Tag Archives: Southern Miss

15 Aug

full speed ahead

Brian Dozier took an 0-for-4 on Tuesday night, but the more significant news was that the ex-Southern Miss star was in the lineup for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Dozier declared himself “healthy like an ox” to reporters a day after he left a game early with dizziness. An EKG on Monday night showed an irregular heartbeat, but Dozier said he has always had that. He was given a clean bill of health prior to Tuesday’s game. He told mlb.com the dizziness might have resulted from medication he took for sinus issues. Dozier is the ultimate gamer, never having been on the disabled list in a big league career that goes back to 2012. And the Dodgers, who have lost five straight and fallen to third place in the National League West, certainly need a healthy Dozier. He is batting .256 with three homers, 11 RBIs and five runs in 13 games since coming to L.A. from Minnesota. For the year, he is at .230 with 19 homers. P.S. With JaCoby Jones (hamstring) going on the DL Monday for Detroit, the list of Mississippians on the shelf grew to three. Zack Cozart (shoulder surgery) is out for the year, while Jarrod Dyson (groin) has been out since July 5 with no announced timetable for a return. Kendall Graveman (elbow), who went to the DL while in the minors, is also out for the year. Drew Pomeranz and Hunter Renfroe spent extended time on the DL this year but are active now.

13 Aug

helping hands

Mississippi college products Mike Mayers and Dakota Hudson, middle relievers for St. Louis, have played their roles well for the Cardinals, who – don’t look now – have won five straight, eight of 10 and jumped into the National League playoff race. Mayers, an Ole Miss product in his third big league campaign, notched his sixth hold on Sunday with a spotless seventh inning in an 8-2 win against Kansas City. He has allowed just one run in his last seven appearances and trimmed his ERA to 3.43 over 37 games. Hudson, a rookie out of Mississippi State, was called up on July 27 and has yielded just one run in seven appearances. He has an 0.96 ERA, two wins and three holds and has allowed only three hits in 9 1/3 innings. This comes on the heels of an excellent season at Triple-A Memphis (13-3, 2.50 as a starter). The Cardinals, playing better (16-9) under interim manager Mike Shildt, are 63-55 and just 5.5 games back of the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. P.S. Southern Miss alum Kirk McCarty tossed six shutout innings Sunday – but got a no-decision — in his high Class A debut in Cleveland’s system. Lefty McCarty was 4-9, 4.29 with a league-best 132 strikeouts in the low-A Midwest League. … Touki Toussaint, who started this season with the Mississippi Braves, is slated to make his MLB debut today for Atlanta against Miami. Toussaint was 4-6, 2.93 for the Double-A M-Braves and 2-0, 2.01 at Triple-A Gwinnett.

12 Aug

glove is all around

Another day, another amazing catch by Cincinnati center fielder Billy Hamilton. The former Taylorsville High star made a long run and a leaping catch just in front of the wall to rob an Arizona batter of an extra-base hit on Saturday. Not close to his best — but amazing just the same. It’s equally amazing that Hamilton has never won a Gold Glove. Perhaps this, his fifth full season in the majors, will be the year. Gold Glove selections can be a little confusing. (Rafael Palmeiro won one in a year when he rarely played in the field.) Jackson native Chet Lemon was one of the best center fielders of his era. In four different seasons he made more than 400 putouts, including an American League record 512 in 1977. And yet, he couldn’t snag a Gold Glove. Fulton’s Brian Dozier does have a Gold Glove, just one, which he won last year with Minnesota. Dozier, a second baseman known for his power, is an underrated defensive player, a point that was underscored by a play he made on Saturday for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He dove to his right to spear a hard-hit grounder and, while flat on the dirt, flipped the ball with his glove hand to second base to start a double play. Amazing. Dozier was primarily a second baseman at Southern Miss, but Minnesota drafted him as a shortstop and played him there all through the minors. He got a brief trial at that position in his rookie MLB season of 2012 but was converted back to second base that off-season. Smart move. Dozier may have more Gold Gloves in his future, though he has a ways to go to match Frank White, the Greenville native who won eight during his star-studded career as the Kansas City Royals’ second baseman. Monstrous home runs and 100-mph pitches get so much attention these days, but defense still matters. A first baseman who makes all the plays, like Amory’s Mitch Moreland (Gold Glove, 2016), is vital to winning games. Moreland’s defense is one of the main reasons he wrested the first-base job from Hanley Ramirez in Boston this season. Great plays, like the ones Hamilton and Dozier made on Saturday, can energize a team. Can you imagine an outfield of ex-Magnolia State prep stars Hamilton, JaCoby Jones and Jarrod Dyson? Would any fly ball ever hit the ground? Hunter Renfroe can’t cover ground like those three, but the Crystal Springs native has one of the best outfield arms in the game. He has made throws from right field that bring to mind Dave Parker, the Grenada native with the legendary cannon who won three Gold Gloves in his prime. His throw in the 1979 All-Star Game — look it up — is still talked about. So cheer if you must for bombs and punchouts but don’t forget to give some love to glove.

