Tag Archives: Trustmark Park

23 Jun

second chances

To win a second-half title in the Southern League South, the Mississippi Braves need to:

a. Score more runs;
b. Hit more home runs;
c. Win more home games.

Any of the three would help, but obviously it’s not that simple. The M-Braves went 34-35 in the first half, ending up third, 6 1⁄2 games behind champion Pensacola. Pitching never seems to be a problem at Trustmark Park, a notorious pitcher’s yard. The M-Braves’ staff ERA of 3.13 is second in the league. They’ve allowed the fewest homers and are tied for the most strikeouts. Having lost ace Chris Ellis, the former Ole Miss star, to promotion, keeping up those numbers might be tougher in the second half. But there are still plenty of prospect-type arms around. Scoring, not preventing it, has been the issue for Luis Salazar’s team. They’re 25-6 when they score four runs or more. But they average just 3.6 runs per game, tied for last with Biloxi. They’re last in on-base percentage, last in steals and seventh (of 10) in homers. They’re 21-6 when they hit a homer — they just don’t hit many, especially at the TeePee. Dustin Peterson and Jacob Schrader have 14 of the club’s 37 bombs. Where would the boost in offense come from? It would help if top prospect Dansby Swanson would get hot again; he’s down to .242. A little more all-around production from Johan Camargo, Carlos Franco, Levi Hyams or Dian Toscano might go a long way, too. And then there’s the new guys, just added to the roster today: catcher Joe Odom and first baseman Joey Meneses up from Class A Carolina, outfielder Connor Lien off the disabled list where he spent most of the first half. Lien was a Carolina League All-Star in 2015. Odom was batting .292 with eight homers and 29 RBIs for the Mudcats this year, and Meneses was at .342 with five homers and 31 RBIs. Here’s a big thing: The team was 16-19 at home in the first half; that’s gotta change if they hope to contend. By contrast, Pensacola went 25-11 at home.

20 Jun

seeing stars

The stars will come out to play on Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl, sometime around 7:30 p.m. The 2016 Southern League All-Star Game will feature a bunch of “local talent,” with Mississippi Braves Dansby Swanson and Dustin Peterson and Biloxi Shuckers Brett Phillips, Garrett Cooper and Jacob Nottingham expected to be in the starting lineup for the South stars, managed by Luis Salazar. Biloxi’s Josh Hader, who leads the league with a 0.95 ERA, and hard-throwing Atlanta prospect Mauricio Cabrera are on the South pitching staff. League home run leader Daniel Palka (Chattanooga), stolen base leader Yefri Perez (Jacksonville) and pitching strikeout leader Jacob Faria (Montgomery) are also on the rosters, along with highly rated MLB prospects such as Amir Garrett (Pensacola), Willy Adames (Montgomery) and Jake Peter (Birmingham). This is the second SL All-Star Game to be held at the TeePee. The other was in 2007, when eight M-Braves played for the South Division team managed by Phillip Wellman. J.C. Holt and Carl Loadenthal had three hits apiece, but the South stars lost the game before an announced 4,555. Jackson hosted two Texas League All-Star Games at Smith-Wills Stadium, in 1984 and 1992. Both were decided by walk-off home runs by East Division stars, the first by the Jackson Mets’ Billy Beane, the second by Greenville native Adell Davenport, who was playing for Shreveport.

