Tag Archives: White Sox

12 Nov

ring the bell

It’ll come as no surprise if Brent Rooker is awarded the Silver Slugger at DH in the American League. The former Mississippi State star hit .293 with 39 homers, 112 RBIs, 82 runs, 26 doubles, 11 steals, a .927 OPS and a 5.6 WAR for the (no longer Oakland) Athletics. All of those numbers were easily career-highs for the fifth-year big leaguer. He was tied for fourth in the AL in homers and ranked third in RBIs. No other Mississippian (native or school alum) came close to Rooker’s production this season, making Rooker a slam-dunk choice for the Cool Papa Bell Award. Other winners of the Bell — given here for the best performance by a Mississippian in MLB — include Justin Steele, Austin Riley, Tim Anderson, Corey Dickerson, Mitch Moreland, Brian Dozier, Desmond Jennings, Lance Lynn, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Chris Coghlan. For the record, Rooker made $750,000 this past season; he is due for a big jump in salary arbitration. P.S. Vicksburg native Dmitri Young was a guest on MLB Network’s Hot Stove show today and did an engaging interview ranging from his baseball card collection to his rising star nephew Quentin to his first MLB game against studio host Al Leiter. Young hit 171 homers in a 13-year big league career. … Jared Johnson, who powered Class 1A Smithville High to a state championship back in 2019, has been traded by Atlanta to the A’s for infielder Nick Allen. Johnson, 23, posted a 2.60 ERA as a reliever at High-Class A Rome in 2024 and has a 3.98 over his five minor league campaigns. The 6-foot-2 right-hander has 225 strikeouts in 183 1/3 career innings. Allen is a good defensive shortstop who hasn’t hit in limited big league time. … Former Biloxi Shuckers star Jackson Chourio, now with Milwaukee, was named a finalist for National League rookie of the year. He hit .275 with 21 homers and 22 steals. … Shuckers alum Brice Turang, a Gold Glove winner at second base, won the NL’s Platinum Glove as the best overall defensive player in the league. Turang was a first-round pick by Milwaukee in 2018 and played for the Double-A Shuckers in 2021. He posted a .989 fielding percentage with just seven errors at second base in 2024. He had 379 assists and a hand in 78 double plays. He led all major league players with 22 Defensive Runs Saved in 2024 per mlb.com and all NL fielders in Baseball Reference’s Defensive Wins Above Replacement stat. … Louisville native Marcus Thames apparently will be retained as hitting coach of the Chicago White Sox, who recently named Will Venable as their manager for 2025. The ChiSox went 41-121 last season, worst record in modern MLB history. … Brett Wellman, son of former Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman, has been named manager of the Down East Bird Dawgs, who’ll join the Mississippi Mud Monsters as an expansion team in the independent Frontier League next year. Brett Wellman, a bullpen catcher for the M-Braves when his dad was manager, played three years in the Toronto system.

09 Oct

have a blast

In his first at-bat in the talent-laden Arizona Fall League, in the second inning of Tuesday’s game, former Ole Miss star Kemp Alderman belted a two-run homer for visiting Peoria. Not to be outdone, Tim Elko, another ex-Rebels slugger, mashed a two-run shot of his own a couple innings later for Glendale, which won the slugfest 15-13. All told, six balls left the yard at Camelback Ranch. Anyone knowing anything about Alderman and Elko isn’t really surprised they got theirs. Elko hit 46 homers over five seasons at UM, Alderman 31 in essentially two seasons. They were a powerful pair in the lineup for the 2022 Rebels team that won the College World Series. Elko was drafted in the 10th round that summer by the Chicago White Sox and has continued to rake in pro ball: 51 bombs in three years. He hit .289 with 18 homers between Double-A and Triple-A in 2024. Alderman won the Ferriss Trophy in 2023 after a huge season for the Rebels and was drafted in the second round that year by Miami. The Decatur native hit .242 with eight homers this summer, spending most of the season in A-ball but finishing it off in Double-A. A righty-hitting outfielder, Alderman is ranked as Miami’s No. 12 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Elko, a right-handed hitting first baseman/DH, isn’t on the ChiSox’s Top 30 chart but surely is on their radar. P.S. On this date in 1934, Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean, an adopted Mississippian, threw a six-hit shutout as St. Louis beat Detroit 11-0 in Game 7 of the World Series at Navin Field. Dean, who also had two hits and an RBI in the game, struck out five and walked none in his second victory of the Series. Also on this date, in 1984, Sunflower native Larry Herndon hit a game-deciding homer for Detroit in the World Series opener against San Diego, a 3-2 victory at Jack Murphy Stadium. The Tigers would go on to win the Series in five games.