10 Aug

homer happy

As home run celebrations go, Hunter Renfroe’s on Thursday was a little bit unusual and a whole lot exhilarating. You can’t watch it without feeling his emotion. The ex-Mississippi State standout yanked a ninth-inning grand slam that put San Diego ahead of Milwaukee at Miller Park. After he hit it, Renfroe bent forward in a bow with the bat clutched in front of him, as if to say, “Oooh, I got all of that one.” “It was just like, ‘[Heck] yeah!'” Renfroe told mlb.com. “Let’s be honest here, that’s just the way it was.” He then flipped the bat away and broke into his trot. His teammates went bonkers. The Padres would win 8-4. The resurgent Renfroe has homered in four straight games and now has 12 on the season. He is creeping up on the leaders in the All-Mississippi Home Run Derby, currently topped by Brian Dozier, the Southern Miss alum who hit his 19th – third with the Los Angeles Dodgers — on Thursday. (With 170 career bombs, Dozier trails fifth-place Dmitri Young by one on the all-time list of homers by Magnolia State natives.) Former East Central Community College star Tim Anderson has 15 homers this season and State alum Mitch Moreland sits on 14. (Moreland is ninth on the career list with 146.) Ex-Meridian CC standout Corey Dickerson now trails Renfroe with 11.

07 Aug

around the horn

Two games into his New York Yankees career, ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn looks like a good fit. The big right-hander played stopper on Monday night, throwing 7 1/3 fairly brilliant innings to beat the Chicago White Sox 7-0 and end the Yanks’ five-game skid. He hasn’t allowed a run in 11 2/3 innings over two appearances since his trade from Minnesota. His ERA for the season is now 4.58. Lynn won 72 games in six years in St. Louis, pitched in 24 postseason games and won a World Series ring in 2011. And yet: “When playing for the Yankees, it’s a little different,” Lynn said in an mlb.com story. … Meanwhile, UM alum Bobby Wahl, pitching for that other New York club, notched his second hold on Monday night in his third appearance for the Mets, who beat Cincinnati 6-4. Wahl, acquired in a trade with Oakland, has three strikeouts among the five outs he has recorded in his three scoreless outings. … Though not all of his numbers are great, former Southern Miss ace Kirk McCarty does lead all low Class A pitchers in strikeouts with 132. The 5-foot-10 left-hander from Hattiesburg is 4-8 with a 4.29 ERA in 115 1/3 innings for Lake County in Cleveland’s system. He has won three of his last four decisions. … Joe Gray, drafted in the second round in June by Milwaukee, isn’t hitting much in the rookie Arizona League – .175 in 17 games – but the Hattiesburg High alum has shown a knack for drawing walks – 14, boosting his on-base percentage to .342. The 18-year-old outfielder has a homer, eight RBIs, 10 runs and six steals. … The NJCAA National Team, featuring several MACJC stars, is 1-1 in the National Baseball Congress World Series after a 6-3 loss to the San Antonio, TX Angels on Monday. Jones County JC’s Tyler Spring took the loss, though he allowed just one earned run in 5 1/3 innings. Northwest’s Brant Blaylock was 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI and Gulf Coast’s Brandon Parker 0-for-2 with two walks and a run. Blaylock went 3-for-6 with an RBI and Parker 1-for-4 with two walks and an RBI in a 7-6, 12-inning win vs. the San Diego, CA Force in the team’s opener on Saturday. Shermar Page of Pearl River pitched a scoreless inning in that game.

