totally random, vol. 2.4

Today's subject: Fred Valentine. The Clarksdale native, nicknamed "Squeaky" for reasons unknown, played a handful of seasons in the majors from 1959-68 but has only one stat line on his baseball card that jumps out. In 1966, with the Washington Senators, the switch-hitting outfielder batted .276 with 16 homers, 29 doubles, seven triples, 59 RBIs and 22 stolen bases. He even got some MVP votes in a season dominated by Triple Crown winner Frank Robinson. Valentine played at Tennessee State and signed with Baltimore in 1956. He debuted in the big leagues in 1959, with the Orioles, but was done 10 years later. He finished with a .247 career average and 36 homers. If only he could've bottled that '66 season ... .
P.S. Former Mississippi Braves first baseman Mauro Gomez homered to help Escogido win the Dominican Winter League championship series on Monday night. Also on the pennant-winning team are ex-Jackson Generals star Julio Lugo and Starkville native Julio Borbon. M-Braves alums Barbaro Canizares and Iker Franco and Alcorn State product Corey Wimberly played for Mexican Pacific League champ Obregon, and ex-M-Braves infielder Luis Hernandez was a regular with Venezuela champ Aragua. Those three teams, plus Puerto Rico champion Mayaguez, will meet in the Caribbean Series that starts Thursday. ... Former Jackson Generals slugger Daryle Ward, who played in the minors for Arizona last year, received a 50-game suspension from Major League Baseball for a positive drug test (amphetamines). It was unlikely Ward, a free agent, would have returned to the big leagues this year anyway.

coming fast

Former Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz flashed his vast potential in a major league trial last summer, when he posted a 2-1 record and a 5.40 ERA in four starts for Colorado. The big left-hander, acquired from Cleveland in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade last year, will go to spring training next month competing for a spot in the Rockies' rotation. The Indians invited Pomeranz, a 2010 first-round pick, to their camp last spring but let him know early on that he wasn't going to make the big club. Pomeranz said in a recent interview with mlb.com that he drew motivation from that and had a strong spring. "This time it's a different kind of excitement, just to know that I can actually be there this time," he told mlb.com. "I'll find a way to get fired up. You don't have to worry about that." Rockies manager Jim Tracy said Pomeranz can be "pretty special." New Mississippi Braves manager Aaron Holbert knows that. He had Pomeranz last season at Class A Kinston, where he went 3-2 with a 1.87 ERA in 15 starts. "If he can stay healthy and be smart off the field, he'll be fine," Holbert said. "He's a great talent. A lot of people in the baseball world are starting to realize what he can do."

and so it begins

If Belhaven coach Hill Denson really is worried about whether his team can score enough to be successful this season, his fears seemed unfounded in today’s season opener at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Blazers, ranked 15th in the preseason NAIA poll, whipped Blue Mountain 4-0 before an announced crowd of 300 on a sun-splashed, made-for-baseball day. BU got eight hits, including a home run by Jason Hicks, RBI doubles by Anthony Doss and Jamie Bruno and an RBI single from Bud Britt. Ryan Saunders added a pair of singles. Hicks, a transfer from NCAA Division I Louisiana-Monroe, was making his Blazers debut, as were Bruno (an LSU transfer) and Britt (an All-State selection at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in 2011). Doss, a former Southern Miss player, and Saunders, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound Canadian, are two of the top returning position players from a team that notched a school-record 45 games last year, won the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament and played in the NAIA national tourney. Of course, pitching is expected to be the real strength of this edition of Blazers. In that department, Denson has no worries. Geoffrey Thomas, one of three USM transfers added to an already deep pitching staff, made his BU debut today and threw six innings of one-hit ball. Matt Shaw, another ex-Golden Eagles hurler, worked two scoreless innings. The Blazers did make an error in the field, so they weren’t quite perfect. But they showed they could hit. And pitch. Rest assured, there will be many more days like this for Denson’s club.

where oh where?

