Tag Archives: Royals

05 Aug

patience, patience …

Two months into this season, Kansas City Royals fans had to be wondering if their team had made a mistake in signing Hunter Renfroe as a free agent in the off-season. The ex-Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs was batting .178 with four home runs on May 31. But a little patience on the part of Royals management appears to have paid off. Renfroe hit .333 in June, .297 in July and is currently riding a 10-game hit streak that has raised his average to .246. He has 11 homers, 44 RBIs and 36 runs and has been a good complementary piece in a KC lineup that features Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez. Renfroe is also an excellent right fielder, with six assists and one error in 92 games. On Sunday at Detroit, the nine-year MLB veteran singled to lead off the ninth inning and came around to score on M.J. Melendez’s clutch three-run homer as the Royals won 3-2, their seventh win in 10 games. They are 63-50 and currently hold the third wild card in the American League. Renfroe, who entered this season with 177 career homers, signed with the Royals for $6.5 million; he has played for seven different teams the past seven years. He was a first-round draft pick by San Diego in 2013 after an All-America career at State. P.S. Southern Miss alum Landon Harper extended his streak of scoreless innings to 25 1/3 for the Mississippi Braves, who nonetheless lost — again — to Tennessee on Sunday at Trustmark Park. Harper, a third-year pro from Meridian, has a 0.95 ERA in 14 games for the Double-A M-Braves. He has fanned 25 and walked just two in 28 1/3 innings. … Brody Breithaupt, a former Lafayette High standout, delivered a two-run walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to give the North Delta Dealers a 10-9 win over the HillCountry Generals in the Cotton States League championship game in New Albany.

29 Jul

worth noting

Seven of the nine players picked out of the Magnolia State in the first two days of the MLB draft reportedly have signed. The exceptions are Jackson Prep product Konnor Griffin (ninth overall by Pittsburgh) and Mississippi State alum Dakota Jordan (fourth round, 116th overall, San Francisco). The slot value of those picks, per mlb.com’s Draft Tracker, are $6.22 million for the ninth pick and $624,800 for No. 116. The signing deadline is Thursday. Griffin has a college commitment to LSU in hand, and Jordan has two years of college eligibility remaining. Former Madison Central High standout Braden Montgomery, the 12th overall pick out of Texas A&M by Boston, also has not signed. All told, 15 of the 21 players picked from Mississippi schools have signed; Hunter Elliott (20th round, Los Angeles Dodgers) reportedly is returning to Ole Miss. … Ex-Southern Miss standout Tyler Stuart, formerly the New York Mets’ No. 17 prospect, was traded to Washington for big league outfielder Jesse Winker. Stuart, a 6-foot-9 right-hander, was 3-7 with a 3.96 ERA in Double-A for the Mets; he has a 3.09 career ERA in pro ball. … Justin Dean stole four bases on Sunday, setting a Mississippi Braves single-season record with 44 bags. Dean, who has spent parts of the last four years with the Double-A M-Braves, has 195 career steals, 114 with the M-Braves. … Former Magee High star Brennon McNair delivered a walk-off hit for Low-A Columbia on Sunday. The Kansas City Royals farmhand, 21, is 5-for-15 in his last four games, lifting his average to .209 with six homers and 24 RBIs. … Right-hander Michael Rucker, a Columbus native, recently was added to Philadelphia’s active roster from the injured list. Rucker, who has a career 4.96 ERA, grew up in Washington state and was drafted out of BYU by the Chicago Cubs. … Fun fact: Greenville native George Scott hit 271 home runs in the big leagues but only one inside-the-park job. It happened on this date in 1967, for Boston, at Fenway Park, against Minnesota’s Jim Perry. Scott, a two-time All-Star, was a big dude but could run a little: 69 steals, 60 triples in 14 MLB campaigns.

23 Jul

ode to ‘sport’

Born on this date in 1874 in the Delta town of Austin, Lewis William “Sport” McAllister holds the distinction of being the first Mississippi native to appear on a major league roster in the modern era, which began in 1901. McAllister was a switch-hitter who played every position over a seven-year big league career which launched in 1896 in the National League. He hit .301 for the 1901 Detroit Tigers and .247 for his career. He played many years in the minors after his big league career ended and was head coach at Michigan for a time. McAllister also holds the less-honorable distinction of having played for the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, a team that went 20-134 in the NL and is generally regarded as the worst major league club of all-time. (McAllister’s exploits that season are chronicled in the book “Of Mudcat, Boo, The Rope and Oil Can.”) McAllister died in Michigan in 1962. P.S. The Kansas City Royals (56-45) matched their win total from 2023 with a 10-4 win over Arizona on Monday. Ex-Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe hit one of the Royals’ three homers — it was his ninth — and MSU product Adam Frazier went 1-for-5 with a run in the leadoff spot. Ex-Ole Miss star James McArthur leads KC with 17 saves but hasn’t pitched during the four-game win streak that has followed the All-Star break. … Grae Kessinger, former Ole Miss standout, was sent back to the minors by Houston. He has appeared in 16 games (15 at-bats) without a hit in two MLB stints this season.