06 Aug

welcome back

In his first start with Class A Greensboro in almost two months, ex-Southern Miss star Taylor Braley threw the first five innings of a seven-inning no-hitter against Kannapolis on Sunday. Braley, now 5-5 with a 4.28 ERA for the Miami Marlins’ low-A club, went on the disabled list (shoulder) in late June and made two rehab appearances in the Gulf Coast League before returning to the Grasshoppers. He struck out four and walked two, throwing 66 pitches, on Sunday. “He just kind of lived up in the strike zone today and he got a lot of weak contact,” Grasshoppers manager Mike DiFelice told milb.com. Braley, a two-way standout at USM and Oak Grove High before that, was a sixth-round pick by the Marlins in 2017. He posted a 2.66 ERA in limited innings last summer. Greensboro’s catcher for the no-no was Will Allen, the Ole Miss product who is hitting .244 with seven homers in his fourth pro season. He was originally drafted by Detroit in 2014.

05 Aug

by the numbers

9 — Batters faced and retired on Saturday by Dakota Hudson, who notched his second big league win for St. Louis. The Mississippi State product has not allowed a run in four appearances for the Cardinals.
4 — Holds this season for Mike Mayers, the ex-Ole Miss standout who followed Hudson with a scoreless inning in the Cardinals’ 8-4 victory over Pittsburgh. Mayers has a 3.63 ERA.
.317 — Corey Dickerson’s batting average, which ranks second in the National League. The Meridian Community College product went 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter in his return to Pittsburgh’s roster after a stint on the disabled list.
13 — Home runs by Mitch Moreland, the MSU alum whose two-run first-inning shot propelled Boston to a 4-1 win against the New York Yankees.
8 — Times reached base by Brian Dozier in his four games with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The ex-Southern Miss star walked three times in the Dodgers’ 14-0 loss to Houston; he is 5-for-11 since the trade from Minnesota.
55 — Runs this season by Tim Anderson, the former East Central CC standout who scored the game-winner (on a throwing error) in the top of the ninth inning for the Chicago White Sox in a 2-1 victory vs. Tampa Bay.
0.69 — Tony Sipp’s ERA over his last 15 appearances for the Astros. The left-hander from Pascagoula and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC retired the only batter he faced vs. the Dodgers, cutting his season ERA to 1.63.
24 — Stolen bases by Billy Hamilton, who got one in Cincinnati’s Game 1 win against Washington. The Taylorsville High alum ranks third in the National League in steals.
17 — Earned runs yielded in his last three MLB appearances (over 10 innings) by Chris Stratton, the former State standout who was sent back to Triple-A by San Francisco on Saturday.
4 — Hits, including a walk-off single in the 10th inning, by Bobby Bradley at Triple-A Columbus. The Harrison Central High product, one of Cleveland’s top prospects, was promoted from Double-A last week.
7 — Shutout innings posted by David Parkinson in his high Class A debut with Clearwater in the Philadelphia system. The ex-Ole Miss star was 8-1 with a 1.51 ERA at low-A Lakewood.

03 Aug

one step closer

Bobby Bradley has taken another step toward the big leagues, moving from Double-A to Triple-A in the Cleveland system. The lefty-hitting first baseman out of Harrison Central High went 0-for-4 in his debut with Columbus on Thursday night. He had 24 homers at Akron, though he was hitting just .214 with 105 strikeouts in 389 at-bats. Still only 22 years old, Bradley is rated the Indians’ No. 7 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Power is his calling card; in five pro seasons he has 111 bombs. … The Indians also bumped Nick Sandlin up a level, from low Class A Lake County to high-A Lynchburg. The Southern Miss product, a second-round pick in June, had a 1.74 ERA in 10 games at Lake County after making three scoreless appearances in the rookie Arizona League. He has 19 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings and has not walked a batter. Sandlin won a national pitcher of the year award and was the C-USA pitcher of the year in addition to claiming the Ferriss Trophy. P.S. Sandlin’s 2018 USM teammate Luke Reynolds, a 10th-round pick by the Chicago Cubs, has caught fire in the short-season Northwest League, batting .400 over his last 10 games and .358 in 15 games overall for Eugene. The C-USA hitter of the year has a homer and nine RBIs. … While things are looking up for former Golden Eagles Sandlin and Reynolds, Mason Robbins may have reached a dead end. The 25-year-old outfielder is currently out of the game, having been released by the Chicago White Sox on July 22. Robbins was hitting .265 at Triple-A Charlotte in his fifth pro season. He is a .283 career hitter but apparently lacks the power and/or speed to be a corner outfielder. … The Ugly Stat of the Day – maybe the year – in MLB goes to Jonathan Holder, who faced seven batters and saw all seven score in the New York Yankees’ 15-7 loss to Boston on Thursday. Former Mississippi State star Holder’s ERA jumped from 2.06 to 3.50.

