Tag Archives: Rangers

26 Aug

showing flashes

At MLB draft time in 2014, he was 17 and a strapping 6 feet 3, 180 pounds with a quick bat, good speed and a strong arm. Ti’Quan Forbes, the former Columbia High star, looked like a rough draft of a big league player. He turns 19 today, and his form is still not well-defined. A second-round pick in 2014 by Texas, Forbes is hitting .251 with no homers, 34 RBIs and 11 steals in 96 games over two seasons at the entry levels of the minors. A shortstop at Columbia, he is now playing mostly third base and has made 35 errors. He is ranked the No. 21 prospect in the Rangers’ system, and his estimated time of arrival is listed at 2018 by mlb.com. That would seem optimistic but not unrealistic. “Everything about his game is projection-based because he flashes you things that you want to see,” a scout told Baseball America a few weeks before the 2014 draft. In his debut summer, Forbes hit .241 in the Arizona League with just five extra base hits. At short season Class A Spokane this year, he’s at .260 with 10 extra base hits, 18 RBIs and one stolen base in 48 games. He recently put together a seven-game hit streak and is batting .361 over his last 10 games. A flash, you might say.

15 Aug

hot spots

Matchups of playoff contenders are abundant in the big leagues this weekend, and a bunch of Mississippians are in the middle of things. One of the hottest spots on Friday was U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, where the Cubs beat the White Sox 6-5 thanks in large part to two home runs by former Ole Miss star Chris Coghlan. Coghlan hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the third inning and a game-tying solo shot in the fifth, both off Jeff Samardzija. Coghlan now has 13 homers on the year for the hard-charging Cubs. At Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, ex-Itawamba Community College standout Desmond Jennings went 3-for-4 with an RBI in his first game since April, but his Tampa Bay team fell to surging Texas 5-3. Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland was 1-for-4 for the Rangers. At San Francisco’s AT&T Park, fading Washington lost to the Giants 8-5 with ex-State stars Tyler Moore (an HBP in his one at-bat) and Jonathan Papelbon (two hits and a run allowed in the eighth inning) tasting more frustration. The day’s best game was at Rogers Centre in Toronto, where the New York Yankees stopped the Blue Jays’ 11-game win streak with a dramatic 4-3 win. No Mississippians played in the game, but veteran umpire Andy Fletcher, an Ole Miss grad who lives in the Magnolia State, was behind home plate. P.S. Milwaukee has recalled right-hander David Goforth, a Meridian native and former Ole Miss standout. He has a 4.15 ERA in six MLB appearances this year.

14 Aug

fore for four!

There was something in the air Thursday. Maybe it was the Perseid meteor shower. Something. Two players from small towns in Mississippi had career-high four-hit games. What are the odds? In Minnesota, Amory’s Mitch Moreland banged out four hits that included his 17th home run of the season. He drove in four runs – giving him a career-high 61 for the year — as his Texas Rangers beat the Twins 10-5. In Los Angeles, Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton also went 4-for-4, scored four times and hit his fourth home run in Cincinnati’s 10-3 victory against the Dodgers. As he sprinted around the bases on the homer that easily cleared the wall in left, Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully said, “He runs out a home run like he’s afraid they’re going to change their mind.” Hamilton also swiped his 53rd bag of the year. (Note: The magic didn’t work for every Mississippi native in the majors: Tupelo’s Brian Dozier went 0-for-4 for the Twins.) P.S. Ole Miss product Lance Lynn (who was born in Indiana) suffered the worst start of his career, getting just two outs before getting pulled in the first inning of St. Louis’ game against Pittsburgh. Lynn allowed six hits and seven runs (three earned), and the Cardinals ultimately lost 10-5. “It was terrible, plain and simple,” Lynn told The Associated Press.

