Tag Archives: Royals

17 Mar

digging the long ball

Brewton-Parker Field in Mount Vernon, Ga., isn’t especially small, but for William Carey University’s hitters, it played like a bandbox over the weekend. The Crusaders hit 19 home runs and scored 75 runs all told — 31, 11 and 33 — in a three-game sweep of the Southern States Athletic Conference series. “(P)laying in some of the smaller parks really plays into our power throughout the lineup,” Carey coach Bobby Halford said in a school release. Carey, ranked 12th in NAIA, is 22-4 and 13-2 in the SSAC with eight wins in a row. Brewton-Parker fell to 9-15, 4-11. High-scoring games aren’t uncommon at BP Field: Four times previously visiting teams had scored 13 or more runs in 2025. The host scored a season-high 17 in Game 1 vs. Carey. But still, the Crusaders’ show of power was jaw-dropping. Jayden Mark had a three-homer game, his first three of the season. Josh Alexander, Carey’s homer leader at 10, had two two-homer games, and Preston Ratliff and Rigoberto Hernandez each produced a two-homer game. The Crusaders entered the series with 17 homers over 23 games. … Of the state’s big four NCAA Division I schools, only one came out of the first weekend of conference play feeling very good. Southern Miss (14-6) took two of three from visiting Old Dominion to start Sun Belt play, though the Golden Eagles lost Game 3. Ole Miss (15-4) dropped two of three at home against Arkansas, Mississippi State (13-7) was swept by visiting Texas and Jackson State (12-6) went 1-2 at Prairie View A&M. … Millsaps College rallied from four runs down to beat Centre 5-4 at Twenty Field to split a Sunday doubleheader; Charles Hunt, a pinch hitter, knocked in the game-winner in the bottom of the seventh. The Majors are 12-5, 1-1 Southern Athletic Association. Centre, nationally ranked in Division III, is 12-2, 4-1. P.S. In MLB, ex-State star Hunter Renfroe hit two doubles and a triple and drove in five runs for Kansas City in a Cactus League game. Veteran outfielder Renfroe is batting .348 with a homer and nine RBIs this spring. … Brandon Woodruff, former Bulldogs pitcher, threw a scoreless inning for Milwaukee in his first MLB game action since 2023. “It was a big day for me,” a beaming Woodruff, coming off shoulder surgery, told reporters. … Right-hander J.T. Ginn, another MSU product, was optioned to Triple-A by the A’s; Ginn made his MLB debut last season.

14 Feb

here and there

Four out of a hundred ain’t bad, all things considered. Little ol’ Mississippi has produced four members of MLB Network’s Top 100 Right Now in the big leagues. Austin Riley, the ex-DeSoto Central High star, is ranked No. 33, Brent Rooker (Mississippi State) No. 46, Garrett Crochet (Ocean Springs) No. 56 and Justin Steele (George County) No. 88. Riley leads a pack of seven former Mississippi Braves in the Top 100, with Freddie Freeman heading that list at No. 8. Ronald Acuna, coming back from injury, is No. 16. Spencer Strider, who missed most of 2024 and will start this season on the injured list, isn’t ranked at all after being No. 17 prior to last season. Three Biloxi Shuckers alumni made the new rankings, topped by Corbin Burnes at No. 35. … Former Ole Miss standout James McArthur had off-season elbow surgery and apparently will not be ready for the start of the season with Kansas City. McArthur, 28, had 22 saves for the Royals in 2023-24, his first two MLB campaigns. … The independent Mississippi Mud Monsters have added four players to their 2025 roster: pitcher/outfielder Tahj Cunningham, right-hander Luis Devers, catcher Nick Hassan and shortstop Travis Holt. The Feb. 12 signings were released on the Frontier League transactions page. Cunningham, 25, has played for the U.S. Virgin Islands national team and in a couple of foreign leagues in addition to a stint at Lake-Sumter State College, a Florida juco. Devers, 24, from the Dominican Republic, spent six seasons in the Chicago Cubs’ system, posting a 3.28 ERA. He was 4-3, 5.33, at High-Class A South Bend last season. Hassan, 25, is a former all-conference player at Kennesaw (Ga.) State (.323 last season) who played briefly in the Frontier League last summer. Holt, 25, played four years at High Point (N.C.) and another at Butler, batting .295 career; he has played a couple of seasons in indy ball.

