Tag Archives: Tim Elko

26 Apr

sitting on ready

Tim Elko isn’t ranked among the Top 30 prospects in the Chicago White Sox’s system, but there isn’t another of their minor leaguers having a better season. The former Ole Miss star leads the Triple-A International League in OPS (on base-plus-slugging), ranks tied for second in homers and fourth in batting average. The 26-year-old first baseman/DH hit his seventh homer for Charlotte on Friday after hitting two out on Thursday. He is batting .355 with a 1.116 OPS and 16 RBIs in 21 games. Drafted in the 10th round in 2022 — after leading the Rebels to the national championship — Elko has hit .292 with 58 homers and 211 RBIs in four pro seasons. The White Sox have the worst record (6-20) in the American League, but they also have one of the richest farm systems. Yet most of their prospects — including No. 5 Braden Montgomery (Madison Central High alum) and No. 13 Jacob Gonzalez (Ole Miss product) — aren’t yet ready for prime time. Elko, who isn’t on Chicago’s 40-man roster, just might be. … Gonzalez, 22, a lefty-hitting middle infielder, was a first-round pick in 2023 and is batting .258 (.352 OBP) in his first full season at Double-A Birmingham; he is currently riding a five-game hit streak that has boosted his average almost 50 points. Outfielder Montgomery, 22, the 12th overall pick (by Boston) last summer, is raking at Low-Class A Kannapolis: .323, three homers, 19 RBIs, six steals.

11 Aug

rising to challenge

Tim Elko is fitting in just fine at the Triple-A level. The former Ole Miss standout belted a pair of home runs for Charlotte on Saturday and now has five in 11 games. He is batting .311 and slugging .667 with eight RBIs and 10 runs for the Knights. If the parent Chicago White Sox – who are awful and fairly desperate for offensive punch – decide to hold open auditions down the stretch, they might give Elko a call. He isn’t on the 40-man roster and isn’t a Top 30 prospect, but he has handled every test in pro ball so far. A 10th-round pick in 2022, the 25-year-old first baseman/DH has posted a .288 career average with 47 homers in the minors. He has 14 bombs between Double-A and Triple-A this season. The 6-foot-3, 250-pound Elko left Oxford in 2022 after blasting a school-record 24 homers during the Rebels’ amazing run to the national championship. They erected a statue of Elko outside Swayze Field that confirms his status as one of the most popular players ever to suit up for UM. P.S. Ex-Mississippi State star Brent Rooker hit his 29th homer for Oakland on Saturday, the only run of the game in the A’s win against Toronto. If he weren’t stuck with the lowly A’s, Rooker (.290, 82 RBIs, .951 OPS) would likely get strong American League MVP consideration. … Biloxi Shuckers alum Devin Williams, who came off the injured list on July 28, notched his first save of the season, punching out the side in Milwaukee’s 1-0 win over Cincinnati. Williams has a 2.25 ERA with eight K’s in four games for the first-place Brewers. He had 36 saves in 2023.

04 Sep

comfort zone

Shortly after he was drafted in July, former Ole Miss star Tim Elko said his experience against SEC competition and in NCAA Tournament play had prepared him well for pro ball. “I’ll feel pretty comfortable getting in there,” he told milb.com. He appears to have been right. Playing at Low-Class A Kannapolis in the Chicago White Sox’s system, the 23-year-old Elko has 10 hits in his last six games and boosted his average to .310 in 10 games there overall. The 6-foot-4, 240-pound first baseman, who set a single-season record with 24 homers for the national champion Rebels this season, started slowly in rookie ball, going 4-for-26 with 13 strikeouts, though three of the hits were homers. He moved up to Kannapolis on Aug. 23 and started to click against better quality pitching. He went 3-for-4 on Saturday, his second three-hit game for the Cannon Ballers. He has hit one homer, giving him four for the year. Elko cemented his place in Ole Miss lore when he returned from a serious knee injury in 2021 to help the Rebels’ drive to an NCAA Super Regional appearance. He was a team captain this season as a fifth-year senior, put on a stunning slugging performance in the Coral Cables Regional and made the College World Series All-Tournament team. The White Sox drafted Elko in the 10th round. “He’s got a chance to have a nice career in front of him,” Chicago scouting director Mike Shirley said at the time. P.S. DeSoto Central High alum Austin Riley homered for the fourth straight game Saturday in Atlanta’s 2-1 win vs. Miami. He has 35 round-trippers on the year, third-most in MLB. Great comment in an mlb.com story from rookie Michael Harris II, like Riley a former Mississippi Braves star: “I tell him every time he hits a home run [that] I wanna be like him when I grow up. … I really look up to him, and he’s a big leader in this clubhouse.” … UM product Drew Pomeranz reportedly suffered a setback in his injury rehab, casting doubt on whether he’ll pitch for San Diego this season. He had arm surgery a year ago in August. … St. Louis has announced that ex-Mississippi State star Dakota Hudson will move to the bullpen. He is 7-7 with a 4.43 ERA as a starter this season.

07 Jun

power play

Before the hype gets cranked up for the super-duper Super Regional set for Hattiesburg this weekend, let’s pause for a moment to appreciate the jaw-dropping performance by Ole Miss’ Tim Elko. The senior first baseman batted .778 and slugged 2.111 — yes, 2.111 — in three games in the Coral Gables Regional. His batting line from Monday’s game: 4-6-4-5. (Plus two walks.) You won’t see something like that very often. Elko belted three home runs in the Rebels’ 22-6 demolition of Arizona in the regional title game, a first in his five-year career and a first for any UM player in an NCAA Tournament game. He also broke the school record for homers in a season with 22. Brian Pettway hit 21 in 2005. With 44 career bombs, Elko is within sight of the Rebels’ career record of 48, set by Kyle Gordon in the 1980s. Elko’s place in Ole Miss lore was secured last season when he made that inspired return from an ACL injury and helped the Rebels reach a Super Regional. His performance in Coral Gables was icing on the cake — and, of course, he’s not done yet. We’ve been fortunate in the Magnolia State to witness some amazing slugging exploits in the last few years. Delta State’s Zack Shannon set the state all-classification record with 31 homers in 2018. He hit 50, second only to Dee Haynes’ 69 on the school’s career list, in his two years in Cleveland. In 2019, Matt Wallner hit 23 bombs for Southern Miss, matching the school record. He hit 58 in his three years in Hattiesburg, setting a school mark. (He’s now mashing homers in Double-A ball for Minnesota.) Current USM slugger Christopher Sargent — who batted .524 in five games in the Hattiesburg Regional — has rather quietly cranked out 21 homers this season with at least two more games to play in the Super Regional. … With Mississippi State, the defending national champ, sitting at home this postseason, no Bulldogs are mounting any assault on the school’s single-season home run record of 29, shared by Rafael Palmeiro and Bruce Castoria.