Minor League Report: Affiliates Struggle

[Sherry Cerny]

It was a rough night for the affiliates. There was a solid sweep across the teams as all the teams fell to their opponents. While the scores show the games in the loss column, it wasn't for lack of trying. Most of the frustration came from leaving players on base and the opponents working deep into the bullpens to run up the scores. 

Image courtesy of Seth Stohs Twins Daily

TRANSACTIONS

• Infielder Elliot Soto activated from the 7-day IL
• Infielder Hernan Perez placed on the 7-day IL with right knee sprain
• Right Handed Pitcher Gianluca Dalatri has been placed on the 7-day IL with a right forearm strain
• Right Handed Pitcher Niklas Rimmel has been activated off the Development List and is available immediately

Saints Sentinel 
St. Paul 1, Buffalo 4
Box Score

The Saints offense came out strong right away in the first inning, loading the bases with no outs. Buffalo pitcher Zach Thompson started out the inning with a single from Jose Miranda and then a hit batter and a walk to load the bases. As promising as the inning looked, Thompson settled in and provided three quick outs to end the inning and keep the Saints from scoring. 

Randy Dobnak was on the bump for the Saints in game four of six against Buffalo in hopes of another win. In another Dobnak "bumpdate", he announced via Instagram that he and his wife are expecting a baby in December 2023. Congrats to Randy and Aerial! 

Dobnak struggled to get out of the first inning giving the Bisons a chance to work up his pitch count. The right-hander saw six batters in the first inning, giving up two hits and walking one. After the bases were loaded, he got out of the inning with a strikeout. 

The Bisons got on the board first with a solo home run from Tanner Morris in the third inning while the Saints continued to battle for a place on the board. Thompson kept the offense from making any progress toward closing the gap until the sixth inning when Kyle Garlick hit a homer to put the Saints on the board and within a run. 

The bullpen for the Saints was unsuccessful at keeping the Bisons at two runs. Austin Schulfer gave up a double to the Blue Jays 39th prospect, Cam Eden, and a ground rule double to Rafael Lantigua, that scored Eden to pull ahead again of the Saints. 

Despite their best efforts, the Saints were able to get on base, but were unable to overcome the Bisons defense, stranding six players on base. Jose Miranda went 2-for-4. In his first rehab game, Trevor Larnach went 0-for-2 with a walk and two strikeouts. 

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 1, Tulsa 9
Box Score 
The Wind Surge were in a rain delay as quickly as it started.

Prior to the rain delay, Tulsa got on the board with two runs off of Travis Adams in the top of the first inning. Three batters into the bottom of the first inning, mother nature opened up the skies and rain delayed the game. 

The rain made way for the game to start again, and the Surge replaced their starting pitcher, Travis Adams with Hunter McMahon at the top of the second inning coming back from the delay. Tulsa scored one in the second inning and then scored three innings in the fifth and in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach. 

Four relievers worked a combined seven innings out of the bullpen. The in the top of the ninth, outfielder Will Holland came on and got three ground ball outs quickly. McMahon, Denny Bentley, Francis Peguero, and Michael Boyle. Boyle worked two scoreless innings. 

The offense did very little. Yoyner Fajardo had two-hits in the game including a ninth-inning,, two-out, RBI singled to score Alerick Soularie,  Fajardo also stole his 16th and 17th bases. DaShawn Keirsey walked twice. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 2, Lansing 3
Box Score
The Kernels started out game four against Lansing striking blood first. Kala’i Rosario hit a two-run home run to set the tone early in the game. After scoring 24 runs on Thursday night, the Kernels were hoping for a repeat performance to run up the score on Lansing.

Starting pitcher Marco Raya pitched another three inning game. Raya’s outing was a good one, striking out four and only giving up a run after not giving up any during the month of May. Unfortunately, the one hit was a solo home run by Euribiel Angeles. Raya has been consistent in his appearances, continuing to improve after being on the IL early in the season with shoulder tightness.

The tone of the game quickly went deaf when the Lugnuts went ahead in the third and fourth innings and stayed there through the end of the game. 

Alejandro Hidalgo replaced pitcher Marco Raya in the fourth inning. Brian Dinkelman also replaced Jose Salas, who left with an injury after his plate appearance, with Ernie Yake. 

Hidalgo came to the Twins as part of the Gio Urshela trade with the Angels. He has appeared in eight games for the Kernels, and Friday night marked his second loss. The 20-year-old prospect has only given up seven earned runs in his 27 1/3 innings this season. In this game, Hidalgo gave up one hit, but two earned runs with a two-run home run from Daniel Susac that scored Max Muncy, and gave the Lugnuts a one-run lead. 

Jordan Carr finished out the game, not allowing any more runs, but the damage was already done. The Kernels offense struggled to manufacture any runs after the first inning and fell to the Lugnuts 3-2. 

Kala'i Rosario had two of the team's four hits. 

Mussels Matters
Fort Myers 0, St. Lucie 1
Game 1
A classic pitchers duel took place in the day's first game in St. Lucie. It certainly was not for lack of trying.

Power hitter Jorel Ortega had one of two hits against St. Lucie on Friday night with his 16th double of the season. Luis Baez hit a line drive to left-field in the third inning and a stolen base gave hope to the Mussels, but that hope was quickly dashed with a pop-up to center field to end the inning. 

St. Lucie's Karell Paz put a ton of pressure on Mussels starter Andrew Morris, stealing two bases in a row and scored on a throwing error. Paz scored the lone run of the game. 