12 Feb

an anniversary to celebrate

In recognition of Black History Month, here’s a tip of the cap to the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes, who won the Negro League World Series with three Mississippi natives on the roster. Reference works differ on the Buckeyes’ overall record, but according to baseballreference.com, the team went 63-17-1. The Buckeyes won both halves of the split season in the Negro American League and then swept the National League champion Homestead Grays 4-0 in the Series. Lowndes County/Columbus native Sam Jethroe and Jackson’s Buddy Armour played center and left field, respectively, for the ’45 Buckeyes, and Lauderdale native Lovell Harden pitched out of the bullpen. A seven-time All-Star in the Negro Leagues, Jethroe, nicknamed “The Jet,” would go on to win rookie of the year honors in the majors in 1950 with the Boston Braves. According to the available stats from Baseball Reference, he batted .333 with 20 RBIs and five steals in 21 official games for the ’45 Buckeyes. Armour — a four-time All-Star and .285 career hitter — hit .254 with six RBIs and nine runs in 17 games that season. Harden made just two appearances. In the World Series against Homestead — which suited up Mississippians Cool Papa Bell and Dave Hoskins — Armour was 4-for-13 with two runs and three RBIs and Jethroe 4-for-15 with two RBIs and a run. Other members of that championship team celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2025 included player/manager Quincy “Big Train” Trouppe, pitching brothers George and Willie Jefferson, Cuban shortstop Avelino Canizares and third baseman Parnell Woods. P.S. Other anniversaries of note in 2025: It was 50 years ago — 50 years! — that the Jackson Mets made their debut at brand new Smith-Wills Stadium with a team that included Craig Cacek, Angel Cantres and Hattiesburg native Bobby Myrick. In 2000, the independent Jackson DiamondKats played their lone season at Smith-Wills, and 20 years ago, the Mississippi Braves — with Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur and Blaine Boyer — debuted at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, while the indy Senators — managed by Hill Denson — began their final season at Smith-Wills. The Kansas City Royals will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2015 World Series winner, a team managed by former JaxMets catcher Ned Yost and featuring McComb native Jarrod Dyson as a reserve outfielder.

01 Jan

eye on …

Brennon McNair has found his power stroke Down Under. The ex-Magee High star, a Kansas City Royals farmhand, leads the Australian Baseball League in home runs with 10, having tied a league record with three bombs in a single game last Saturday for Brisbane. McNair had a tough 2024 season, his fourth in pro ball, batting .193 for Low-Class A Columbia. Listed at 5 feet 11, 185 pounds, he managed eight homers (and 15 doubles) in 269 at-bats over 87 games. In the ABL, he has hit his 10 bombs in just 94 at-bats. Overall, he is batting .255 with 21 RBIs, 14 runs and seven steals. The 22-year-old McNair, who has played shortstop, third base and outfield in pro ball, is not currently listed among the Royals’ Top 30 prospects. He was the lone prep player drafted out of Mississippi in 2021 (11th round) after batting .527 with 11 homers as a senior at Magee, where he was also valedictorian and class president. … Jacob Robson, the peripatetic former Mississippi State star, also plays for Brisbane and has four homers in just 14 games, including the game-winning blast in Saturday’s contest. A Canada native, Robson has been in pro ball since 2016 and got into four MLB games with Detroit in 2021.