06 Aug

the heat is on

Be careful what you wish for? Jonathan Papelbon got his wish: a trade to a contending team. Strangely enough, the Washington Nationals are 3-5 since the Mississippi State alum joined the team and have lost five of six. They are just 55-51 now and have dropped 2 games behind the surging New York Mets in the National League East. Can’t blame Papelbon for any of this; he is 2-for-2 in saves with the Nationals and has yielded just one earned run in three appearances. He never got up on Wednesday. The Nats had a 2-1 lead on visiting Arizona in the sixth inning, but with Ole Miss product Aaron Barrett on the hill, the game slipped away. Barrett got just one out, allowing four hits and three runs (plus an inherited runner scored), and he committed a costly throwing error. Down 11-2 in the ninth, Washington resorted to using outfielder/first baseman Tyler Moore on the mound, and the ex-State star got the last two outs. Crazy. … Also on the skids is Minnesota, which has lost four in a row and 13 of 18. The Twins (54-53) are 9.5 games behind first-place Kansas City in the American League Central and 2 games out of the wild card picture. The Twins’ slump coincides with the struggles of former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier, the team catalyst who is batting .180 with six runs over his last 15 games. … On the flip side, Texas is sizzling (again), and former Bulldogs standout Mitch Moreland continues to swing a hot bat. The Rangers (54-53) beat Houston 4-3 on Wednesday to complete a sweep of their AL West rival and move within 5 games of the first-place Astros. Moreland went 2-for-4 with an RBI in Wednesday’s win, Texas’ seventh in eight games. He is batting .318 with six RBIs over his last seven games and is at .287 with 16 homers and 57 RBIs for the year. P.S. Props to Jeff Francoeur, the former Mississippi Braves star who ought to get consideration for comeback player of the year. Frenchy hit his 10th homer of the season for Philadelphia on Wednesday and is batting .276 with 35 RBIs in 214 at-bats.

23 Jul

upwardly mobile

Gloom has gathered over the Chicago White Sox’s season. Fans of the last-place club needing something to brighten their day can look to Double-A Birmingham, where shortstop Tim Anderson is having a star-quality season. Rated by some as the organization’s top prospect entering 2015, the East Central Community College product appears close to being big league-ready. Anderson, 22, the Southern League All-Star Game MVP, is batting .311 with seven triples, 35 RBIs, 53 runs and 35 steals for the Barons. An athletic 6 feet 1, 185 pounds, he is hitting .298 with 69 steals over his three pro seasons. If there is a negative in his offensive numbers, it’s that he doesn’t walk much (15 times this season while serving primarily as a leadoff batter). Reports indicate that Anderson’s defense is steadily improving; in fact, some of the reports are glowing. Anderson made his Double-A debut, with a bang, at Pearl’s Trustmark Park last August. The Barons come to the TeePee again this August (18-22). Of course, by then Anderson might be in Triple-A. P.S. Thirty games into his pro career, LaDarious (aka LeDarious) Clark, the East Mississippi CC alum from Meridian, paces the short-season Class A Northwest League in homers (8, including two on Wednesday), average (.377), hits (49), slugging percentage (.685), runs (32), triples (5) and total bases (89). He also has 20 RBIs and 14 stolen bases for Texas’ Spokane club. Promote him, already. … After roughly a month in the high Class A Florida State League, former Petal High star Anthony Alford is batting .333 with a homer, nine RBIs and 18 runs at Dunedin. Toronto promoted the 21-year-old outfielder, playing his first full pro season, after he hit .293 with 49 runs and 12 steals in 50 games at low-A Lansing.

12 Jul

on a good track

While the Texas Rangers’ season might be in danger of running off the rails, Mitch Moreland remains on track for the best year of his career. The Mississippi State product from Amory hit two homers on Saturday, running his season total to 16. He has had three two-homer games in the last 13 days. He is batting .289, 32 points above his career average. He has 46 RBIs, 14 shy of his career-high from 2013, when he hit 23 homers. This is good timing for Moreland, 24, in his sixth MLB season. He is eligible for salary arbitration next year. Moreland’s bombs on Saturday couldn’t lift the host Rangers past San Diego, which won 6-5. Texas has lost 14 of 19 to fall to 42-45, third place and 5.5 games off the pace in the American League West. P.S. Nice moment at Target Field in Minnesota on Saturday when it was announced between innings that Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier would be going to the All-Star Game as a replacement for the injured Jose Bautista of Toronto. Dozier, who got a much-deserved standing O, will be USM’s first All-Star representative since Jim Davenport in 1962. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton swiped two bases on Saturday – including third base on a throw from the catcher back to the pitcher — to push his MLB-leading total to 44. But his Cincinnati team got pounded by Miami 14-3 and fell to 39-46 in what has been a lost season for the All-Star Game host.

09 Jul

the energizer

When All-Star left fielder Alex Gordon went down, Kansas City needed a lift. Enter Jarrod Dyson. Dyson, the ex-Southwest Mississippi Community College standout, replaced the injured Gordon, threw out a runner at the plate, hit an inside-the-park home run and helped the Royals beat Tampa Bay 9-7 on Wednesday night. “He brings energy, is what he brings,” KC manager Ned Yost told the Kansas City Star, referring to the speedy Dyson, whose twitter handle is @mrzoombiya. Dyson’s playing time has been limited this season – 42 games, 99 at-bats – but with Gordon expected to miss a significant amount of time with a groin injury, Dyson likely will get more opportunities for the first-place Royals. He is batting .273 (.321 on-base percentage) with 16 runs and 10 steals. His homer Wednesday was his first of the season and first inside-the-parker of his career. P.S. Matt Harrison got knocked around (six runs in four innings vs. Arizona) but just getting back on the mound for Texas on Wednesday was a victory for the former Mississippi Braves left-hander. Harrison is trying to come back from spinal fusion surgery. His last MLB start had come on May 13 of 2014. Injuries have limited the former 18-game winner to seven appearances the last three seasons. Harrison went 8-11 with an ERA around 3.50 for the M-Braves in 2006-07, when he was one of Atlanta’s top-rated prospects. He went to Texas in the Mark Teixeira trade.

