Behind the Fence: GCL - Ynoa's coming out party 7/8-7/9

Bob Sacamento · July 11, 2016

It was another beautiful weekend in sunny southwest Florida and the Twins/BoSox weekly series was it again. This weekend featured two good starts by young pitchers, the bats came to life for a day and the pitching staff can strikeout out alot.

Friday's game was started by 20 year old righty Miguel DeJesus, the Dominican starter looked strong until he started to get wild in the third with two walks, a wild pitch and a passed ball, yet the Sox still scored only one run. Through most of the outing, DeJesus relied on his fastball which was 92.4mph to 96.0, averaging 94 with good sinking action and he worked in the lower part of the strikezone. That sink led to an 8:1 GB:FB ratio for the game. Miguel's breaking ball was 74.5 to 79.5 mph with good late break, he was able to throw it for strikes more consistently today than last week when he was pummeled due to hanging breaking balls and fastballs up in the zone. DeJesus also flashed a couple of changeups 80.2-82.4mph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtR0zJjhoxY

In the sixth, undrafted free agent Daniel Martinez, brother of JP Martinez (former 9th Rd Twins draft pick in 2004) came on to pitch two quality frames of two hit, no walk, and four strikeout performance. The righty out of the University of New Orleans, has very short arm action with his delivery that produces a 85-87mph fastball with a curveball that had hitters baffled 75-77mph. South African pitcher Callan Pearce came on for the eighth inning and gave up single, a wild pitch and the newly inserted shortstop Dane Hutcheon pulled the first baseman Aaron Whitefield off the bag to give up a run but Callan struck out the last hitter of the inning. Pearce was 88.5 to 90.5mph with his fastball and 80-84mph breaking ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZLZBZr18gg

To close it out was 2016 UDFA and Wake Forest alum Garrett Kelly. Kelly has a high leg kick that helps get an explosive fastball that registered 90.2-93.2mph with a sharp biting slider that was hitting 79.2 to 80.9 mph. That two pitch arsenal helped Kelly record three strikeouts while recording just a single.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU_98rVoaeY

On the offensive end Friday, the bats took advantage of the Red Sox walks and errors in the second, scoring five times. The star of the day was Jorge Andrade who was 2 for 3 with a triple, two runs scored and three rbis. Here's Andrade sliding into third for his triple:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcW3aL1Y6LQ

Ben Rortvedt, Twins 2016 second rounder, was once again impressive at the plate, showing a short compact stroke with plus power. Benny as his teammates call him was 1 for 3 with a HBP and two runs scored. Another 2016 compensation pick was SS Jose Miranda. Miranda was known for his glove but has showed off the ability to make hard contact and work counts, which I've been fairly impressed by to this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmIEqADOCZo

Middle infield prospect Manuel Guzman was on rehab assignment and showed off that his injuried quadricep was healing up well, went one for three with a walk, and a stolen base. Although, he was caught stealing home in the second on a failed bunt attempt by Gorge Munoz and just got too far down the line. Guzman should be ready for Cedar Rapids by next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVlR4kvmHnc

On Saturday morning, 18 year old International Free Agent Huascar (Ha-wah-Scar) Ynoa (E-NOAH) took to the mound and did not disappoint despite facing top Boston Red Sox pitching prospect Brian Johnson. As a 16 year old, Ynoa was considered one of the best IFA pitchers in 2014 but drew mixed reactions from the scouting community due to his lack of consistent outings (poor control) so the Twins were able to sign him for 800K. Ynoa showed off a strong fastball with good movement that hit 90-94 mph with plus control. His slider was just as effective as it has hard late break at 80-82 mph. Huascar even threw a couple of changeups but there were more or less velo taken off his fastball at 86-87mph. With that arsenal, Ynoa only gave up two hits, walked none and struck out eight - most on his fastball. Considering his history or poor control, Ynoa has started off the season rather promising with a 15:2 K:BB rate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ4L94118y8

Dutch pitching prospect Matz Schutte came on to pitch the sixth, and even though he doesn't have high octane stuff he gets it done. Schutte throws a 87-89 mph fastball but he throws it seldomly instead relying on a variety of offspeed pitches. His slider sits 80-84mph with sharp break when it's on and another in a slow looping 69-74 mph curveball. When his offspeed stuff is on, he's shown the ability to be hard to hit and illicits weak contact but when it's off, he gets hit pretty hard as his fastball doesn't play up as much.

Schutte was relieved with two outs in the seventh by 2014 draftee Onas Farfan in order to face the upcoming lefty batters. The lefty reliever walked the first batter he faced but got out of the inning with flyout. Onas wasn't as lucky in the eighth where he gave up a double down the leftfield line, then a wild pitch before allowing the first run by a Twins pitcher on a groundout. Onas did strike out 2 and walked 1, with his fastball that was 89-93mph, averaging 92 and mixed in a couple of sliders at 80-82 mph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1tMivCXPGg

When the ninth inning came the Twins manager, Ramon Borrego, went to his closer as he did the day before in Garrett Kelly. Kelly wasn't as fortunate as his last outing, the first batter he faced he gave up what should have been a single to centerfield but Arias attempted to dive head first for the ball and it went to the warning track for a double. The next hitter reached due to a throwing error by Miranda who went in the hole for the ball but pulled 1B Whitefield off the bag. The tying run ended up scoring via sacrifice fly to center.

In extra innings, the Twins went to 2016 UDFA Zach Strecker who was in trouble from the get go. Stretcker's fastball was 84-85 mph and quite flat, he also worked in a few sliders at 78-80 mph and showed a curveball or two at 75 mph. Strecker gave up six hits and almost lost the game in the 10th before a great relay from Baddoo to Whitefield to Munoz got the runner at home.

In the 12th, catcher Juan Gamez threw out a would be basestealer from his KNEES once again bailing Strecker out of trouble. So with two outs, Strecker struck out the batter but allowed him to reach via a wild pitch, the runner then stole second (completely off Strecker). The next hitter hit a roller to Lean Marrero in rightfield who threw a cannon to Gamez at the plate to beat the runner by a couple of feet yet the throw was high and the runner slide barely under the tag. GCL Twins manager Borrego lost it, heatedly argued with the homeplate umpire before getting tossed. Catcher Juan Gamez came extremely close to getting the boot too as he exchanged words with the ump as well and had to be restrained.

Offensively, the Twins played smallball when they could make contact as the team struck out 14 times. The team stole three bases with Emmanuel Morel being the most adventurous on the basepaths as he was caught stealing and picked off in the game.

Here is video of hitters from 7/9/2016:

2B/3B Emmanuel Morel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3EKB800xAM

SS/3B Gorge Munoz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmnZ-uF4Mho

RF Akil Baddoo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHxFYo8Zftg

SS Jose Miranda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj2vMSGWv8s

C Juan Gamez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJFqozDMDeU

LF/SS Jorge Andrade