18 Jun

whatever happened to …

Diory Hernandez, who helped the Mississippi Braves make the postseason for the first time in 2007, is currently wearing out the Mexican League. The 32-year-old from the Dominican Republic is batting .336 with 16 homers and 70 RBIs for Aguascalientes. The home run and RBI totals lead the Triple-A caliber league. Hernandez, primarily a shortstop in his career, batted .307 with seven homers and 59 RBIs for the ’07 M-Braves and was among six from the team to start the Southern League All-Star Game played in Pearl that summer. He started the next year in Mississippi before getting a promotion after 22 games. Hernandez played in 75 major league games for Atlanta, batting .157. … William Beckwith, the Crawford native and former Atlanta prospect, is playing in the independent Frontier League. The lefty-hitting first baseman, who didn’t play in 2015, is batting .244 with a homer and eight RBIs for the Lake Erie Crushers. Beckwith hit 15 homers at Class A Rome in 2012 and played in the 2013 exhibition game at Trustmark Park that matched the Atlanta Braves against a team of Braves minor league stars. P.S. Congratulations to former Delta State player and assistant coach Greg Goff for getting the Alabama job; Goff took Louisiana Tech to the NCAA’s Starkville Regional this season. … Mark it down: On June 17, Tim Anderson got his first major league steal for the Chicago White Sox. The East Central Community College product stole 94 bags in 332 games in the minors.

25 May

not to be overlooked

Of the four young players Atlanta got from San Diego in the Justin Upton trade in 2014, the least heralded was Dustin Peterson. Jace Peterson, Mallex Smith and Max Fried were the attention-grabbing names in the deal, but Dustin Peterson has begun to garner his share. Now playing left field for the Mississippi Braves, and playing in the shadow of top prospect Dansby Swanson, Peterson is leading the team in homers and RBIs with five and 25. He heads into tonight’s game at Trustmark Park in Pearl with six hits in his last 14 at-bats, boosting his average to .262. Peterson, listed at 6 feet 2, 210 pounds, appears to have legit right-handed power. Four of his homers have come at the TeePee, where right-handed hitters especially have trouble knocking the ball out. Peterson was a second-round pick by San Diego out of high school in Arizona in 2013. Originally a third baseman, he was shifted to the outfield by Atlanta. At high Class A Carolina in 2015, he hit .251 with eight homers and 62 RBIs, and he entered this season rated the Braves’ No. 21 prospect by mlb.com. Only 21, Peterson is holding his own in his first tour of Double-A ball. P.S. The M-Braves are 20-25 with a three-game win streak entering the five-game homestand against Jacksonville. Trailing first-place Biloxi by 6½ games in the Southern League South, the M-Braves have plenty of time to make up ground – the first half ends June 19 – but need to step it up at home, where they are 8-12.

20 May

standing out

With so many talented young arms now at work in the Atlanta system, it’s not easy to stand out. Chris Ellis has found a way. The Ole Miss alum goes to the mound tonight for the Mississippi Braves at Mobile with a 6-0 record and a 2.06 ERA. The 6-foot-5 right-hander, who throws three quality pitches, has 36 strikeouts and 19 walks in 48 innings. He leads the Southern League in wins, ranks eighth in ERA, ninth in WHIP and fifth in innings (an underrated stat). He is even swinging the bat: 5-for-13. Ellis, a third-round draft selection by the Los Angeles Angels in 2014, made it to Double-A last summer and went 7-4, 3.92. The Braves acquired him in the Andrelton Simmons trade, and he is rated their No. 14 prospect by mlb.com. Nine other pitchers, scattered throughout the system, are ranked above Ellis, but none is having more success this year. P.S. M-Braves catcher Willians Astudillo recently was highlighted in Baseball America for his uncanny ability to make contact. Astudillo has struck out just two times this season in 114 at-bats. (He has only walked twice while batting .272.) A minor league free agent signee by Atlanta this off-season, Astudillo has fanned just 53 times in 1,651 at-bats, with a .314 career average. … The M-Braves have hit seven home runs as a team in 20 games at spacious Trustmark Park this season, four of those by Dustin Peterson. Oxford High’s Thomas Dillard hit two bombs at the TeePee on Thursday in the Chargers’ MHSAA Class 5A championship clincher against Hattiesburg. Dillard finished the year with 16 homers.

