Twins Minor League Report (7/7): Keuchel Scoreless Again, Mussels Get Mighty

[Ted Schwerzler]

Dallas Keuchel continued to work well for the Saints while a few other Twins minor league pitchers showed out. Runs came across and Carson McCusker put his mark on the day. Check out more action from the farm within.

TRANSACTIONS

• 1B/3B Keoni Cavaco activated from Cedar Rapids Development List and transferred to FCL Twins
• RHP John Klein transferred from FCL Twins to Fort Myers
• RHP Ricky Mineo placed on IL by Fort Myers with a right forearm strain
• LHP Zarion Sharpe was sent on a rehab assignment with the FCL Twins. He last pitched for the Mighty Mussels in 2021 where he sent 6-2 with a 3.62 ERA. He has been out with arm injuries and Tommy John surgery. 
• RHP David Festa was placed on the temporarily inactive list. (Gasp!) Nothing to worry about. He will head to Seattle to prepare for Sunday's Futures Game. 

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 4, Iowa 1
Box Score
Thus far Dallas Keuchel has been north of short of great since joining the Twins organization. That continued tonight for the Saints as the former Cy Young went 5 2/3 innings allowing five hits and four walks. No runs scored, and he struck out four as well.

In the seventh inning, Matt Wallner drew a bases-loaded walk to open the scoring on the evening. Anthony Prato walked home and the tie was broken. Kyle Garlick then singled to score Alex De Goti. Trevor Larnach followed with a sacrifice fly that plated Andrew Stevenson. Jair Camargo added his own sacrifice fly which drove in Wallner to make it 4-0.

David Bote scored in the eighth inning to put the Cubs on the board but that was as far as the rally would get.

Mark Contreras recorded three hits on the night as the lone Saints hitter with more than one hit. Ronny Henriquez earned the win working 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Tulsa 6, Wichita 4
Box Score
Making his Double-A debut, Marco Raya was on the bump tonight for Wichita. He lasted just two innings allowing a pair of runs, but gave up just one hit while striking out three and walking four.

After a scoreless first inning, the Wind Surge took a 2-0 lead in the second inning thanks to an Alerick Soularie bases loaded walk on a wild pitch. Seth Gray scored on the play, and then Soularie came home after Will Holland struck out on a dropped third strike.

Allowing a pair of walks in the third inning, Raya saw both runners come around to score and tie it at two. A four-run, fourth inning gave Tulsa a 6-2 lead, and the Wind Surge found themselves in a hole.

The Wind Surge loaded the bases in the ninth inning. Brooks Lee took a bases-loaded walk to score Soularie. Holland scored on a Yoyner Fajardo ground out. However, that was as close as they were able to get. Gray was the lone hitter to record a pair of hits on the night.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 5, Quad Cities 3
Box Score
Making his second start for the Kernels, C.J. Culpepper sought to continue his scoreless innings streak. He didn’t allow a run through five innings to stretched the streak to 11 scoreless at High-A. Culpepper gave up three hits but issued no walks and struck out six batters.

Kala’i Rosario kicked off the scoring during the first inning when he singled home Emmanuel Rodriguez. Noah Cardenas blasted his third homer of the season during the second inning to score Noah Miller and make it a 3-0 game.

In the fifth inning, Cedar Rapids added again. Miller singled home Rodriguez before Cardenas brought home Rosario with a single of his own. When the frame was over, the Kernels led 5-0.

The River Bandits added three in the seventh inning, and River Town kicked off that scoring with a single. Fortunately the Kernels still placed a dam between their lead that kept the rivers at bay.

This one ended in a 5-3 win for Cedar Rapids. Rosario recorded three hits on the night with Cardenas adding a pair of his own.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 3, Jupiter 0 (F/10)
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels gave Jack Noble the ball, and he was nothing short of exceptional. The recently-promoted righty twirled six innings of scoreless baseball. He allowed just two hits and two walks while punching out six batters.

Danny Moreno came on and worked two scoreless innings with Jackson Hicks pushing it through the ninth inning still scoreless.

Carson McCusker and Rafael Cruz both had two hits thus far, but no runs crossed the plate.

Heading into extras, and with the inherited runner on third after a misplayed Dylan Neuse sacrifice bunt, McCusker blasted a three-run homer to take the lead. Hicks locked down the bottom half and it was a 3-0 victory for the good guys.

McCusker finished with three hits on the night.

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Red Sox 4, FCL Twins 1
Box Score
Cesar Lares took the ball for the Twins, but he lasted just two innings. He gave up three runs on three hits.

The Red Sox jumped out to an early lead with a first-inning run, and then added another pair in the second inning. Looking to get back in it, the Twins scored when Jankel Ortiz singled home Andres Centeno in the fourth inning. The Red Sox wiped that run away with another of their own in the fifth inning, and the 4-1 lead was enough for a victory.

Ortiz had two of the three hits on the day for the Twins with Byron Chourio grabbing the other.

DOMINICAN DAILY
DSL Cardinals 7, DSL Twins 2
Box Score
It has been a rough start to the season for the DSL Twins and they dropped to 6-17 on the year. The Cardinals kicked things off with a two-run first inning, and they repeated that tally in the fourth and seventh innings.

Moises Lopez and Ricardo Pena combined to score the Twins first run when they stole second and home respectively in the second inning. Unfortunately, the Twins only added one other run. Lopez lifted a sacrifice fly during the seventh inning to score Pena.