20 Nov

mlb roster moves

A handful of Mississippi college products were added to major league 40-man rosters on Tuesday, most notably former Mississippi State star Jake Mangum, who has toiled in Triple-A the past three years with three different organizations. Outfielder Mangum, a .296 hitter over his five minor league seasons, was selected by Tampa Bay. (The Rays traded starting center fielder Jose Siri to the New York Mets for a pitcher on Tuesday.) MSU product Eric Cerantola made Kansas City’s 40-man protected roster and ex-Ole Miss stars Gunnar Hoglund and Doug Nikhazy were added by Oakland and Cleveland, respectively. All three are pitchers who reached the Triple-A level this season. They’ll go to big league camp next spring, seeking to make the active roster for the 2025 season. … Atlanta added 2024 Mississippi Braves pitcher Rolddy Munoz and Milwaukee selected Logan Henderson, who pitched in Biloxi this past season. (As noted by mlb.com: Players signed at age 18 or younger must be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other organizations through the Rule 5 process. Players signed at 19 or older have to be protected within four seasons. The Rule 5 draft is next month.) P.S. A total of 26 Mississippians (native or school alum) appeared in major league games in 2024, with J.T. Ginn, Will Warren, Hurston Waldrep, Justin Foscue and Colt Keith making their MLB debuts. Keith, a Biloxi High alum who played for Detroit this year, was a Silver Slugger finalist at second base.

26 Oct

celebrate, celebrate …

There were two wild celebrations in baseball on Friday, the one at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and another at Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taiwan, where Kirk McCarty and his CTBC Brothers teammates celebrated a Chinese Professional Baseball League title. McCarty, the former Southern Miss standout from Hattiesburg, won Game 3 for the Brothers, working 5 1/3 shutout innings in a 10-0 win over Uni-President that put the club up 2-1 in the best-of-7 Taiwan Series. CTBC won the clincher 12-6 on Friday for the franchise’s 10th CPBL crown. McCarty went 5-3 with a 2.76 ERA for CTBC in his first season in Taiwan after a year in the Korean Baseball Organization, where the little lefty won nine games in 2023. Drafted by Cleveland out of USM in 2017, McCarty made the big leagues in 2022 and posted a 4-3, 4.54, ledger for the Guardians. He won two C-USA titles with the Golden Eagles. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves pitcher Evan Phillips was a late scratch from Los Angeles’ World Series roster, reportedly because of minor arm soreness. The Dodgers added pitchers Alex Vesia and Brusdar Graterol to the 26-man squad, and both worked effectively in the 6-3 win capped by M-Braves alum Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning. … Brennon McNair, Magee High product, had a disappointing fourth year in pro ball, batting .193 for Low-Class A Columbia in the Kansas City system. The 22-year-old outfielder, who can also play third base and shortstop, will get a chance to redeem himself in the Australian Baseball League, where he’ll play for Brisbane starting next month. McNair did have some highlights in 2024, hitting eight homers, 15 doubles and two triples and swiping nine bases in 87 games. His career average is .207 with 18 bombs.