08 Jul

playing pepper

Matt Wallner, recalled to the big leagues by Minnesota on Sunday, got a hit and a walk and made a sweet catch in left field in the Twins’ 3-2 win over Houston. Southern Miss alum Wallner, hitting .259 with 19 homers in Triple-A, had two hits — a double and a home run — in 25 at-bats in his April stint with the Twins. … Former Biloxi High star Colt Keith banged out two more hits for Detroit in a 5-1 win at Cincinnati and has nine knocks — three homers — in his last five games. The rookie second baseman is up to .244 on the season. … Ex-Mississippi State star Adam Frazier came off the injured list and hit leadoff for Kansas City on Sunday. Alas, he was 0-for-4, dropping his average to .205, though the Royals beat Colorado 10-1. … MSU product Dakota Hudson, designated for assignment by Colorado, had a rough go this season, his first with the Rockies: 2-12, 5.84 ERA. He was especially bad at Coors Field, where many pitchers suffer: 0-6, 8.26 ERA, .359 opponents batting average. He had a 3.72 road ERA. The former first-round pick (by St. Louis) is 40-32, 4.15, for his MLB career. At 29, he might still have something left. … The hit watch continues for Grae Kessinger, the former Ole Miss star recently recalled by the Astros from Triple-A. The seldom-used Kessinger is 0-for-3 since his return and 0-for-14 on the year for Houston. He was batting .283 at Sugar Land. … Tim Anderson, the ex-East Central Community College standout, cleared waivers and was formally released by Miami. There have been no reports of interest from other teams in the former batting champ, a .278 career hitter who tumbled to .214 this season.

22 Jun

welcome back

Dylan DeLucia, College World Series hero for Ole Miss two years ago, finally made his pro debut on Friday, pitching two clean innings with one strikeout for the Cleveland Guardians’ Arizona Complex League rookie team. One of the hitters he retired was Eloy Jimenez, a rehabbing big leaguer on the Chicago White Sox’s ACL team. DeLucia, 23, was a sixth-round draft pick by Cleveland in 2022 but has been on the shelf ever since because of injuries, including Tommy John surgery in the spring of 2023. In the Rebels’ remarkable postseason run in 2022, DeLucia beat Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg Super Regional and Auburn and Arkansas in the CWS, in which he earned MVP honors. He went 8-2 with a 3.68 ERA in his one season in Oxford. He transferred in from Northwest Florida State College, a juco where he posted a 15-2 record over two seasons. P.S. Tim Anderson delivered a walk-off single for Miami in a 3-2 win vs. Seattle and is batting .311 over his last 15 games. All 19 hits in that stretch are singles. The former East Central Community College standout, who was hitting .188 on June 5, has lifted his season average to .232 with no homers, nine RBIs and four steals over 207 at-bats. … Ex-Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe came off the injured list Friday for Kansas City and went 0-for-3 with a walk in a loss to Texas. He is batting .197 with six homers.

14 Jun

just stuff

There were some notable home runs on Thursday: Nacho Alvarez, promoted from the Mississippi Braves to Triple-A Gwinnett on Tuesday, hit his first home run of 2024, helping the Stripers beat Nashville 8-7. … Geraldo Quintero of the M-Braves hit his second homer of the season and his second at Rocket City, in Madison, Ala., where the M-Braves won a “home” game 7-5 on the playable field conditions of Toyota Field. … Former Southern Miss star Matt Wallner blasted two homers for Triple-A St. Paul (Minnesota affiliate) and now has six this month and 13 overall for the Saints. … DeSoto Central High alum Blaze Jordan hit his third homer and first since coming off the injured list Wednesday (see previous post) for Double-A Portland (Boston). … In the big leagues, former M-Braves standout Justyn-Henry Malloy, in his ninth MLB game, hit his second homer for Detroit and first at Comerica Park in a Tigers win. … There were also some notable pitching performances, most notably Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet’s outing for the Chicago White Sox in a 3-2, 10-inning win at Seattle. The big left-hander struck out a career-best 13 while allowing two hits and one run in seven innings. He is now tied for the MLB lead with 116 punchouts. … Lucedale native Justin Steele also got a no-decision, throwing six shutout innings for the Cubs in their loss to Tampa Bay. Steele has a 3.22 ERA in nine starts but has yet to register a win. … Brandon native Will Warren, pitching at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (New York Yankees), took a shutout into the sixth inning against Rochester before yielding a three-run homer and departing the game. He got a no-decision in the RailRiders’ loss. After a brutal May, Jackson Prep product Warren (4-4, 7.01, on the year) has a 2.81 ERA in three June starts. P.S. Former Hattiesburg High star Joe Gray Jr. has been released by Kansas City. A second-round pick in 2018 by Milwaukee, Gray was batting .136 at Double-A Northwest Arkansas. He hit .213 for his career with 51 homers and 70 steals, never having any success above A-ball. Only 24, he might draw some interest from independent teams.

