Tag Archives: Rangers

03 Jul

hitting his stride?

He has taken small and sometimes wobbly steps over the past five seasons, and he is still in the low minors. But Ti’Quan Forbes, a second-round draft pick in 2014 out of Columbia High, may soon be ready for the big leap to Double-A. Forbes, still only 21, has found his footing at high Class A Winston-Salem in the Chicago White Sox’s system. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound third baseman is batting .274 with four homers, 30 RBIs, four triples and 10 doubles in 67 games. He is 11-for-33 with two homers in his last 10 games. And he is making contact, with just 40 strikeouts in 237 at-bats. Forbes hit .234 in 2017 at two levels of A-ball but showed some power with 11 homers. Originally drafted by Texas, the former Mr. Baseball was traded to the White Sox on Aug. 31 last year (for pitcher Miguel Gonzalez) and played only four games at Winston-Salem before his season ended. Back with the Dash to open this year, Forbes helped the club – managed by Omar Vizquel – win a first-half title in the Carolina League. Maybe we see him with Birmingham in the Southern League before the season is done.

01 Sep

change of address

Former Columbia High star Ti’Quan Forbes changed organizations as part of an under-the-radar second-deadline trade on Thursday. Forbes, 21, a second-round pick by Texas in 2014 who is still in A-ball, went to the Chicago White Sox for major league pitcher Miguel Gonzalez. “Forbes seems like an intriguing enough return for a two-hours-’til-deadline August deal, as he has some pedigree and skills,” msn.com reported. And, a fresh start might do him some good, though the 2017 minor league season is almost over. Forbes was a shortstop at Columbia when he earned Mr. Baseball honors but now plays mostly third base. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Forbes is batting .227 with three homers and 11 RBIs in 51 games for high-A Down East. He batted .242 with eight homers at low-A Hickory before being promoted. He had hit just four homers prior to this season and is at .246 for his pro career.

21 Jul

fun with numbers

Numbers tell us something, though not everything, about a player. When you see that a pitcher has 129 strikeouts in 95 innings as a pro, you’re intrigued. That tells you he has swing-and-miss stuff. Batters have hit just .217 with only four home runs against him. Again, good stuff. Other numbers associated with Demarcus Evans are also telling. The former Petal High star, pitching for Hickory in the low Class A South Atlantic League, has walked 19 batters and hit four others in 22 2/3 innings this season. That tells you he has command issues and at least partially explains his 5.56 ERA. A 25th-round pick by Texas in 2015, right-hander Evans, only 20 years old, goes 6 feet 4, 240 pounds — more numbers to like. He had a 2.95 ERA over two levels of rookie ball in 2016, earning a jump to the SAL. He spent several weeks on the disabled list this season, only returning to Hickory on Wednesday, when he worked a clean inning in relief and notched his 34th punchout. Four of his nine appearances this season have been starts. Obviously, Evans has a long way to go and many more numbers to put up. It could be fun to chart his progress.

25 Apr

whatever happened to …

Ti’Quan Forbes, in his fourth pro season but still only 20 years old, has come out swinging at Class A Hickory. The former Mr. Baseball from Columbia is batting .353 with five home runs and 12 RBIs through 17 games in the South Atlantic League. He already has more homers than he got all of last season, when he hit four in 120 games with the same Hickory club. He didn’t go deep in either of his first two minor league seasons. Forbes, 6 feet 3, 180 pounds, was a second-round pick by Texas in the 2014 draft. A shortstop at Columbia High, he is now playing third base, a power position. Forbes hit just .251 last year with 24 extra-base hits. If he continues to rake at his current pace, he could get a midseason promotion to high-A Down East in the Carolina League, where former East Mississippi Community College standout LeDarious Clark is now playing. They were teammates in Hickory in 2016.