The Roy Oswalt watch is still on. Texas Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said in an interview with a Dallas radio station that the right-hander's reported interest in the Rangers is "intriguing" but added that his club's rotation is basically set. Oswalt, out of Weir and Holmes Community College, supposedly is interested in Texas and St. Louis (Boston, not so much) because they are closer to home. Oswalt had an injury-curtailed season with Philadelphia in 2011 and might not pitch much longer. Still, he is one of the top prizes on the market.
P.S. Former Taylorsville High star Billy Hamilton recently was ranked the No. 4 shortstop prospect in all of the minors by mlb.com. That could be heady stuff for a young player who hasn't yet reached high-A ball heading into his fourth pro season. (Andrelton Simmons, the Mississippi Braves' probable shortstop this summer, was rated the No. 9 SS prospect by mlb.com; he is seemingly a much more advanced player than Hamilton.) True, Hamilton's speed is off the charts — 103 stolen bases in the Midwest League last year — and he was named Cincinnati's minor league player of the year for 2011. But he has struck out a lot thus far in his career, doesn't have much power (at least not yet) and is batting just .277 overall. Fully recovered from a broken hand in winter ball, Hamilton will go to the high-A California League this season. It'll be an interesting test.

opening bells

The first "Play ball!" of the 2012 season will ring out today at 3 p.m. at Jackson's Smith-Wills Stadium. Belhaven, nationally ranked in NAIA, welcomes Blue Mountain, in its second year of fielding a team, for the first game of the college campaign. The major schools begin practice today, looking eagerly (we suppose) ahead to the NCAA Division I standard opening day of Feb. 17. Ole Miss, ranked in two major preseason polls, opens at TCU. Mississippi State hosts Washington State; Southern Miss welcomes Nicholls State; and Jackson State will host Florida A&M. Division III Mississippi College is on the road for its opener on Feb. 3 at Huntingdon (in Alabama), and D-III Millsaps starts against Belhaven at home on Feb. 7. Division II Delta State launches on Feb. 10 at Montevallo (in Alabama).

a wanted man

Craig Tatum has found another home — for now. Arizona claimed the Mississippi State product off waivers from Houston on Monday. Tatum is one of four catchers currently on the Diamondbacks' 40-man roster, a group that includes starter Miguel Montero and veteran backup Henry Blanco. Tatum hit .245 in limited playing time (31 games) with Baltimore in 2011. He was a waiver claim by the Astros last fall but was removed from their big league roster last week. Tatum, a .223 career hitter, was originally drafted by Cincinnati.

stove toppings

On the hot stove front: Rumors are flying that the Boston Red Sox are the frontrunners to sign Roy Oswalt. The free agent right-hander from Weir and Holmes Community College is perhaps the top arm still on the market, and the Red Sox's trade of veteran shortstop Marco Scutaro may have been their way of positioning themselves financially to go after Oswalt. Oswalt had a tough 2011 in Philadelphia, battling injuries while posting a 9-10 mark with a 3.69 ERA. ... When Houston signed free agent catcher Chris Snyder on Friday, it made former Mississippi State standout Craig Tatum's situation more complicated. Tatum, claimed by the Astros off waivers from Baltimore last fall, was designated for assignment last week when the club signed free agent outfielder Jack Cust. Tatum was the veteran presence among the Astros' catching corps, which includes youngsters Jason Castro and Huberto Quintero. Now Snyder fills that role. If he clears waivers, Tatum could be retained by the Astros as an insurance catcher in Triple-A. Then again, he might be cut loose. ... Still no word on the future of Mississippians Bill Hall or Marcus Thames. ... Former Jackson Generals infielder Julio Lugo, who played briefly in Atlanta in 2011, reportedly has signed a minor league deal with Cleveland.