06 Jul

so far, so (very) good

LaDarious Clark can play. He put up star-spangled numbers at Southeast Lauderdale High, East Mississippi Community College and West Florida – and now he is doing it in pro ball. Clark (whose first name is sometimes spelled LeDarious) is on a 21-for-46 tear over his last 10 games for Spokane, the Texas Rangers’ affiliate in the short-season Class A Northwest League. The 5-foot-9 outfielder is batting .394 with three homers, 12 RBIs and seven steals for the season. Clark, also a standout football player in high school and at EMCC, has always inspired raves about his tools. But there seemed to be questions about his attitude. He was the top-rated juco draft prospect in the state in 2014 but wasn’t picked. He went to NCAA Division II West Florida, where he batted .329 with eight bombs and 21 steals and was All-Gulf South Conference this past season. The Rangers plucked him in the 12th round. He went 0-for-3 in his debut but has hit safely in every game since, 15 straight. He can play. But it takes more than physical tools to climb the baseball ladder. Maybe Clark has learned that.

30 Jun

flipping the script

Seems sorta silly now. Mitch Moreland was projected to hit 13 home runs for Texas this season while batting .243, according to Rotowire.com. Speculation was that the former Mississippi State star would wind up in a platoon situation at DH. He had off-season ankle surgery after playing only 52 games (and hitting two homers) in 2014, and then underwent elbow surgery in late April. He had one homer at the time. When the Rangers reacquired Josh Hamilton, it was assumed Moreland’s playing time would drop. Flash to Monday. Moreland hit two homers in the Rangers’ 8-1 win against Baltimore, giving him 12 for the season, which is not yet half over. A career .258 hitter, he is batting .300 (and his average has been as high as .321). He plays every day, almost always at first base. (Prince Fielder is the regular DH; Hamilton has been injured.) Moreland, 29, is looking like the star the Rangers thought they had found when he broke in in 2010 with nine homers in 47 games for a team that made it to the World Series. P.S. Former Taylorsville High standout Billy Hamilton stole four bases and scored three runs on Monday, leading Cincinnati to an 11-7 win over Minnesota. Hamilton has a major league-best 40 steals and 37 runs in 67 games. … Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier homered for the 16th time for the Twins. … MSU product Kendall Graveman threw seven shutout innings as Oakland beat Colorado 7-1. Graveman is 5-4 with a 3.47 ERA. … Ex-Ole Miss star Chris Coghlan is MLB’s active leader in consecutive games played at 138 going into the Chicago Cubs’ game today against the New York Mets. Coghlan is batting .259 with eight homers in 74 games this season.

16 Jun

showing up

A Jackson Generals player from years ago made the comment when asked what it took for him to get to the big leagues: “I just kept showing up.” Joey Butler, now starring for the Tampa Bay Rays as a 29-year-old rookie, apparently has that kind of resolve. Butler played at ’Goula, Perk and UNO. He’s been through Spokane, Bakersfield, Frisco, Surprise, Round Rock, Magallanes, Mazatlan, Memphis, Orix and Durham. He got his first taste of the big leagues in 2013 with Texas, his original organization (15th round, 2008). He got 12 at-bats. St. Louis, which had taken Butler on a waiver claim, called him up last year for five at-bats. Then he went to Japan. He came back to the States this spring but didn’t make the Rays’ roster out of camp. He went to Triple-A Durham. The Rays called on May 3 when Itawamba Community College alum Desmond Jennings went on the disabled list. Finally given an opportunity to play regularly in the majors, Butler has gone off: .344, four homers, 16 RBIs, 15 runs in 37 games. The Pascagoula native and ex-Mississippi Gulf Coast CC star is also said to be a great guy in the clubhouse. “I think the entire dugout gets excited when he comes to the plate …,” Rays manager Kevin Cash told saintpetersblog.com. There is something to be said for just showing up. P.S. On this date in 1945, Boo Ferriss lost a game for the first time in his big league career. The Shaw native and former Delta State coach had begun his rookie season with eight straight victories for the Boston Red Sox before losing a 3-2 decision to the New York Yankees. Ferriss would go 21-10 that year and 25-6 in ’46 before injuries curtailed his career.