29 Dec

making his case

There are five outfielders scattered through mlb.com’s chart of the top 30 prospects in the Texas system. LeDarious Clark is not one of them, but the former East Mississippi Community College star from Meridian is building his resume in the Australian Baseball League. Clark, drafted by the Rangers in the 12th round in 2015, went 2-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs today in Adelaide’s 8-3 win against Brisbane. Clark is batting .357 over his last 10 games and is at .277 with two homers, 17 RBIs and 13 stolen bases in 20 games for the season. In his two minor league campaigns, the 5-foot-10, 185-pound Clark has hit .256 with 21 homers and 55 steals. The onetime football standout presents an intriguing power-speed combination. P.S. Back in the States, it’s been a slow go for free agent Mississippians. There has been no hard news since Dec. 19, when Ole Miss alum Alex Presley signed as a minor league free agent with Detroit, one of the two MLB clubs he played for in 2016. The lefty-hitting outfielder, 31, is a .253 career hitter with 26 homers and 25 steals over parts of seven big league campaigns. Mitch Moreland (Boston), Jacob Lindgren (Atlanta), Tyler Moore (Miami), T.J. House (Toronto) and Scott Copeland (Miami) also have signed, the latter three on minor league contracts. Still out there are Chris Coghlan, Louis Coleman, Desmond Jennings, Joey Butler, Aaron Barrett, Jonathan Papelbon and Julio Borbon.

15 Dec

there and here

While wondering if Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier will soon be a Los Angeles Dodger, here’s more stuff to chew on: D.J. Davis, seemingly in need of some positive reinforcement, hit his first home run of the Australian Baseball League season today. The former Stone County High standout launched a three-run bomb – boosting his RBI total to seven – for Canberra in a 5-2 win against Perth. Davis, a first-round pick in 2012 by Toronto, is coming off a rough year in A-ball and is batting just .125 (6-for-48) in the ABL. … East Mississippi Community College product LeDarious Clark (a Texas farmhand) has eight hits – including his first ABL homer – over his last five games to boost his average to .250 for Adelaide. He is second in the league (to Atlanta prospect Ronald Acuna) with nine steals. … Ex-Picayune High star T.J. House has signed a minor league contract with Toronto. House, a left-hander, posted a 4.44 ERA over parts of three seasons with Cleveland, which drafted him in 2008. He spent most of 2016 at Triple-A Columbus, where he had a 3.98 ERA. A starter for most of his career, House worked out of the bullpen the latter half of last season. … Mitch Moreland played on some good teams during his seven seasons in Texas but none could compare with what Boston will trot out in 2017. “I’m super excited,” Amory native Moreland said in a recent mlb.com story. “I’ve always been a fan of Boston, the fans, the background, history of the team.” The lefty-hitting first baseman hit .233 with 22 homers and won a Gold Glove for the Rangers in 2016. He should be a good fit on a Red Sox club that shapes up as a real threat to steal the Chicago Cubs’ crown.

10 Dec

g’day mate

Friday was a good day for baseball in Perth, where the temperature at game time between the Adelaide Bite and the host Heat was 73 degrees, according to the Australian Baseball League box score. It was a good day for LeDarious Clark, too, according to the same box score. The former Southeast Lauderdale High and East Mississippi Community College standout, batting leadoff and playing left field for Adelaide, went 2-for-6 with a couple of RBIs and a run in the Bite’s 8-2 win. Clark, a Texas Rangers prospect, is batting .214 with eight RBIs, seven runs and seven steals in 13 games in the ABL. A 12th-round pick in 2015 out of West Florida, Clark hit .276 with eight homers, 24 RBIs, seven triples and 29 runs at the short season level that summer. He smacked 11 homers and stole 24 bases in low Class A this past season but batted only .242 and fanned 99 times in 314 at-bats. … The other Mississippi native playing Down Under, former Stone County star D.J. Davis, is struggling. Davis, a former first-round pick by Toronto, is batting .095 in 11 games for Canberra.