totally random, vol. 2.3

Today's subject: Hughie Critz. A long time ago, Critz was a very good player, worthy of mention any time an All-Mississippi major league team is discussed. The undersized (5 feet 8, 147 pounds) Starkville native, who starred at Mississippi A&M (now State), batted .268 over a 12-year major league career and four times led National League second basemen in fielding. In his first big league game, in 1924, Critz got two hits against Hall of Famer Grover Cleveland Alexander and went on to bat .322 as a rookie. He spent most of career with the Cincinnati Reds but won a World Series ring as a member of the 1933 New York Giants. Other members of that great club included Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell and Moss Point native Sam Leslie. Critz died in 1980 at the age of 79.
P.S. According to a post on rantsports.com/chicago-cubs, former Ole Miss standout Matt Tolbert has signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs. The team has not made an announcement regarding Tolbert, a utility infielder who hit .198 in 87 games with Minnesota last season.

high marks

Already rated among the Atlanta Braves' Top 10 prospects by Baseball America, Christian Bethancourt has been ranked the No. 7 catching prospect in the minors by mlb.com. Bethancourt figures to play for the Mississippi Braves this season; it wouldn't be a surprise to see the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Panama native behind the plate on opening day (April 5). A right-handed hitter, Bethancourt hit .303 with four home runs and 33 RBIs at low Class A Rome and .271-1-20 at high-A Lynchburg in 2011. He also impressed in the Arizona Fall League, especially with his arm. Brian McCann set the standard for M-Braves catchers in 2005; it'll be interesting to see how Bethancourt, only 20 years old, measures up.

finding work

Fred Lewis has signed a minor league deal with Cleveland and will get a chance to make the big league club in spring training. The Hattiesburg native, who played at Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, had a disappointing year with Cincinnati in 2011, batting .230 in 81 games. The 31-year-old outfielder, now with his fourth organization, is a .267 career hitter with 27 homers, 21 triples and 53 stolen bases in 517 games. There is probably room for Lewis in the Indians' outfield picture, which includes Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo and Michael Brantley.

taking a position

Tyler Moore, the former Mississippi State, Meridian Community College and Northwest Rankin High standout, is learning the ropes in the outfield, which should enhance his chances of making the majors with Washington. Moore, a longtime first baseman who blasted 31 homers each of the last two seasons in the minors, spent a couple of weeks playing outfield in instructional league in the fall and has been working recently with Nationals coach Bo Porter on some of the finer points of fly chasing. "I'm excited about getting to play out there," Moore said. "I don't care where I play if it helps me get to the big leagues." Moore will go to big league camp next month as a 40-man roster member. Washington, which has been courting free agent Prince Fielder, has veteran Adam LaRoche penciled in as its starting first baseman and signed the versatile Mark DeRosa as a potential backup there. Chris Marrero, another first base prospect, is going to miss the start of the 2012 season with an injury. Moore likely will start this year in Triple-A, though another tour in Double-A, as an outfielder, is possible.
P.S. Starkville native Julio Borbon has helped Escogido move to the top of the pack in the Dominican Winter League playoffs. Borbon, a Texas Rangers outfielder, went 2-for-3 and scored twice as the leadoff batter in an 8-2 win on Monday. He is hitting .250 overall. Borbon will be trying to reestablish himself in Texas' plans this spring. He was the Rangers' primary center fielder in 2010, when he batted .276 and stole 15 bags. But he slumped last year, got hurt and was sent to the minors. He hit .298 with 16 steals in 131 at-bats at Triple-A Round Rock.

something new

The rumor has finally become reality. Seth Smith, the former Ole Miss standout from Jackson, will be changing teams — and leagues — this season. Colorado dealt the 29-year-old outfielder to Oakland for two pitchers. Smith hit .284 with 15 homers for the Rockies in 2011, but he became expendable when they signed free agent outfielder Michael Cuddyer. Colorado was looking for arms and may have landed two pretty good ones. Right-hander Guillermo Moscoso was 8-10 with a 3.38 ERA last season, and lefty Josh Outman, who spent some time in the minors in 2011, was 3-5 with a 3.70 with the big league club. Smith, a lefty who can play right or left field, is a .275 career hitter (over four-plus years) and will surely help the low-budget A's, who seem to be in constant rebuilding mode.

