Tag Archives: Tigers

17 May

down on the farm

JaCoby Jones, trying to work his way back to The Show, is hitting .250 with a homer, six RBIs and 11 runs in 16 games at Triple-A Toledo in the Detroit system. Former Richton High star Jones, who started the season in the big leagues, was batting just .150 when he was hit in the mouth by a pitch on April 22 and landed on the 10-day disabled list. The Tigers sent the 25-year-old rookie outfielder on a rehab assignment to Toledo, then optioned him to the Mud Hens’ roster on May 7. Jones is one of a batch of players with Mississippi connections toiling in the Tigers’ farm system. Also at Toledo is Ole Miss alum Alex Presley, the veteran big leaguer who re-signed a minor league deal with Detroit in the off-season. Presley, an outfielder, is hitting .206 with a homer and eight RBIs in 33 games. At high Class A Lakeland, there’s ex-Madison Central standout Spencer Turnbull, a 2014 draftee out of Alabama. Turnbull had perhaps his best outing of 2017 on Tuesday, throwing seven shutout innings to move his record to 3-2 and drop his ERA to 4.32. Former Ole Miss star Will Allen, also a 2014 draft pick, is the first baseman at Lakeland. He is batting .226 with five homers (matching his entire 2016 total) and 14 RBIs. At low-A West Michigan we find Jacob Robson, an eighth-round pick out of Mississippi State last summer whose star appears to be rising quickly. Robson, a lefty-hitting outfielder, is batting .338 with 13 RBIs and 25 runs in 37 games for the Whitecaps.

23 Apr

scary stuff

JaCoby Jones’ tough season took a turn for the worse on Saturday when the ex-Richton High star was hit in the mouth by a pitch. Detroit’s rookie center fielder left the field with a mouthful of blood and received nine stitches in his lip at a Minnesota hospital but reportedly is otherwise OK. The Tigers put Jones, batting just .150 with a homer and four RBIs, on the 10-day disabled list. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus told the Detroit Free Press the sight of Jones’ injury made him “squeamish.” (Cue up the video; it is scary.) The pitch was a fastball thrown up and in by Twins reliever Justin Haley. The Tigers had hit two home runs earlier in that third inning off Adalberto Mejia. When Tigers starter Matt Boyd threw a pitch behind Miguel Sano later in the game, tempers flared and benches cleared. Boyd and Sano were ejected. Detroit went on to win 5-4. The teams play again today at Target Field.

05 Apr

first of many

The first big league bomb by a Mississippian in 2017 was launched Tuesday by Richton High product JaCoby Jones. Jones, a lightly seasoned rookie who won Detroit’s center field job in spring training, hit a three-run homer off the Chicago White Sox’s Jose Quintana, propelling the Tigers to a 6-3 win at Guaranteed Rate Field. Jones reacted to his first MLB homer by flashing a No. 1 sign as he left the batter’s box. Jones, who goes 6 feet 2, 205 pounds, has pop. He hit 23 homers in a minor league campaign in 2014, when he was in Pittsburgh’s system. He also stole a base on Tuesday, showing off another tool. He swiped 25 bags in the minors in 2015. Jones brings youth and athleticism to a Tigers’ team that needs just such an injection.

29 Mar

departures and arrivals

Chris Coghlan will get a World Series ring next month. He’s looking for a uniform to wear. The Ole Miss alum was released by Philadelphia in a bit of a surprise move on Tuesday. Trying to make the lowly Phillies as a non-roster invitee, Coghlan, 32, didn’t have a great spring (.231, five RBIs) but did offer a left-handed bat and the versatility to play several positions. Coghlan batted .250 with six homers last year, which he split between Oakland and the champion Chicago Cubs. Over an eight-year career interrupted by injuries, Coghlan batted .260 with 52 homers. He hit .321 with Florida in 2009 when he won rookie of the year honors but never came close to that figure again. … Catching up on other roster news: Former Rebels star Stuart Turner apparently will make Cincinnati’s big club as a backup catcher, and lefty Cody Reed out of Northwest Mississippi Community College is going to stick in the Reds’ bullpen. However, Greenwood native Louis Coleman, a relief pitcher, was sent to the minor league camp, as was ex-Itawamba CC star Desmond Jennings, who reportedly can choose to be a free agent. … JaCoby Jones – who, it should be noted, did play a little football at Richton High – appears to have won Detroit’s center field job after batting .333 this spring. He debuted with the Tigers last summer. Former Ole Miss standout Alex Presley, despite batting .452 in a bid to win an outfield spot, was sent down by the Tigers. … Ex-Mississippi State star Jonathan Holder, who made his MLB debut last summer, appears to have claimed a job in the New York Yankees’ bullpen. He has had a strong spring (3.00 ERA). … MSU product Chad Girodo was sent out by Toronto. The lefty had a 2.08 ERA this spring after posting a 4.35 as a rookie last season.