15 May

moving on

Buckle up. Big week ahead on many fronts. East Central Community College, continuing its ’27 Yankees impression, beat Jones County Junior College 13-12 on Saturday to win the MACJC title and will host the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament in Decatur. No. 2-ranked Jones will be there, as well as No. 1 LSU-Eunice (50-4) and Northwest Mississippi. … William Carey University is off to Santa Barbara, Calif., for NAIA regional play. The 25th-ranked Crusaders (37-19), led by All-SSAC first-team picks Adrian Brown and Tyler Odom, take on College of Idaho on Tuesday in the five-team opening round tournament. The top seed there is Westmont (Calif.). … Jackson State and Alcorn State, the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds from the SWAC East, start play on Wednesday in the conference tournament at Barrow Stadium in New Orleans. Alabama State dominated the league with a 24-0 mark, but JSU (32-24 overall) certainly has the hitters (see Cornelius Copeland, Carlos Diaz, Jesus Santana) to make a run. … Delta State will learn tonight where it is heading for NCAA Division II regional play. The Statesmen (38-15) earned an automatic bid by winning their 13th Gulf South Conference championship last week. … And the MHSAA finals matchups are set: Madison Central-George County in Class 6A, Oxford-Hattiesburg in 5A, Houston-Newton County in 4A, Kossuth-St. Andrews in 3A, East Union-Loyd Star in 2A and Tupelo Christian Prep-Ethel in 1A. The games in the best-of-3 series begin Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

26 Apr

just the facts

8,480 – Listed capacity of Pearl’s Trustmark Park, which will be exceeded in tonight’s Ole Miss-Mississippi State game.
6:30 – Time of first pitch, changed to accommodate the SEC Network broadcast.
36 – Meetings in the Mayor’s Trophy/Governor’s Cup series, with each team winning 18 times.
246 – Wins for State in the all-time series.
205 – Wins for Ole Miss in the all-time series.
5 – Wins by State vs. Ole Miss in nine games at Trustmark Park.
3 – State’s ranking in the Baseball America poll (and two others).
9 – Ole Miss’ ranking in the BA poll.
0 – Career starts for Ole Miss freshman Ryan Cyr (1-0, 0.00 in 12 innings), who gets the ball tonight.
8 – Career starts for State junior Chad Smith, who is 3-3, 4.99 in 11 appearances overall.
7 – Home runs by Gavin Collins, State’s leader.
5 – Home runs by Colby Bortles and J.B. Woodman, Ole Miss’ leaders.
.397 – State’s team on-base percentage.
.362 – Ole Miss’ team OBP.
39 – First-inning runs scored by Ole Miss (to 15 by its opponents).
122 – Two-out RBIs by State hitters.
3.84 – State’s staff ERA.
3.07 – Ole Miss’ staff ERA.

22 Apr

together again

Mississippi Braves vs. Biloxi Shuckers. We want this to be a rivalry. Rivalries are good. They demand attention. Remember Jackson-Shreveport from the old Texas League days? The M-Braves and Shuckers meet for the first time in 2016 tonight at Trustmark Park. They split their 24 meetings in 2015, but, M-Braves fans should recall, the Shuckers clinched — and celebrated — the Southern League South first-half championship at the TeePee last June. So, there’s that. Biloxi comes in tonight leading the SL South at 11-3. The M-Braves are last at 5-10. The Shuckers again feature a bevy of top Milwaukee prospects, including No. 2 Brett Phillips, who is batting .311 with a homer and eight RBIs, and right-hander Adrian Houser, tonight’s starter, who is 0-1, 5.73 ERA. Biloxi has three of the SL’s top 10 hitters: Phillips, Victor Roache (.333) and Javier Betancourt (.314). The M-Braves have one: Ozzie Albies, who’s third at .350. Both teams pitch pretty well, ranking second (Biloxi) and fourth in the league in ERA. Lucas Sims, one of several pitching prospects on the M-Braves’ roster, gets the start in Game 1; he is 0-2, 1.84. P.S. Big league chew: Ex-Ole Miss star and veteran big leaguer Alex Presley got a hit in his Milwaukee debut on Thursday. … Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Jarrod Dyson is 3-for-9 with two steals since Kansas City activated him from the disabled list. … Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton has a thumb injury (from last week’s home run-robbing catch) that is keeping him out of the Cincinnati lineup. … Former Pillow Academy standout Louis Coleman has been placed on the bereavement list by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