02 Aug

good old summertime

The NJCAA National Team, which includes five MACJC alums, begins play in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan., on Saturday against the San Diego, CA Force. Pitchers Shemar Page of Pearl River Community College and Tyler Spring of Jones County, catcher Tucker Childers of Northeast and outfielders Brandon Parker of Mississippi Gulf Coast and Brant Blaylock of Northwest are on the NJCAA team roster. Hinds coach Sam Temple is on the coaching staff. Parker, from Saucier and West Harrison High, was the NJCAA Division II player of the year as a freshman. … Southern Miss All-American Matt Wallner is hitting .250 with four homers, 11 RBIs and four steals in 80 at-bats for Falmouth in the Cape Cod League, which concludes its regular season today. Falmouth has clinched a playoff berth. Wallner, who did not make the final cut for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, has had a streaky tour in the CCBL. He had a seven-game hit streak that included three homers in mid-July. He is 6-for-13 with three RBIs over his last four games. … The Hattiesburg Black Sox, champions of the Mississippi Baseball Congress state tournament, are participating in the inaugural Bluegrass World Series in Louisville, Ky. The six-day, eight-team tournament, created by the owners of the minor league Louisville Bats, includes various amateur and semi-pro teams, most notably the Louisville Stars, a collection of former major leaguers. Managed by Johnny Bench, the Stars’ listed roster includes, along with Chipper Jones, Tim Hudson and Johnny Damon, former Holmes Community College star Roy Oswalt and Mississippi State alum Jonathan Papelbon. The Black Sox played the Stars on Wednesday; they lost 15-2. … The North Delta Dealers are the 2018 Cotton States League champions; they beat HillCountry 6-2 in the summer league’s title game in New Albany on Sunday. Collin McPherson, a Freed-Hardeman alum, homered, scored three times and pitched six innings for the Dealers. Northwest Mississippi CC’s Hunter White had a hit and scored twice and Southaven’s John Wesley Ray had two hits and an RBI for the Dealers. … Chad Girodo, ex-Mississippi State star and onetime big leaguer, is pitching for the Chicago Dogs of the independent American Association. (The Dogs’ bench coach is Jackson native Stan Cliburn.) Girodo was released from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ organization in June. Through 10 games with the Dogs, the 27-year-old lefty has a 3.17 ERA.

02 Aug

triad

This might have happened before, but it’s gotta be pretty rare. A pitcher from each of the state’s Big 3 appeared in the same big league game on Wednesday. Southern Miss alum Cody Carroll made his MLB debut with Baltimore, ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn made his New York Yankees debut and Mississippi State product Jonathan Holder also worked an inning for the Yanks. Combined, the three pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings in a game won by Baltimore 7-5 at Yankee Stadium. Lynn, acquired from Minnesota, replaced struggling starter Sonny Gray in the third inning and delivered a solid 4 1/3 innings, yielding five hits and fanning five. Carroll, acquired from the Yankees by the Orioles last week, pitched the seventh inning and allowed one hit. Holder, who has become a significant piece of New York’s formidable bullpen, worked the top of the ninth, reducing his ERA to 2.06. P.S. As if following a Hollywood script, former USM star Brian Dozier introduced himself to Dodgers fans with a 3-for-4 debut, including a home run and a double, in Los Angeles’ 6-4 win against Milwaukee. Dozier now has 17 homers on the season. … Down on the farm, Atlanta’s No. 5 prospect, Cristian Pache, made his Mississippi Braves debut on Wednesday at Trustmark Park, going 2-for-2 in the second game of the night against Birmingham. Pache, 19, is an athletically cut 6 feet 2, 185 pounds. He batted .285 with eight homers at Class A Florida and is reportedly a plus defender in center field. He is one to watch.