28 Sep

it’s party time

More Mississippians in the majors celebrated making the postseason on Friday night. In Detroit, former Biloxi High star Colt Keith and the Tigers beat the Chicago White Sox 4-1 to claim an American League wild card berth, while in Atlanta, Mississippi State alums Hunter Renfroe, Adam Frazier and Chris Stratton and ex-Ole Miss standout James McArthur popped champagne as Kansas City clinched the final AL wild card despite a 3-0 loss to the Braves. Detroit, making the playoffs for the first time since 2014, has won six in a row and is on a 31-11 run. Manager A.J. Hinch mentioned the team’s walk-off 10-inning win over the New York Yankees in the Little League Classic back on Aug. 18 as a huge moment. Rookie Keith went 3-for-4 in that game, doubled and scored the game-tying run in the ninth inning. Keith is batting .261 with 13 homers and 61 RBIs; he won’t win rookie of the year but will get some votes. The Royals, who clinched their bid when collapsing Minnesota lost at home to Baltimore, are back in the postseason for the first time since winning the World Series in 2015. Renfroe, Frazier and Stratton, each of whom has postseason experience, were off-season additions to a club that rebounded from a 106-loss season in 2023. Stratton and McArthur are currently on the injured list. Already having punched postseason tickets in the AL are Southern Miss product Nick Sandlin (Cleveland), ex-MSU standout Jordan Westburg (Baltimore) and Ole Miss alum Grae Kessinger (Houston). P.S. The White Sox’s loss was their MLB-record 121st of the season. Don’t blame Ocean Springs High product Garrett Crochet for that one; the All-Star lefty threw four shutout innings at the Tigers before departing because of his pitch limit. … Atlanta’s win, fueled by former Mississippi Braves star Max Fried’s electrifying start, moved the Braves into a three-way tie with Arizona and the Mets in the National League wild card standings. Only two of the three will get in the playoffs. Stay tuned.

23 Sep

on center stage

The spotlight is a little brighter in the postseason, and Jacob Gonzalez is showing out in the Southern League playoffs. The ex-Ole Miss standout went 3-for-5 Sunday, including a three-run double that broke the game open in the seventh inning, as Birmingham beat Montgomery 7-2 in the opener of the SL Championship Series. Gonzalez, a lefty-swinging shortstop, is batting .538 with a homer, five RBIs and two steals in four postseason games for the Chicago White Sox’s Double-A club. The 15th overall pick ($3.9 million signing bonus) in the 2023 draft, Gonzalez was promoted from High-Class A Winston-Salem in late May and started hot for Birmingham before cooling down to a .225 average. On the year, he batted .238 with eight homers, 57 RBIs and 17 steals. He’s considered a good glove, but speculation is he’ll eventually move off shortstop. The California native had a stellar career at Ole Miss, helping the Rebels win the 2022 College World Series. Game 2 of the best-of-3 title series is Tuesday in Birmingham. … In the Double-A Eastern League Championship Series, Erie beat Somerset 9-5 in Game 1. Former Mississippi State product Colby White is a bullpen piece for Somerset (New York Yankees affiliate) and ex-William Carey star Patrick Lee a reserve infielder for Erie (Detroit). Neither played in the opener. … The Triple-A postseason begins on Tuesday. Ole Miss alum Doug Nikhazy pitches for Columbus (Cleveland) and MSU product Eric Cerantola for Omaha (Kansas City), who meet in the International League title series. Former State standout Konnor Pilkington pitches for Reno (Arizona), which takes on Sugar Land for the Pacific Coast League crown. P.S. In MLB, All-Star infielder Jordan Westburg returned to Baltimore’s lineup on Sunday, the ex-MSU star going 1-for-4 with an RBI in a loss to surging Detroit. … Emblematic of Kansas City’s struggles, MSU product Hunter Renfroe went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts as the Royals lost for the seventh straight time, 2-0 to San Francisco. The Royals managed three hits and fanned 13 times as they fell into a tie for the second American League wild card with Detroit. Renfroe, who has 13 homers, is in a 1-for-21 slump in his last seven games. … Southern Miss alum Matt Wallner had a hit in each game but couldn’t prevent Minnesota from being swept in a twinbill by Boston (8-1 and 9-3) and tumbling out of a wild card berth in the AL. … On Sept. 23, 2009, former Shannon High and Jackson State standout Dave Clark notched his first win as interim manager for Houston, which beat St. Louis 3-0. A longtime big league slugger and current first-base coach for the Astros, Clark went 4-9 in his lone managerial stint.