11 Mar

keeping up with jones

The Detroit Tigers page on mlb.com lists Richton’s JaCoby Jones third on the depth chart of center fielders, behind Mikie Mahtook and Tyler Collins. Of the three, all competing for the starting job, Jones has clearly had the better spring. He is 7-for-18 with three doubles and a homer, which he hit on Thursday. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has said he is impressed with Jones’ defensive abilities. Yet there remains much debate about whether Jones will make the big league team to start 2017. “He’s got the potential to be a very talented major league player, but even the best major league players usually require some honing of their skills prior to the big leagues,” Ausmus told mlb.com. In the Sporting News’ preseason yearbook, a rival scout questioned Jones’ maturity. Jones, 24, batted .214 in 13 games for the Tigers in 2016. In 364 minor league games, the 2013 third-round pick has hit .269 with 47 homers and 58 steals. He was a middle infielder at Richton and LSU and played mostly shortstop in the low minors before transitioning to third base and then the outfield. Bottom line: Jones, who goes 6 feet 2, 205 pounds, might start 2017 in Triple-A, but it would be surprising if he’s stuck in Toledo for very long. P.S. Former Picayune High standout T.J. House apparently is OK after being struck in the back of the head by a line drive while pitching for Toronto on Friday. A bloodied House was taken off the field on a stretcher and spent the night in a Florida hospital. He tweeted shortly after the incident that “things are looking good.” The left-hander, who has big league time with Cleveland, is in the Blue Jays’ camp as a non-roster invitee.

29 Dec

making his case

There are five outfielders scattered through mlb.com’s chart of the top 30 prospects in the Texas system. LeDarious Clark is not one of them, but the former East Mississippi Community College star from Meridian is building his resume in the Australian Baseball League. Clark, drafted by the Rangers in the 12th round in 2015, went 2-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs today in Adelaide’s 8-3 win against Brisbane. Clark is batting .357 over his last 10 games and is at .277 with two homers, 17 RBIs and 13 stolen bases in 20 games for the season. In his two minor league campaigns, the 5-foot-10, 185-pound Clark has hit .256 with 21 homers and 55 steals. The onetime football standout presents an intriguing power-speed combination. P.S. Back in the States, it’s been a slow go for free agent Mississippians. There has been no hard news since Dec. 19, when Ole Miss alum Alex Presley signed as a minor league free agent with Detroit, one of the two MLB clubs he played for in 2016. The lefty-hitting outfielder, 31, is a .253 career hitter with 26 homers and 25 steals over parts of seven big league campaigns. Mitch Moreland (Boston), Jacob Lindgren (Atlanta), Tyler Moore (Miami), T.J. House (Toronto) and Scott Copeland (Miami) also have signed, the latter three on minor league contracts. Still out there are Chris Coghlan, Louis Coleman, Desmond Jennings, Joey Butler, Aaron Barrett, Jonathan Papelbon and Julio Borbon.

15 Nov

good vibrations

Spencer Turnbull should leave the Arizona Fall League feeling good. Ex-Madison Central High star Turnbull, a Detroit prospect pitching for Salt River, threw four shutout innings on Monday in what may have been his last outing. The 6-foot-3 right-hander had an injury-interrupted 2016 season and started slowly in the AFL but with back-to-back strong starts has trimmed his ERA to 3.60. He has 20 strikeouts in 20 innings and has not yielded a home run. Turnbull’s velocity reportedly has been a little down this fall, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “I’m learning how to pitch with a little less velocity,” Turnbull said in an mlb.com article. “I’m sinking it and cutting it more than I used to rather than throwing heaters down the middle.” Turnbull, 24, is rated Detroit’s No. 12 prospect by mlb.com but is likely still a couple of years away from a big league shot. He is 12-7 with a 3.32 ERA in his three pro seasons and is expected to pitch in Double-A in 2017. It’s seems odd now that Turnbull was undrafted in 2011 out of Madison Central, where was a standout hitter and hurler. He went to Alabama and left in 2014 as a second-round pick by the Tigers. … Former Mississippi Braves standout Dustin Peterson hit his first AFL homer in support of Turnbull on Monday. Peterson is batting .328 for the Rafters after an MVP-caliber year in the Southern League (.282, 12 homers, 88 RBIs). Richton’s JaCoby Jones, also a Tigers prospect, had three hits for Salt River and is up to .370. … Petal High product Anthony Alford (Toronto) stole three bags for Mesa on Monday and now has eight this fall.