totally random, vol. 2.2

Today's subject: Steve Pegues. Pegues was one of those "toolsy" athletes whose failure to stick as a major leaguer is something of a head-scratcher. A 6-foot-2, 190-pound outfielder from Pontotoc, he played pro ball for 12 years and in eight different organizations. He got into 100 major league games and hit .266 with six home runs. Drafted in the first round by Detroit in 1987, Pegues made slow progress in the low minors and was claimed on waivers in 1992 by San Diego. He finally stamped himself as a prospect later that year when he recorded a record 68 hits in the Arizona Fall League. In 1993, at Triple-A Las Vegas, Pegues batted .352 with nine homers in 68 games. But the Padres never called him up, and he signed with Cincinnati as a free agent in 1994. He made his big league debut with the Reds that year and put up a .361 average in 18 games. But the Reds let him go that same summer, and he signed with Pittsburgh. He spent the 1995 season in the majors with the Pirates. His numbers: .246, six homers in 82 games. That was his shot. He never got back. He played three more years, bouncing through four more organizations and making a brief independent league appearance. Pegues' minor league stats were good: .285, 64 homers, 443 RBIs, 141 steals. To make it in the majors, you just have to be that much better.

an alternate path

At this stage of his life, with his baseball playing career in the rearview mirror, Aaron Holbert figured he would be a forensic pathologist.
Or a crime scene investigator. Maybe a pharmacist.
“Those three things interested me,” Holbert said in a recent interview.
Yet six years after he last played a game, the 38-year-old California native finds himself still very much in the game. He’ll manage the Double-A Mississippi Braves in 2012 with four seasons of managerial experience under his belt and a seemingly bright future ahead in the profession.
Holbert was named the Carolina League manager of the year last season as the skipper of the Cleveland Indians’ Class A Kinston (N.C.) club, and Baseball America selected him as the manager on its Advanced Class A postseason All-Star team.
The Atlanta Braves hired him in October to run their Double-A club, which has produced a ton of major league talent over seven seasons in Pearl but has made the Southern League playoffs just twice, the last time in 2008.
“It’s a big challenge for me and the staff, too,” said Holbert, who will be assisted by returning coaches Mike Alvarez and Garey Ingram. “As a young manager in my first year of Double-A ball, first year with the Braves and in the National League, with the double switches … all that’s intriguing. I’m up for the challenge.”
Before 2005, Holbert would never have predicted this career path.
“If I didn’t make it as a major league player, I thought I’d go back to school and pursue some other career,” he said.
But when he was playing in the Cincinnati Reds organization in ’05 — a season in which he spent 22 games in the big leagues — Holbert began to hear “rumblings” from Reds brass.
“Different people were telling me, ‘You’d make a great coach when you retire,’” he said. “I’d never thought about (working in baseball) before that, but from then on it was in my mind.”
He spent most of the 2005 season at Triple-A Louisville, where his manager was Rick Sweet, who managed the old Jackson Generals in 1991 and ’92.
“I started to pay closer attention to how he ran the games,” Holbert said. “I’d sit next to him and ask him things. … I’m grateful to him for taking me under his wing. He allowed me to look inside his mind. Some of the things I do came from him.”
Holbert rattles off George Kissell, Joe Pettini, John Goryl, Bruce Fields and Gary Thurman as other influences on his managerial style.
He formally set off on that path in 2006, after an injury in spring training left him as “the odd man out” in the Louisville infield.
“Johnny Almarez, the Reds’ farm director at the time who’s now with the Braves, asked me if I wanted to try a coaching job, and I said OK,” Holbert said. “I went to the Gulf Coast League as an extra coach. The next year I was the hitting coach in Billings (Mont.), and in 2008, I got the chance to manage with Cleveland (at low-A Lake County in Ohio) and jumped on it.
“I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
And he appears to have an aptitude for pushing the right buttons.
His first Lake County team reached the South Atlantic League championship round and his Kinston clubs were in the postseason both years he was there.
Holbert managed against the Braves’ Carolina League club the last two years, so he already has some familiarity with many of the players he’ll likely have in 2012. Pitcher Zeke Spruill, outfielders Mycal Jones and Cory Harrilchak, highly touted shortstop Andrelton Simmons and first baseman Joe Terdoslavich are among that group.
Holbert, who attended Atlanta’s Florida instructional league camp in the fall, will be the first M-Braves manager not to have a background in the Atlanta system. He said he was enticed by Atlanta’s offer to manage at the Double-A level, calling it “a great opportunity to be part of this respected organization.”
“I fully acknowledge that I have things to learn and I’m willing to lean on my staff when I need them,” Holbert said. “I want to become a better manager and prepare the players the best we can for Triple-A and to help the big league club.”
The presumption is that Holbert will bring a youthful exuberance to the M-Braves’ clubhouse as well as a keen understanding of minor league life.
He played in 1,542 minor league games over 17 seasons. He was a first-round draft pick — 18th overall — out of Long Beach, Calif., by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1990. He passed through Jackson in 1994, playing shortstop for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers in 1994.
He made it to the big leagues in 1996 but got into just one game with the Cardinals. He didn’t make another major league appearance until 2005 with the Reds.
“I can relate to the younger players,” Holbert said. “I understand what it’s like to go on those bus rides, to live on $20 meal money, to be away from your family so much. To have a staff that can relate to all that … it makes it easier to get things across to the players.”
Holbert’s debut with the M-Braves will be April 5 at Trustmark Park.