21 Sep

odds and ends

Garrett Crochet’s 2024 numbers, most of them, are pretty good. The Ocean Springs native, starting for the first time since his college days four years ago, has a 3.68 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP, a .220 batting average against and 203 strikeouts with just 32 walks in 142 innings. The tall left-hander, an All-Star back in July, struck out eight with no walks in a four-inning scoreless outing on Friday. His team, the mournful Chicago White Sox, lost again to fall to 36-118. Crochet’s record is 6-12. How’d he ever win six? … Ex-Southern Miss standout Matt Wallner went 2-for-6 with an RBI knock in the 12th inning as Minnesota beat Boston 4-2 at Fenway Park to climb to within a game of slumping Kansas City for second place in the American League wild card race. Detroit, which lost Friday to wild card leader Baltimore, is a game back of the Twins, and Seattle is a game back of the Tigers. Three wild card teams make the postseason. … Madison Central High alum Spencer Turnbull is slated for a rehab appearance at Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Sunday; the right-hander, on the injured list since late June, is 3-0 with a 2.65 ERA in 17 games for Philadelphia, which clinched a postseason berth on Friday. When he might return to the active roster remains unclear. … J.T. Ginn, the former Mississippi State pitcher from Brandon, worked five innings, allowing one run, for Oakland against the New York Yankees Friday but got a no-decision in a game the A’s would lose 4-2 in 10 innings. Rookie Ginn is 0-1 with a 4.40 ERA in seven games. … Ex-USM star Matthew Etzel went 1-for-3 and scored a run as Montgomery beat Biloxi to claim the Southern League South Division title. Former Magnolia Heights standout Cooper Pratt homered for the Shuckers. Birmingham won the North Division title over Tennessee with Ole Miss product Jacob Gonzalez going 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run. The SL Championship Series starts Sunday at Montgomery. … USM alum and erstwhile big leaguer Kirk McCarty is 5-2 with a 2.61 ERA in 11 starts for CTBC Brothers, which has the best overall record in the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

14 Sep

welcome back … ?

The Pittsburgh Pirates and fans at PNC Park gave Adam Frazier a warm “welcome back” on Friday night. The Pirates played a video tribute to their former star on the stadium scoreboard and the crowd gave him a standing ovation before his first at-bat. “Appreciate them doing that,” the Mississippi State product said in a postgame interview. “Then you gotta lock back in, that’s all I was trying to do right there … .” He did, helping visiting Kansas City — fighting for a playoff berth — roll to an 8-3 victory. Frazier scored twice and hit his fourth home run as the Royals improved to 81-67, second in the American League wild card standings. Frazier was drafted by the Pirates in 2013 and spent his first six MLB seasons in a Pittsburgh uniform. He was traded in mid-2021, which was the last time he played at PNC. He has bounced to four other teams the past four years. A .264 career hitter, Frazier’s first year in KC hasn’t been great — .205, four homers, 20 RBIs, 32 runs over 244 at-bats — but he plays hard and plays anywhere in the field he is needed. He also has postseason experience — with Baltimore in 2023 and Seattle in 2022. P.S. Saucier native Brandon Parker, back near his old stomping grounds at Biloxi’s Keesler Federal Park, homered for the second straight night as the Mississippi Braves beat the Shuckers 7-0 in a Double-A Southern League game. Parker has eight homers on the season. At Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, Parker belted 38 homers in two seasons, setting the school record with 24 as a freshman in 2018. … Ole Miss alum T.J. McCants doubled home the winning run in the 11th inning as Low-Class A Kannapolis beat Charleston 2-1 to advance to the Carolina League Championship Series. McCants, who finished his college career at Alabama in 2024, hit .230 with two homers and four steals this season for the Chicago White Sox affiliate.

03 Sep

ready, set, go …

Everybody in the Cincinnati ballpark knew what was coming. On Sept. 3, 2013, Billy Hamilton was inserted into a major league game for the first time, as a pinch runner in the seventh inning of a scoreless game between the host Reds and St. Louis. The former Taylorsville High star, who had swiped 395 bases in five minor league seasons to that point, promptly stole second — against Cardinals All-Star/Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina, no less. Todd Frazier then doubled, and Hamilton cruised home with what would be the game’s only run. That stolen base was the first of 326 big league steals by Hamilton, the all-time leader among Mississippi natives. The run was the first of 454 he would score in 951 MLB games in a career that ended in 2023. He was also a tremendous defensive center fielder. Hamilton got national attention when he stole a record 155 bases in the minors in 2012. His games were like a track meet: 410 steals in 572 minor league contests. In his first four full big league seasons (2014-17), he swiped 56, 57, 58 and 59. In 2018, his last season with Cincinnati, he got 34 bags. That was the last year he played regularly as he bounced from team to team, playing for seven all told from 2019-23. He played his last game on May 4 of last year for the Chicago White Sox. And yes, he did steal a base. Listed at 6 feet, 160 pounds in his prime, Hamilton hit just .239 (.292 on-base percentage) over his 11-year career. One can only wonder what kind of numbers “Bone” would have put up if he could only have gotten on base more often. Second on Mississippi’s all-time steals list is Cool Papa Bell, credited with 285 in his Negro Leagues career. Jarrod Dyson is third with 266, Gee Walker fourth with 223. Even with new rules now that favor base-stealing, it’s hard to imagine anyone topping Hamilton’s 326.