Morris had a good outing. He pitched five innings and only allowed the one run. He struck out four batters. Lefty Gabriel Yanez came in to relieve Morris and kept the game at 1-0. The Mussels had just two hits in the game. They weren't able to walk and struck out 12 times. 

Fort Myers 4, St. Lucie 9
Game 2 (Make up from 5/31)
Cory Lewis started game two. Lewis struggled right away, walking three, giving up a run and only striking out one. Lewis was replaced with two outs and the bases loaded in the first inning by Danny Moreno who came in and managed more potential damage so early in the game. Lewis faced just six batters and needed 37 pitches. 

St. Lucie gave the Mussels a rough time in the third inning, running up the score with five runs to open up the score to 6-0.

The Mussels were finally able to string together a few hits to at least get on the board to bring the game within a grand slam (6-2). With plenty of game left, it was on the pitching staff to control the remainder of the innings and give the offense a chance to generate more runs. 

Rubel Cespedes had a good game, knocking a two-run homer in the fifth inning. It brought the Mussels to within two, but the Mets immediately answered at the top of the next inning with three runs to drive the run differential to 9-4. The Mets worked their way through the Mussels bullpen exhausting six pitchers. The Mussels stranded 12 hitters on base. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Will Holland (Wichita Wind Surge) - 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB
Hitter of the Day – Rubel Cespedes (Fort Myers Mighty Mussels) - 1-for-2, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
The Twins Prospect Tracker  is the best way to see how each of the Twin's top prospects performed during their games, but in case you wanted a quick look, Here is how each of the top 20 performed today: 
#1 - Brooks Lee (Wichita) - 0-for-5 
#2 - Royce Lewis (Minnesota) - 0-for-4
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, R, K
#4 - Edouard Julien (Saint Paul) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, K
#6 - Marco Raya (Cedar Rapids) -  3.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
#9 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 0-for-3, 1 K
#12 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-2, K (left game with injury)
#13 - Noah Miller (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K
#19 - Yunior Severino (Wichita) - 1-for-3, BB

SATURDAY SCHEDULE AND PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Buffalo (5:05 PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (0-5, 7.79 ERA)
Drillers @ Wichita (6:35 PM CST): RHP Christian MacLeod (0-0, 27.00 ERA)
Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) - RHP Christian MacLeod (0-0, 27.00 ERA)
Fort Myers @ St. Lucie (5:00 PM CST) -  TBD (as of 10:00pm 6/2)

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Friday's games! 

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[jmlease1]

Not a great night for the affiliates, nor for most of the prospect list! (though good to see guys like Julien and E-Rod still taking walks even on nights when they're not connecting. Suggests that the approach is right even if the results weren't big)

Severino continues to perform well on offense; have to wonder if he has a defensive position, but if he keeps hitting like this he'll find a job somewhere I think. 

And the Kala'i Rosario Saga continues on: he got dissed a bit in the FanGraphs prospect write-up this week, so of course he just turns in another great game at the plate. Maybe we should just find someone to ding him for something every week to keep giving him someone else to prove wrong? :D Twins have to feel good about his progress this season.

[Dman]

3 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

And the Kala'i Rosario Saga continues on: he got dissed a bit in the FanGraphs prospect write-up this week, so of course he just turns in another great game at the plate. Maybe we should just find someone to ding him for something every week to keep giving him someone else to prove wrong? :D Twins have to feel good about his progress this season.

I kind of felt like Fangraphs was late to the party on Rosario.  He had a really good showing this spring against upper level competition and they dinged him on K rate which he has brought down.  They don't seem to love his swing path either and maybe that does exposed eventually but he is number 4 in OPS for the Midwest league and the top two guys are 24 years old.  The guy in third place is 22 and Rosario is 20.  Rosario has more power but appears focused on approach right now and at just 20 years old he has room to grow.  I think Fangraphs is off on that one but he is only at High A so a ways to go.  I guess this is sort of his breakout year but is interesting how little love he gets.

[Omgbenji]

I’m thinking after a mid season prospect list reshuffle, Yoyner Fajardo may be deserving of a spot on the list. He’s doing quite well in AA and is producing pretty regularly which certainly can’t be said of most of the top 20. 

[ashbury]

Out of five games, Holland gets pitcher of the day for a solitary 1-2-3 inning?  I'm not going to pore through the box scores nor second guess this choice, merely offer this reaction: oof, bad day at the office for the Pitching Pipeline ™  😀

[2wins87]

4 hours ago, Dman said:

I kind of felt like Fangraphs was late to the party on Rosario.  He had a really good showing this spring against upper level competition and they dinged him on K rate which he has brought down.  They don't seem to love his swing path either and maybe that does exposed eventually but he is number 4 in OPS for the Midwest league and the top two guys are 24 years old.  The guy in third place is 22 and Rosario is 20.  Rosario has more power but appears focused on approach right now and at just 20 years old he has room to grow.  I think Fangraphs is off on that one but he is only at High A so a ways to go.  I guess this is sort of his breakout year but is interesting how little love he gets.

I don't know how much of the early season data and scouting is getting incorporated into the reports from fangraphs. It's sort of a preseason list but a couple months late. Some of the writeups clearly reference developments since the start of the year but I don't know how hard they worked on upgrading every individual tool grade, particularly for guys down the list where a lot of the info could still be mostly from last year.

They do have him 23rd which is higher than he was on the TD preseason list.

If he keeps producing people will take notice and scouts will take note of any swing path changes or other adjustments.