a 19-year career spent with six different clubs. He was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame this summer, though his chances of making it into Cooperstown appear slim. Sadly, Parker is battling Parkinson’s disease.

24 Sep

managerial material

If you haven’t noticed, Tim Bogar, the former Jackson Mets shortstop, has done a pretty impressive job as the interim manager in Texas. After a slow start under Bogar, the injury-thinned Rangers have won 10 of 11 and are 11-6 overall since Bogar stepped in for Ron Washington, who resigned on Sept. 5. Surely Bogar, a successful minor league manager, will be considered for the job next season. … Meanwhile, ex-JaxMets catcher John Gibbons will return in Toronto in 2015, according to reports. Gibbons is 154-165 in his second stint with the Blue Jays, who were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday. Toronto, which faded this year after a great start, hasn’t made the postseason since 1993. … Clint Hurdle, the 1990 Jackson Mets skipper, celebrated the clinching of a second straight playoff appearance on Tuesday after his Pittsburgh club beat Atlanta. … Former JaxMets catcher Ned Yost has Kansas City on the brink of its first playoff berth since 1985 yet still seems to attract more than his share of criticism for his game management. The Royals won their 86th game on Tuesday, matching last year’s total with five games left, and have posted their best back-to-back years since 1979-80. Yost is in his fifth season at the KC helm. … In Minnesota, the last-place Twins have clinched a fourth straight 90-loss season, but former JaxMets shortstop Ron Gardenhire reportedly will return as manager in 2015 – if he wants to. Gardenhire, 56, steered the club to six division titles in a nine-year stretch, but hasn’t sniffed the postseason since 2010, when he was the American League’s manager of the year. … The only question about the future of Buck Showalter, the onetime Mississippi State star, is whether he’ll win AL manager of the year for the job he has done in Baltimore. … Wondering what the shakeup in Atlanta will mean for the minor league field personnel. Aaron Holbert has done a good job as manager of the Double-A Mississippi Braves the last three years and would seem deserving of a promotion. But who knows how much change is coming for the Braves?