JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Southern League announced that four Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp have been named to the league’s South Division All-Star roster for the 2017 Southern League All-Star Game on Tuesday, June 20, at Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola, Florida.
Pitchers Mike Kickham and Matt Tomshaw, along with infielder Brian Anderson, and outfielder John Norwood will represent Jacksonville as South Division All-Stars.
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Kickham is 2-3 this season with a 2.72 ERA in his 11 appearances and 10 starts. Coming into games on June 7, his 2.72 ERA is eighth-best in the Southern League. Kickham also has the league’s second-lowest WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) at 0.96, and has the second-lowest walk-per-nine-inning ratio at 1.23. Kickham was dominant in the month of May, going 1-0 with a 1.14 ERA with 31 strikeouts compared to just six walks in his 31 2/3 innings of work. Kickham was recently named the Southern League Pitcher of the Week for May 22-28, in recognition of his start on May 27, when he tied a career high by striking out 12 Jackson Generals.
This is the first season for Kickham in the Marlins organization, after signing with the organization in the offseason. Kickham, 28, has pitched professionally since he was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the sixth round of the 2010 draft out of Missouri State. The St. Louis native pitched in parts of two big league seasons with the Giants in 2013 and 2014. While this is the first time Kickham has been a midseason All-Star, he was an Eastern League Postseason All-Star in 2012, when he pitched for the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
This is the first All-Star recognition for Tomshaw in his career. The left-hander is 5-3 with a 3.25 ERA in his 12 starts for the Jumbo Shrimp. Tomshaw is second in the league with 69 1/3 innings pitched, and has faced more batters than any other Southern League pitcher with 295. Like Kickham, Tomshaw enjoyed a dominant May, going 2-0 with a 2.35 ERA in his five starts. Tomshaw, 28, is a native of Kingston, New York, but has called Jacksonville home in recent years. He is a graduate of Jacksonville University and in the offseason lives in Jacksonville, where he works for Black Knight Financial Services. Tomshaw was selected by the Marlins in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft, Triple-A Phase, from the Minnesota Twins.
This is the third straight season that Anderson has earned midseason All-Star honors, after being a Florida State League Midseason All-Star with the Jupiter Hammerheads in 2015 and 2016. Anderson is hitting .243 with nine home runs and 38 RBI for the Jumbo Shrimp in 57 games, the second-most games played by any Southern Leaguer in 2017. Anderson is tied for the league lead with his 38 RBI, and is also second in the league in runs scored at 38. Anderson, 24, is the Marlins No. 3 prospect for 2017 according to MLB.com, and in 2016 was the Marlins Minor League Player of the Year for his work at Jupiter and Jacksonville. Anderson continued his success in the prestigious Arizona Fall League, where he was named a Rising Star and a part of the All-Prospect Team. Anderson was selected by the Marlins in the third round of the 2014 draft out of the University of Arkansas, and he is a native of Edmond, Oklahoma.
This is the second straight season that Norwood has earned midseason All-Star honors, after he was a 2016 Florida State League All-Star for the Jupiter Hammerheads. Norwood this season is hitting .290 with nine home runs – tying Anderson for the team lead – and 22 RBI, and his .828 on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) leads all active South Division players. This is the first season for Norwood at the Double-A level, and he entered this year as the Marlins No. 29 prospect according to Baseball America. Norwood, 24, is a native of Peapack, New Jersey, and starred collegiately at Vanderbilt, where his go-ahead home run in the third game of the 2014 College World Series led the Commodores to the National Championship. Norwood was signed by the Marlins in August 2014.
The players were selected by a vote of Southern League field managers, radio broadcasters, general managers and print media. The 2017 All-Star Game will be played on Tuesday, June 20, at Blue Wahoos Stadium, home of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, at 7:35 p.m. ET. The starting lineups for the North and South Division squads will be announced by the league later this week, with possible Jumbo Shrimp starters for the South Division announced on Friday, June 9.