04 Nov

personnel matters

In announcing the trade of Cameron Maybin on Thursday, Detroit officials said there would be “a wide-open competition” for the center field job in spring training. Former Richton High star JaCoby Jones will be in the mix. Jones, who can also play the infield, is playing center field in the Arizona Fall League and batting .318 with a homer, eight RBIs and five steals in 13 games for Salt River. He went 6-for-28 in a big league trial this summer. In four minor league seasons, the 6-foot-2, 205-pound Jones is hitting .269 with 47 homers and 58 bags. The Tigers acquired him in 2015 from Pittsburgh, which drafted Jones in the third round in 2013 out of LSU. … Seattle picked up the 2017 option on Seth Smith’s contract. The Jackson native and Ole Miss alum, a lefty-hitting outfielder, batted .249 with 16 homers for the Mariners in 2016, his second year with the club and 10th in the majors. … Chris Maloney, a Jackson native and ex-Mississippi State standout, will be back for a sixth year on the St. Louis coaching staff in 2017. Maloney coached third base for manager Mike Matheny this past season.

21 Oct

out in arizona …

Chris Stratton, who could be vying a job in San Francisco’s rotation next spring, was razor sharp in his second Arizona Fall League start on Thursday. The ex-Mississippi State standout from Tupelo threw five shutout innings, yielding just three hits with no walks and six strikeouts. He has allowed just one run in nine innings over two starts for Scottsdale. A first-round pick by the Giants in 2012, Stratton got a look in the big leagues back in May, posting a 3.60 ERA in seven relief appearances. He has been a starter in his minor league career, going 12-6, 3.87 at Triple-A Sacramento in 2016 and 34-29, 3.92 for his career. Stratton’s stuff isn’t as overwhelming as it often was at State, but he is making it work. … Stratton’s mound opponent on Thursday was former Madison Central High star Spencer Turnbull, a Detroit prospect pitching for Salt River. He allowed four hits, three walks and three runs in three innings in a 4-1 loss. Turnbull’s 2016 season was curtailed by injuries; he went 1-1, 3.00 in six games at Class A Lakeland after going 11-3, 3.01 in low-A ball in 2015.

17 Oct

familiar territory

JaCoby Jones is off to a good start – again – in the Arizona Fall League. The former Mr. Baseball from Richton High is 4-for-10 with a home run, five RBIs and three runs through five games for Salt River. Jones, a highly rated Detroit prospect, played in the high caliber AFL last year, too, and was doing quite well before being slapped with a drug suspension that lasted into his 2016 minor league season. Having spent some time in the majors this year, Jones is back for more seasoning in the AFL, older and presumably a bit wiser. “I think the biggest thing I learned in the big leagues was how to prepare myself before games,” Jones, 24, told mlb.com. A third-round pick (by Pittsburgh) out of LSU in 2013, Jones batted .257 with seven homers in Double-A and Triple-A in 2016 and got an August call-up from the Tigers. He hit .214 in 28 at-bats. Jones, 6 feet 2, 205 pounds, is a career .269 hitter in the minors with 47 homers and 58 steals and can play virtually anywhere in the field. P.S. Ex-Mississippi State standout Tyler Moore, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College alum Joey Butler, Ole Miss product Alex Presley and Starkville native Julio Borbon have become minor league free agents. Moore spent all of this past season at Triple-A Gwinnett in Atlanta’s system but played in only 25 games (.229, three homers) because of injuries. Butler also spent all of the season in Triple-A for Cleveland, while Presley (Detroit) and Borbon (Baltimore) did see some big league duty. … Hawtin Buchanan, the 6-8 former Ole Miss pitcher from Biloxi, has signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati. He pitched in the independent United Shore League this year after being released in spring training by Seattle.