The Baseball Buffet Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

something special

Congrats to former Mississippi State standout Adam Frazier, who got his 1,000th career major league hit on Thursday night. And it wasn’t just a garden variety knock. It was a home run, a solo shot, and it came with his team, the Kansas City Royals, in an early hole and in need of a spark against the Los Angeles Angels. The Royals, a contender in the American League wild card chase, hit three more solo homers and won 4-3 at Kauffman Stadium. Frazier’s second-inning bomb came against Kyle Hendricks, against whom he was batting .412 with two homers (per The Baseball Buffet). A 10-year MLB vet, Frazier has been a catalyst for K.C. ever since the club traded for him in July. The lefty hitter, who can play virtually anywhere, is batting .298 with three homers, 17 RBIs and 15 runs in his second stint with the team. A .264 career hitter — 66 homers — with five MLB clubs, he set an MSU record for hits in a single season in 2013, the year he was drafted by Pittsburgh. He got a hit in his first big league at-bat on June 24, 2016, and was an All-Star in 2021 with the Pirates. He had a down year with the Royals in 2024 and went back to Pittsburgh as a free agent in the off-season. The Royals traded a minor leaguer to the Pirates for Frazier on July 16, an under-the-radar move that has paid dividends. … For the record, the leader in career hits among MSU alums is Rafael Palmeiro with 3,020. Will Clark got 2,176, Buddy Myer 2,131, Hughie Critz 1,591 and Del Unser 1,344. Among active ex-Bulldogs, Nathaniel Lowe trails Frazier with 780 hits, and Brent Rooker is at 471.

back to work

Nathaniel Lowe went into the MLB All-Star break on a 4-for-28 skid, down to .227 on the season for a scuffling Washington club. But the Mississippi State alum should enter today’s game vs. San Diego with a little confidence. He is 5-for-11 with two home runs career against Padres starter Dylan Cease, per The Baseball Buffet. Lowe, in his first season with the Nats, has 14 homers, second on the team to All-Star James Wood. … Adam Frazier starts the “second half” with a new team, having moved from Pittsburgh to Kansas City. The MSU product figures to be in the lineup today at Miami. He is 8-for-17 with two homers and a double career against the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara. Frazier was hitting .255 with three homers for Pittsburgh. … Brent Rooker of the A’s entered the All-Star break on a tear (.360 with two homers over his last seven games), then went nuts during the All-Star festivities, hitting 17 homers in the Home Run Derby, another in the All-Star Game itself and then two more in the tiebreaking swing-off. The ex-MSU slugger faces Cleveland’s Slade Cecconi today. … Former Biloxi High standout Colt Keith, now with Detroit, was on an 18-for-51 (.353) heater entering the break. The Tigers, with the best record in MLB at 59-38, face Texas and lefty Patrick Corbin today. … Jordan Westburg, another ex-Bulldogs star, entered the break on an 11-for-31 roll with three homers for Baltimore. He’ll try to keep it going today against Tampa Bay and Taj Bradley. P.S. Texas recalled MSU alum Justin Foscue from Triple-A, with Jake Burger going back on the injured list. Foscue is 1-for-6 for the Rangers this year and 3-for-48 career. … That was quick: Drafted on Sunday, with the eighth overall pick, JoJo Parker already is rated the top prospect in the Toronto farm system by Bleacher Report. The state’s Gatorade player of the year out of Purvis High, Parker tops a system that is ranked 25th overall by BR in its post-draft evaluation. (Note that Parker hasn’t yet signed.) The 6-foot-2, 195-pound shortstop is “one of the best pure hitters in the (2025 draft) class, with real power to go with his polished hit tool,” per Baseball America’s scouting report. Still, he has yet to play a pro game. Landon Harmon, the 6-foot-5 right-hander out of East Union picked in the third round by Washington, is slotted in as the Nationals’ No. 9 prospect by Bleacher Report. (He also has yet to sign.) Baseball America calls Harmon a “high-upside, projectable right-hander” with “tremendous arm speed and a fastball that explodes.” It’s interesting to note that each of Bleacher Report’s top 3 farm systems features a Mississippi product in its top 10. Pittsburgh, ranked No. 3, has Konnor Griffin at No. 2; Milwaukee, ranked second, has Cooper Pratt at No. 5; and Seattle, the top-rated system, has Jurrangelo Cijntje at No. 9. … Kevin Roberts Jr., a rising senior at Jackson Prep, was listed as the 15th overall pick in a “way-too-early” 2026 mock draft by mlb.com. Roberts, currently competing for a spot on the Under-18 Team USA, is a 6-foot-5 outfielder with a power bat and arm.