02 Sep

small consolation

History will show that Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet was the losing pitcher in the 2024 Chicago White Sox’s franchise-record 107th loss. From the Small Consolation Dept.: History will also show that Crochet tied an American League record by striking out the first seven New York Mets batters he faced in Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Guaranteed Rate Field. To be sure, there have been positives for Crochet in what has been an abject disaster of a season for his team. Starting for the first time since his college days at Tennessee (2018-20), the 25-year-old left-hander made the AL All-Star team in his fourth big league campaign. He has a 3.61 ERA (but just a 6-10 record) and ranks third in the league with 188 strikeouts. He won five times in a seven-game stretch in May and June, earning AL pitcher of the month honors for June. He celebrated his last win on June 7; that’s how bad the ChiSox have been. Sunday’s strikeout streak “was cool,” Crochet said in an mlb.com piece. “Sadly, I kind of wasted a lot of pitches in that time. So it kind of ate into my pitch count ….” Now on a strict pitch limit, he threw 56, one of which Francisco Lindor smacked out of the park, the lone run Crochet allowed in 3 1/3 innings. Former Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson was behind the plate for Crochet’s stint. … For the record, Gulfport native Bill Melton was on the 1970 White Sox team that lost 106 games, hitting 33 home runs. P.S. Ex-Mississippi State standout Justin Foscue, back in the big leagues with Texas, started at first base Sunday, walked and scored a run in the Rangers’ win over Oakland. … Ole Miss product Lance Lynn’s rehab start with Triple-A Memphis didn’t go too well: five runs, eight K’s in 3 2/3 innings; he has been on St. Louis’ injured list since July 31. … With MLB rosters expanding to 28 this month, it would be nice to see Colorado give a call to Hunter Stovall, the former State star who has been in the system since 2018. The 5-foot-6 second baseman, who hit a walk-off homer on Saturday at Triple-A Albuquerque, is batting .280 with six homers, 35 RBIs and 11 steals. He isn’t on the 40-man roster, so his chances of a promotion are slim. … Southern Miss product Matthew Etzel, who has scuffled at Double-A Montgomery since being traded by Baltimore to Tampa Bay, banged out four hits on Sunday to lift his average to .242 with four homers and 13 RBIs in 27 games. He is batting .278 with 10 homers and 45 steals overall in his first full pro season.

22 Aug

pitching in

J.T. Ginn made a pretty impressive big league debut on Wednesday night, one of several noteworthy pitching performances from Magnolia State products in pro ball. Ex-Mississippi State star Ginn, called up by Oakland on Tuesday (see previous post), struck out the side around a walk in his first inning and finished with two hitless innings of relief work in the A’s 4-2 loss against Tampa Bay. … Southern Miss alum Tyler Stuart, making his Triple-A debut in the Washington chain, went 6 2/3, allowing one hit and one run with six strikeouts, to notch the victory for Rochester in a 4-1 win over Lehigh Valley. … Landon Harper, another former USM standout, pitched the last three innings for the Mississippi Braves and earned his first Double-A save in a 4-2 win vs. Chattanooga at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Harper has a 1.46 ERA in 19 appearances, with three holds and two wins. … Tanner Hall, the 2022 Ferriss Trophy winner at USM, allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings in his second High-Class A start in Minnesota’s system. Hall (two hits, two walks, four K’s) got a no-decision in Cedar Rapids’ 4-3 loss to Dayton. … Cam Schuelke, a 2024 draftee out of MSU by Cleveland, got the last two outs for Low-A Lynchburg in a 3-2 victory vs. Salem and earned his second save. He has not allowed a run in four games. P.S. Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet, now working limited innings for the Chicago White Sox, yielded two runs in four innings and got a no-decision in the club’s 6-2 win at San Francisco. The All-Star lefty, who has a 3.64 ERA, has pitched four innings or fewer in his last eight starts and is 0-3 in that span. … In the independent Frontier League, ex-Itawamba Community College star Tyreque Reed hit two of the five homers allowed by Belhaven product Brett Sanchez in Washington’s 8-2 win over Joliet. Reed is batting .339 with 10 bombs. Sanchez slipped to 4-6, 4.48 ERA, after allowing eight runs in five innings.

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.