10 Oct

postseason potpourri

A former Mississippi Braves player enjoyed a star turn for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night. It wasn’t Freddie Freeman, who sat out the Dodgers’ stunning 8-0 win vs. San Diego with an ankle injury. It was Evan Phillips, who got four outs — against the biggest bats in the Padres’ lineup — and earned the win at Petco Park. The series is 2-2 heading back to Dodger Stadium on Friday. One of the eight pitchers LA deployed in Game 4, Phillips entered in the fifth inning of a 5-0 game with two on and two out and got Fernando Tatis Jr. to fly out. The 30-year-old right-hander then mowed down Jurickson Profar, Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill in the sixth. Now in his fourth year with the Dodgers, Phillips has not allowed an earned run in nine postseason appearances. A former Atlanta draftee, Phillips pitched in Pearl in 2016 and ’17, posting modest numbers over 37 games in Double-A. The Braves traded him to Baltimore at the deadline in 2018. He signed with Tampa Bay in 2021 and was claimed off waivers by the Dodgers that summer. He has a 3.43 ERA and 45 saves in 243 MLB games. … The New York Mets, who eliminated Philadelphia in a Game 4 on Wednesday, might have a good luck charm in their dugout: first-year bench coach John Gibbons. Gibbons, a former big league manager, was a catcher for the Jackson Mets in 1982 — the Darryl Strawberry year — and ’83 and also played for the 1986 big league Mets. Of course, that was the last time New York won a World Series. (Gibbons didn’t play in the ’86 Series.) … Biloxi High product Colt Keith got his first postseason knock and scored a run in Detroit’s 3-0 win against Cleveland on Wednesday. The Tigers take a 2-1 lead into Game 4 tonight at Comerica Park. Rookie Keith is back in the lineup at second base, hitting fifth. … Ex-Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier made his first appearance of the ’24 postseason, got a hit and scored a run for Kansas City in a 3-2 loss to the New York Yankees at Kauffman Stadium. Frazier has been in the postseason each of the last three years with a different team each time; he is 6-for-31 in eight games.

07 Oct

tagging up

Colt Keith, the former state prep player of the year out of Biloxi High, doesn’t have a hit yet in his first MLB postseason, but he has had an impact for the upstart Detroit Tigers. The rookie second baseman, 0-for-6 so far, has walked five times (.455 OBP) and scored a run in the wild card win against Houston. The lefty hitter isn’t in the lineup for Game 2 today of the American League Division Series at Cleveland, which is starting left-hander Matthew Boyd, but expect Keith to get in the game at some point. The Guardians won Game 1 7-0. … Neither Hunter Renfroe nor fellow Mississippi State product Adam Frazier, both with Kansas City, played in Game 1 of the Kansas City-New York ALDS, won by the Yankees. Game 2 is tonight at Yankee Stadium. With the Yanks starting lefty Carlos Rodon, Renfroe figures to be in the lineup. … Andy Fletcher, the Ole Miss alum who lives in Olive Branch, is working the New York-Philadelphia NLDS, which is tied at 1-1. He reportedly missed 16 calls — getting a lot of unwanted attention — as the home plate umpire in Game 1, which the Mets won 6-2. He was manning the right-field line for the drama of Game 2, won by Philly 7-6. Brookhaven native Lance Barksdale is working the Kansas City-New York series. He was on the left-field line for Game 1. … The Arizona Fall League season starts tonight with Surprise playing Mesa. MSU alum Preston Johnson (Baltimore); Ole Miss product Houston Roth (Baltimore); UM’s Brandon Johnson (Kansas City); and ex-Rebel Dylan DeLucia (Cleveland) are on the Surprise roster, though not all may be active. Ex-MSU standout David Mershon (Los Angeles Angels) is on the Mesa roster. … In case you missed it, ex-State slugger Brent Rooker, who had a monstrous season for Oakland in 2024, reportedly has had elbow/forearm surgery but will be ready for spring training. … It’s cool to be a part of history, even if you’re on the “wrong” side of it. On this date in 2001, Vicksburg native John Thomson surrendered hit No. 3,000 to Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson on the final day of the regular season. Thomson was 63-85 in a 10-year MLB career and won 14 games for the 2004 Atlanta Braves. Also on this date, in 2013, Jackson native and former Ole Miss star Seth Smith homered for Oakland in an ALDS win against Detroit. It was the second of two postseason homers Smith hit in 18 career games dating back to his 2007 rookie year.