uneasy feelings

Reports say that the Texas Rangers met with Prince Fielder today. If they sign the free agent first baseman, former Mississippi State standout Mitch Moreland is essentially out of a job in Texas. He'd likely be traded, and, coming off a pretty good first full season in the big leagues (.259, 16 homers, 51 RBIs), it figures there'd be some interest. But rosters are filling up. Miami is one of the six alleged suitors for Cuban sensation Yoenis Cespedes. He's a center fielder. If he signs with the Marlins, that would make it all the more problematic for Ole Miss product Chris Coghlan to stay with Miami. Coghlan, the 2009 National League rookie of the year, was the Marlins' opening day center fielder in 2011. He slumped (.230 in 65 games), got hurt and wound up in the minors. There may be a trade in his future, too.
P.S. Spring training is fast approaching, and the likes of Roy Oswalt, Fred Lewis, Marcus Thames, Matt Tolbert, Bill Hall and Joey Gathright are unsigned. Stay tuned.

those boys of winter

There's never a dull moment in the Caribbean, it seems. Former Mississippi Braves infielder Luis Hernandez (now in the Texas organization) homered on Thursday to help Aragua win in the Venezuelan playoffs. In the Mexican Pacific League postseason, ex-Jackson Generals star Daryle Ward went deep in a victory for Guasave, and ex-M-Brave Barbaro Canizares and Alcorn State product Corey Wimberly (recently signed by the New York Mets) had three hits each in Obregon's win. On Wednesday, onetime M-Braves lefty Francisley Bueno threw five shutout innings a win for Licey in the Dominican Winter League postseason, and ex-General Julio Lugo had a four-hit night for Escogido.
P.S. West Lauderdale High and Meridian Community College alumnus Paul Phillips has signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee. The well-traveled catcher spent last season in Triple-A with Cleveland. He has played 91 big league games over the last eight years, including 12 with Colorado in 2010.

transaction watch

Noticed on a perusal of the Baseball America minor league transactions chart that former Alcorn State star Corey Wimberly has signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets. Wimberly, who can play second base or the outfield, is a .297 career hitter with 274 steals in seven minor league seasons. He spent 2011 at Triple-A in the Pittsburgh system, hitting .228 in an injury-shortened campaign. Now 28, he is still looking for that first big league shot. The Mets released former Mississippi State infielder Jet Butler, who bogged down in A-ball. A more noteworthy release: Atlanta cut loose outfielder/second baseman Willie Cabrera, who spent parts of four seasons with the Mississippi Braves and was something of a fan favorite. He hit .306 in 2010 but wound up back in Double-A again last summer after an all-too-brief trial in Triple-A. Two other ex-M-Braves have found new homes: Baltimore signed outfielder Antoan Richardson, who got a big-league cup of coffee with the Braves last season, and reliever Stephen Marek, who has a 3.44 minor league ERA but can't seem to stay healthy, inked with Toronto.