The Twins outhit the Cardinals by a 6-5 tally, and Jayson Bass was responsible for two of them.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Jack Noble (Fort Myers) - 6.0 IP, 2 H 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Hitter of the Day – Carson McCusker (Fort Myers) - 3-5, R, 3 RBI, HR(3), 2 K

PROSPECT SUMMARY
We will again keep tabs on the Twins top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. Here’s a look at how the current Twins Daily Top 20 performed:

#1 - Brooks Lee (Wichita) - 1-2, RBI, 3 BB, 2B(26)
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, 2 R
#4 - Edouard Julien (Minnesota) - 0-1, K
#6 - Marco Raya (Wichita) - 2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 R, 4 BB, 3 K=
#9 - Matt Wallner (St. Paul) - 0-3, R, RBI, 2 BB, K
#12 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-3
#13 - Noah Miller (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, R, RBI, BB, K

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Iowa (6:08PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson
Wichita @ Tulsa (7:05PM CST) - RHP Travis Adams
Quad Cities @ Cedar Rapids (6:35PM CST) - RHP Cory Lewis
Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:00PM CST) - RHP Miguelangel Boadas
FCL Twins - No Game Scheduled 
DSL Twins @ DSL Rockies (10:00AM CST) - TBD 

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

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[strumdatjag]

Another thread laments the Twins’ need for a lefty.   We already have one ready. Looks like it’s time for Dallas Keuchel!!! 

[FlyingFinn]

Culpepper continues in the line of starting pitchers who moved up from Fort Myers to Cedar Rapids and do great. Hope Matthews, Lewis and Culpepper keep it up. MacLeod actually pitched a couple game in Fort Myers this year and is really pitching well. A very good pipeline right now in A ball. With Nowlin, Hidalgo, Carr, Paredes, Jones (some good and some bad games for most of these guys), and Prielipp hopefully coming back, you have to wonder if one of these gets traded for bullpen help for the Twins. I certainly don't want more than one of these guys being traded though.

[Linus]

Culpepper is starting to get interesting …..

[Dman]

23 minutes ago, Linus said:

Culpepper is starting to get interesting …..

I agree he has moved into MLB top 30 for the Twins with the graduation of Lewis and Jullian, Sounds like a velocity spike along with late movement has changed his ceiling.  Kind of feels like what happened to Winder but lets hope a little better outcome.  Looks like the Twins found some good late risers again.  AA is the true test for pitcher's though.  Won't know what we have until they get there.

[Dman]

Rosario busted out of his slump and then Schobel was the only one not to get on base.  Just goes to show sometime they fall sometimes they don't.  

Raya was looking good until the 3rd where he never got another out.  He has really had issue getting through the order a second time.  Hopefully he refines those pitches to stay away from barrels and also finds his control.  He can get K's just needs to be more consistent with his stuff.

Man Noah Miller looks good at short.  His throws are just a thing of beauty strong, straight and under control.  His bat looked good yesterday as well.  If he finds his bat the Twins will have a really good shortstop in the system again.

Almost half the top 30 prospects are at High A.  It might be time to move some of them up.

[DocBauer]

If only Keuchel could hit.

[Mike Sixel]

4 minutes ago, Dman said:

Rosario busted out of his slump and then Schobel was the only one not to get on base.  Just goes to show sometime they fall sometimes they don't.  

Raya was looking good until the 3rd where he never got another out.  He has really had issue getting through the order a second time.  Hopefully he refines those pitches to stay away from barrels and also finds his control.  He can get K's just needs to be more consistent with his stuff.

Man Noah Miller looks good at short.  His throws are just a thing of beauty strong, straight and under control.  His bat looked good yesterday as well.  If he finds his bat the Twins will have a really good shortstop in the system again.

Almost half the top 30 prospects are at High A.  It might be time to move some of them up.

They are so clogged in St Paul, no idea how they promote guys. Really surprised Severino didn't move up when Miranda did. 

[Dave Borton]

14 hours ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

Thus far Dallas Keuchel has been north of short of great since joining the Twins organization....(Keuchel) went 5 2/3 innings allowing five hits and four walks. No runs scored, and he struck out four as well.

I went to one of his 3 games. His 1.43 wHip is inflated by his walks (14inn/11BB). The game I observed, he had control issues and I wondered if the ump was biased in his favor knowing Keuchel's past.

He is far from ready for a call-up. These 3 games are just his Spring training and he needs to improve on velocity as well (81-85mph) fastballs. He would be throwing BP at the MLB right now with that speed.

[Doctor Wu]

On 7/9/2023 at 12:17 AM, davidborton said:

I went to one of his 3 games. His 1.43 wHip is inflated by his walks (14inn/11BB). The game I observed, he had control issues and I wondered if the ump was biased in his favor knowing Keuchel's past.

He is far from ready for a call-up. These 3 games are just his Spring training and he needs to improve on velocity as well (81-85mph) fastballs. He would be throwing BP at the MLB right now with that speed.

What sort of contract did Keuchel sign with the Twins? Is it one of those "if I'm not called up by a certain date, I'm outta here" type of deals, or is he just insurance in AAA right now? As others have noticed, he's pitched well so far, but the usual short sample results apply. What can expect of this once effective veteran at this point? Will we see him with the Twins anytime soon?