13 Jun

cruise control

Before he went on the injured list on May 12 with a broken finger, Blaze Jordan was cruising along on a 17-game hitting streak. He returned to the Double-A Portland lineup on Wednesday and got right back in gear. The DeSoto Central High product — Boston’s No. 19 prospect — banged out a two-run double in his first at-bat and finished 2-for-5 in the Sea Dogs’ 5-4 win at Reading. After a sputtering start to his first full year in Double-A, the 21-year-old Jordan is hitting .288 with two homers, eight doubles and 18 RBIs in 27 games. A renowned power hitter in his amateur days, Jordan was a third-round draft pick as a 17-year-old by the Red Sox in 2020. His power potential began to show last season, when he hit 18 homers between High-Class A Greenville and Portland. He batted .324 in 73 games at Greenville and was named a South Atlantic League postseason All-Star; he was also a Red Sox Organization All-Star for the second straight year. Jordan, who goes 6 feet 1, 220 pounds, is a corner infielder whose future may be at first base. His right-handed stroke seemingly is well-suited for Fenway Park. P.S. A couple of former Ole Miss stars are playing major roles for Birmingham, which has the best record (38-21) in the Double-A Southern League. Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez, promoted from A-ball last month, is hitting .321 after a 2-for-4, two-RBI effort in a 4-3 win Wednesday against Pensacola. He has a homer, 15 RBIs and 14 runs in 21 games for the Barons, a Chicago White Sox affiliate. Tim Elko, the Barons’ first baseman/DH, is hitting .298 — fourth in the SL — and ranks in the top 10 with six homers and 28 RBIs. Gonzalez — a first-round pick in 2023 — and Elko — 10th round, 2022 — were teammates on Ole Miss’ ’22 national championship club. … Hunter Renfroe has a bone bruise in his left foot, not a broken toe, the Kansas City Royals have announced. The former Mississippi State standout went on the IL on Tuesday. His recovery time likely will be shorter than originally expected.

12 Jun

going places

Former Mississippi Braves star Drew Waters got back in The Show and former Biloxi Shuckers star Carlos F. Rodriguez got his first MLB shot among a flurry of Tuesday transactions involving players with Mississippi ties. Southern Miss product Matthew Etzel was promoted to Double-A in the Baltimore system; ex-Ole Miss standout Brandon Johnson moved up to Double-A in the Kansas City chain; former Mississippi State bullpen ace Landon Sims jumped to High-Class A in the Arizona system; and USM product Hunter Stanley came off the injured list at Triple-A Columbus in the Cleveland organization. … Waters — Southern League player of the year in 2019 — was recalled by Kansas City to replace Hunter Renfroe, the ex-State star who went on the injured list with a broken toe. Waters, hitting .277 with seven homers and 33 RBIs in Triple-A, went 0-for-4 in his first MLB game of 2024. The Royals also placed Bulldogs alum Adam Frazier on the bereavement list. … Rodriguez, Milwaukee’s No. 6 prospect who went 9-6, 2.77 ERA, for the Shuckers in 2023, allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings and took a loss against Toronto. … Etzel, a 2023 draftee by the Orioles, was batting .306 with four homers and 31 steals at High-A Aberdeen; he got a knock in his first at-bat for Class AA Bowie. … Johnson was 3-3, two saves, 4.13, in High-A for the Royals. … Sims, a star on MSU’s national title team, had a 4.38 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings at Low-A Visalia. … Stanley, on the IL for about a month, has a 5.85 ERA over six games for Columbus. P.S. Kirk McCarty, former USM standout from Hattiesburg, threw seven shutout innings in his Chinese Professional Baseball League debut last week and allowed two runs in five innings on Tuesday for CTBC Brothers. He is 1-1 with a 1.50 ERA. The well-traveled McCarty has won 18 games the past three seasons: four in Triple-A, four in MLB with Cleveland, nine in the Korean Baseball Organization in 2023 plus the one in the CPBL. He won 22 games for USM from 2015-17.