11 Oct

gotta love october

Time to take stock on the MLB postseason. We’ve seen Baltimore go down in flames as Orioles manager Buck Showalter, the ex-Mississippi State standout, kept the best closer in the league in the bullpen with the American League Wild Card Game on the line. MSU product Mitch Moreland was in the middle of the play that ended the season for Texas, the team that had the best record in the AL. First baseman Moreland knocked down the errant throw by Rougned Odor, then threw home too late to stop the winning run from scoring as Toronto completed a stunning sweep. Moreland went 2-for-8 with two RBIs in what may have been his Texas swansong. Ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz surrendered the pivotal home run (to Coco Crisp) on Monday in the other ALDS as Cleveland ended Boston’s season and David Ortiz’s career with a sweep. UM alum Mickey Callaway, the Indians’ pitching coach, saw his bullpen limit the Red Sox to two runs while fanning 14 in 10 1/3 innings over the three games. Former Rebels standout Chris Coghlan (0-for-2) has had a quiet National League Division Series for the Chicago Cubs, who saw their ace closer, Aroldis Chapman, cough up a lead Monday against San Francisco, which dodged a sweep by winning in 13 innings. Conor Gillaspie – the son of former MSU star Mark Gillaspie and the Giants’ Wild Card Game hero – delivered the big blow against Chapman, a two-run triple in the eighth inning. “He’s been fun to watch,” Giants ace Madison Bumgarner told the Chicago Tribune. It ain’t been fun for everyone, but that’s what makes October baseball so compelling.

06 Oct

fresh start

As a rookie in 2010, Mitch Moreland was dynamite in the postseason. He batted .348 (16-for-46) with a home run and seven RBIs as Texas made it all the way to the World Series before losing to San Francisco. Since then, the Mississippi State alum’s postseason production has been minimal: 3-for-43. In 30 career games, he is batting .213 with three homers. In last year’s American League Division Series against Toronto, the lefty-hitting first baseman was 0-for-13. “That’s in the past,” Moreland told sportsday.dallasnews.com. “All I’m thinking about is Thursday. Right now, I’m 0-for-0.” The Rangers hook up with the (hated?) Blue Jays again in the ALDS – Game 1 is today in Arlington — and Moreland is not exactly swinging a hot bat. He hit .167 with one homer in September and October, finishing the year at .233 with 22 bombs and 60 RBIs. He is 0-for-3 with two walks this season against Marco Estrada, Toronto’s Game 1 starter, 0-for-3 against J.A. Happ and 2-for-6 against Aaron Sanchez. A strong postseason, like the one Moreland enjoyed as a rookie, would certainly be welcomed by the Rangers — and would also look nice on the resume for Moreland, who is a pending free agent. P.S. Former Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz apparently will be on Boston’s roster for its ALDS against Cleveland. The left-hander, who made 13 starts for the Red Sox after being acquired from San Diego, was moved to the bullpen and threw a sharp 1 1/3 innings in the final game of the year. Pomeranz, who had a 3.32 ERA this season (4.59 with Boston), has pitched in relief often in his pro career. … The Indians’ pitching coach is UM product Mickey Callaway, now in his fourth year in that position.

20 Sep

watch for it

A sliver of the baseball spotlight will be trained tonight on Memphis’ AutoZone Park, where Hunter Renfroe will lead El Paso against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a one-game showdown for the Triple-A championship. Renfroe, the ex-Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs, hit .306 with 30 home runs and 105 RBIs and won Pacific Coast League MVP honors with the Chihuahuas, a San Diego affiliate. International League champ SWB, a New York Yankees affiliate, is managed by former Jackson Mets star Al Pedrique. Both clubs feature several top prospects. Jonathan Holder, another MSU product, spent part of this season with SWB but is now in the big leagues. Renfroe, rated the Padres’ No. 3 prospect by mlb.com, may be in line for a call-up to The Show, but he says all he is focused on at the moment is his current team and tonight’s game. “San Diego will always be there, and when the time comes for them to make a decision, I’ll be here,” he told The (Memphis) Commercial Appeal. The NBC Sports Network will televise the 7:05 game. P.S. For the first time in his seven seasons in the majors, Mitch Moreland was ejected from a game. Former State standout Moreland got tossed in the fourth inning Monday by home-plate umpire Kerwin Danley after “disputing,” while walking away, a called third strike during Texas’ game against the Los Angeles Angels. “It was obviously a pitch I didn’t agree with,” Moreland said in an mlb.com article. The Rangers won 3-2 in walk-off fashion, reducing their magic number for clinching the American League West to 3.