28 Sep

it’s party time

More Mississippians in the majors celebrated making the postseason on Friday night. In Detroit, former Biloxi High star Colt Keith and the Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 4-1 to claim an American League wild card berth, while in Atlanta, Mississippi State alums Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier and Chris Stratton and ex-Ole Miss standout James McArthur popped champagne as Kansas City clinched the final AL wild card despite a 3-0 loss to the Braves. Detroit, making the playoffs for the first time since 2014, has won six in a row and is on a 31-11 run. Manager A.J. Hinch mentioned the team’s walk-off 10-inning win over the New York Yankees in the Little League Classic back on Aug. 18 as a huge moment. Rookie Keith went 3-for-4 in that game, doubled and scored the game-tying run in the ninth inning. Keith is batting .261 with 13 homers and 61 RBIs; he won’t win rookie of the year but will get some votes. The Royals, who clinched their bid when collapsing Minnesota lost at home to Baltimore, are back in the postseason for the first time since winning the World Series in 2015. Renfroe, Frazier and Stratton, each of whom has postseason experience, were off-season additions to a club that rebounded from a 106-loss season in 2023. Stratton and McArthur are currently on the injured list. Already having punched postseason tickets in the AL are Southern Miss product Nick Sandlin (Cleveland), ex-MSU standout Jordan Westburg (Baltimore) and Ole Miss alum Grae Kessinger (Houston). P.S. The White Sox’s loss was their MLB-record 121st of the season. Don’t blame Ocean Springs High product Garrett Crochet for that one; the All-Star lefty threw four shutout innings at the Tigers before departing because of his pitch limit. … Atlanta’s win, fueled by former Mississippi Braves star Max Fried’s electrifying start, moved the Braves into a three-way tie with Arizona and the Mets in the National League wild card standings. Only two of the three will get in the playoffs. Stay tuned.

27 Sep

one for the books

A wide range of emotions were on display Thursday at Oakland Coliseum. For J.T. Ginn, there was the thrill of his first major league win, which happened to coincide with the Oakland A’s final game at the place they’ve called home since 1968. Former Mississippi State star Ginn, making his eighth MLB appearance, took a shutout into the sixth inning and wound up being charged with two runs over 5 1/3 in the A’s 3-2 victory against Texas. He is 1-1 with a 4.24 ERA. He got a standing ovation when he left the mound. The game, broadcast on MLB Network, drew a crowd of 46,889, many no doubt angered that the team’s owner is moving the club — first to Sacramento, then to Las Vegas — but also saddened to see the proud franchise pull up roots. “Today there is crying in baseball,” read one sign. In the ninth, someone threw a smoke bomb on the field, causing a delay. Former MSU star Brent Rooker had two hits for the A’s, and fellow former Bulldogs slugger Nathaniel Lowe went 1-for-4 with an RBI for the Rangers. … Mississippians have some interesting history in the green-and-gold. Belzoni’s Herb Washington, the track star-turned-designated runner, won a World Series ring with the 1974 team, the last of the Swingin’ A’s three straight titles. Grenada native Dave Parker, in the twilight of his excellent career, was the DH on the 1989 Oakland club that won the Earthquake Series, the last of the A’s world championships. Chad Bradford, the ex-Southern Miss standout from Byram, pitched and MSU product Adam Piatt played some first base for the Moneyball A’s of 2002, made famous by the book and the movie. That 103-win team, which had a 20-game win streak, didn’t make it to the World Series. In 2021, Amory native and former Mississippi State standout Mitch Moreland played the final season of his outstanding career with the A’s. In 1981, Kelvin Moore became the first Jackson State product to reach the majors when he debuted for Oakland in the second half of that strike-interrupted split season. Baseball is losing something without a team in Oakland. P.S. In Thursday games that were meaningful for other reasons, Detroit and Kansas City maintained their cushion over Minnesota in the American League wild card standings. Only two of the three will make the playoffs. Colt Keith, the rookie out of Biloxi High, went 2-for-4 with a couple of RBIs as the Tigers beat Tampa Bay 4-3, their fifth straight win and 30th in 41 games. Ex-MSU standout Adam Frazier delivered a pinch two-run knock in the ninth inning to propel the Royals to their third straight victory, 7-4 over Washington. Hunter Renfroe, another State alum, belted his 14th homer for KC.