11 Jun

three things

1 — On a Mississippi Braves team that lacks power, Brandon Parker has begun to supply some. The ex-Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star homered on Saturday and Sunday at Pensacola and enters this week’s homestand with a team-leading five. The right-handed hitting outfielder, who has four homers (and a .444 average) in June, has played in only 33 of the team’s 57 games. The slumping M-Braves (25-32) — last in the Southern League with 21 home runs — host Rocket City for a six-game series starting tonight at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Parker’s power potential is likely what drew Atlanta’s interest when it drafted him in 2019. At Gulf Coast in 2018 and ’19, Parker belted 38 homers, setting the school record with 24 as a freshman, when he was the NJCAA Division II player of the year. The Saucier native entered 2024, his first full year in Double-A, with 26 bombs over four pro seasons.
2 — Former Mississippi State standout Hunter Renfroe, just beginning to swing a big bat for Kansas City, suffered a broken left big toe in Monday’s game against the New York Yankees. He is likely headed for the injured list. Renfroe took a nine-game hitting streak into Monday’s game. His recent surge — .326 over his last 15 games — has boosted his average to .200, and he has six homers and 26 RBIs. The Crystal Springs native is in his first year with the Royals and ninth MLB campaign overall. With 183 career homers, he is seventh among Mississippi natives on the all-time list.
3 — Don’t be surprised if Jackson Academy’s team batting average jumps in 2025. The Raiders have hired former big leaguer Corey Dickerson — a career .280 hitter over 11 MLB seasons — as their new coach. Dickerson, from McComb, played at Brookhaven Academy and Meridian CC before he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies. He played last season for Washington (released in August) and finished his career with 1,028 hits and 136 home runs. He made an All-Star team and won a Gold Glove. … JA went 13-20-1 under Parker Harris this season.

07 Jun

a winning blend

The Mississippi spice was strong in Kansas City’s big 4-3 win against Cleveland on Thursday at Progressive Field. Ex-Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe went 2-for-3 with an RBI double; MSU alum Adam Frazier doubled and scored the go-ahead run in the eighth inning; and Ole Miss product James McArthur pitched a clean ninth for his 12th save. The Royals improved to 37-26 and climbed to within 4 games of the first-place Guardians in the American League Central. Renfroe, after a very cold start (.189), is showing signs of heating up, hitting .271 with two homers, seven RBIs and 11 runs in his last 15 games. The Crystal Springs native hit his fifth homer in Tuesday’s game. Frazier, who also scuffled out of the gate (.210), is batting .275 with six runs over his last 15. McArthur has been a fairly reliable closer despite a 4.91 ERA (inflated by a couple of bad outings). The fourth Mississippian on the KC roster is reliever Chris Stratton (2-3, 5.76 ERA, three saves), another State alum who didn’t get in Thursday’s game. Stratton, Renfroe and Frazier — each a free agent signee this past off-season — were teammates in Starkville in 2011-12. “Really blessed to be able to play this game with people that you know and care about,” Stratton recently told the Kansas City Star. “It’s a lot of fun.” Winning helps. … Down on the Royals farm, former Mississippi Braves star Drew Waters went 3-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs to pace Triple-A Omaha to a 16-6 win over Memphis. Waters, clamoring for a call-up, is batting .271 with six homers and 30 RBIs. At Double-A Northwest Arkansas, former MSU standout Eric Cerantola is 2-2 with a 2.41 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 11 games. And at High-Class A Quad Cities, ex-Southern Miss star Dustin Dickerson hit his first homer of 2024 as part of a 2-for-4 effort in the River Bandits’ 5-3 win Thursday against Wisconsin. Dickerson, a shortstop, is hitting .250 with 13 RBIs and 23 runs in 40 games in his first full pro season. Ole Miss alum Brandon Johnson is 3-3, 4.09, with two saves in 17 relief appearances for QC. P.S. Ex-USM standout Matt Wallner homered in both ends of a doubleheader for Triple-A St. Paul and now has six homers in his last nine games — 11 on the season — for the Minnesota affiliate; he is batting .214 with 32 RBIs. … Cheers all around for Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin, named Gatorade’s national high school player of the year. An LSU signee and highly rated MLB draft prospect, Griffin follows the likes of Bobby Witt Jr., Clayton Kershaw, Justin Upton, Zack Greinke, Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield as the winner of this award.