17 Apr

searching …

Trustmark Park is not a great place to find your offense, but the Mississippi Braves open a 10-game homestand tonight desperately searching. The M-Braves, off to a 2-8 start, are batting .218 and have scored just 27 runs, ninth in the 10-team Southern League. Nine of those runs came in one game, a win at Montgomery on Friday. Maybe that was a sign that a breakout is imminent. There are only 10 position players among the top 30 prospects (as rated by mlb.com) in Atlanta’s refurbished minor league system, and three of them are playing for the M-Braves. No. 3 Ozzie Albies is off to a fine start, batting .310. No. 21 Dustin Peterson also has played well, hitting .308 with a homer (in Friday’s game) and seven RBIs. No. 24 Johan Camargo, like Albies and Peterson, playing his first Double-A season, has scuffled (.179). The pitching depth in the Braves’ system is impressive, but they’re going to have to produce some hitters, too. There are less-heralded players on the M-Braves’ roster who could be part of the rebuild in Atlanta but who need to get it going. First baseman Jacob Schrader, who hit .268 and belted 15 homers at Class A Carolina in 2015, has hit one bomb this year (Friday in Montgomery) and is batting just .214. Third baseman Carlos Franco, who had 11 homers at Carolina last year, is still looking for his first in Mississippi and is hitting .125. Infielder Emerson Landoni, a .297 hitter for the M-Braves a year ago, is at .118. Outfielder Dian Toscano, the 27-year-old Cuban signee, is 1-for-8 in his two games since being activated, though the one hit was a two-run triple in that Friday game at Montgomery. He’s one to watch. Outfielder Connor Lien had good numbers at Carolina in 2015 (.285, nine homers, 32 steals) but is currently on the disabled list. He could boost the attack, too, whenever he returns. The M-Braves’ pitching staff, armed with prospects, has a 3.19 ERA. If they could only get them some runs. P.S. On Chattanooga’s roster is former Ole Miss star Stuart Turner, a catcher who is batting .364, ranking among the SL leaders. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore is hitting .282 with a home run and seven RBIs in eight games at Triple-A Gwinnett. Former M-Braves third baseman Rio Ruiz is hitting .314 for the G-Braves; he hit .229 in Pearl last season. … Dansby Swanson, the Braves’ No. 1 prospect, is killing it at Carolina, hitting .350 in 10 games for the high-A club.

05 Apr

winging it

Trustmark Park is a notorious pitchers’ park, so when considering tonight’s Southern Miss-Ole Miss game in Pearl, it makes sense to cut right to the starting pitchers. They are a study in contrast. USM’s Mason Walley is a 6-foot right-hander, a Taylorsville native who transferred in this year from junior college powerhouse LSU-Eunice. Ole Miss’ James McArthur is a 6-foot-7, 217-pound left-hander, a freshman from Texas. Walley, who won a state high school championship at the TeePee in 2013 with Taylorsville, hasn’t worked much for the Golden Eagles. In four games (8 1/3 innings), he is 1-1 with a 4.32 ERA. He was an ace at Taylorsville and at LSU-E, going 11-1 for the NJCAA Division II champions last year. McArthur has been something of a midweek ace for the Rebels. He is 3-0 with a 5.48 ERA in six games, including five midweek starts. He’ll face a USM team with a lot of momentum. The Eagles (22-7) pounded Charlotte in a C-USA sweep over the weekend, scoring 34 runs. USM has won six of seven overall and has a six-game win streak against the Rebels. USM has beaten UM seven of 10 in the Trustmark College Series. The nationally ranked Rebels (21-7) are in a 1-5 tailspin in which they’ve had trouble scoring. Trustmark Park is typically not a place for bats to come alive, though USM and Mississippi State combined for 18 runs there last week. Even in a pitchers’ park, pitchers gotta pitch.