totally random, vol. 2.1

Today’s subject: Cleo James. The Clarksdale native had a largely undistinguished major league career, batting .228 in 381 at-bats over parts of four seasons. Born in the Mississippi Delta, he grew up in California and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1961. It took him seven years to make the big leagues. The Chicago Cubs drafted him from the Dodgers and he played somewhat regularly for them in 1970 and ’71, batting .287 in the latter season as a platooning outfielder on a star-studded club with Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Ron Santo, Ole Miss alum Don Kessinger, Glenn Beckert, Ferguson Jenkins, et. al. James hit .296 in his minor league career, stealing as many as 46 bases in a season and hitting 11 homers in another. He just couldn’t reproduce those numbers in The Show. But James can claim this bit of trivia: He is one of only two players in MLB history to go by the name Cleo. The other was Cleo Carlyle, who played for the Boston Red Sox in 1927.

still closed

His numbers improved (a little), but former Mississippi State standout Rafael Palmeiro is still locked out of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Palmeiro, whose otherwise stellar career was tainted by a failed drug test near the end, was named today on 13 percent of the writers' ballots. That's up from 11 percent last year in his first time on the ballot. It takes 75 percent to make the Hall; former Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin was the only player to make the cut this year. Palmeiro topped 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, Hall of Fame numbers, to be sure. But the suspicion about how much those numbers were boosted by illegal performance enhancing drugs may be too much for Palmeiro to ever overcome.
P.S. Former Bulldogs left-hander Paul Maholm reportedly is close to signing with the Chicago Cubs, a team he pitched against many times as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Maholm is 53-73 with a 4.36 ERA for his career, all of which had been spent with the lowly Bucs. He would be a good No. 4 or 5 starter for the rebuilding Cubs.

more fun in the sun

The winter league news keeps rolling in (thank goodness): Former Mississippi Braves left-hander Francisley Bueno out-pitched big leaguer Francisco Liriano in a Dominican Winter League postseason game on Wednesday. M-Braves alumnus Donell Linares backed Bueno's six shutout innings with an RBI double in Licey's 3-0 win. Meanwhile, in Venezuela, ex-M-Braves center fielder Gorkys Hernandez homered in a playoff win for Caribes. And in the Mexican Pacific League postseason, Alcorn State product Corey Wimberly scored twice and drove in a run to fuel Obregon's 9-8 win over Guasave, which got a homer from former Jackson Generals star Daryle Ward.
P.S. On the subject of ex-M-Braves, lefty Jo-Jo Reyes has signed a minor league deal with Pittsburgh. Reyes, who first made The Show with Atlanta in 2007, has bounced around the past couple of years, including big league stints with Toronto and Baltimore.

warming up

Blasts from the past are everywhere in the Caribbean, where the winter leagues are winding up. Former Jackson Generals standout Julio Lugo delivered a walk-off hit for Escogido in the Dominican Winter League playoffs on Tuesday, and ex-Mississippi Braves star Gregor Blanco hit a three-run homer to help La Guaira win in the Venezuelan Winter League postseason. On Monday, M-Braves alumnus Diory Hernandez picked up a couple of RBIs in Cibao's victory in the DWL, and Donell Linares, the M-Braves third baseman in 2010-11, drove in a run for Licey in a losing cause. Former M-Braves slugger Matt Esquivel homered on Monday in a loss for Navojoa in the Mexican Pacific League playoffs, and M-Braves alum Iker Franco scored a couple of runs in a win by Obregon. Antoan Richardson, who played outfield for the M-Braves in 2010-11, leads the Puerto Rican Winter League in stolen bases (with seven), while ex-M-Braves masher Barbaro Canizares tops the Mexican league in homers with 20.