Twins Minor League Report (7/30): Varland and Saints Hold Serve

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Saints played Sunday’s latest game on the farm, and after each of the other three Twins affiliates lost, they came out with a victory. Louie Varland was great, and the power show continued.

 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

TRANSACTIONS

• LHP Caleb Thielbar completed rehab assignment and was activated by Twins`

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 7, Toledo 2
Box Score
Louie Varland toed the rubber Sunday for St. Paul and turned in the kind of outing everyone wants to see. He worked six innings allowing just a single run on two hits. The run came on a solo shot, and he allowed only a single walk. Varland struck out seven.

St. Paul started the scoring when Trevor Larnach blasted his ninth homer of the year, scoring Anthony Prato, and making it 2-0 in the first inning. Kyle Garlick made it back-to-back jacks with a solo shot, his 11th.

In the third inning St. Paul added again. This time Alex De Goti hit a three-run jack-job that brought in both Austin Martin and Ernie Yake. Up 6-0, the Saints were able to weather a pair of solo shots from Toledo. They got one of the runs back in the eighth inning when Garlick drove in Prato on a single.

Six of the nine players in St. Paul’s lineup recorded a hit today, and each of them had exactly two hits. Prato, Larnach, and Garlick paced the top of the lineup. Mark Contreras added a pair from the middle, and Martin paired with De Goti for their two in the bottom half. With the victory, Toby Gardenhire gets his 200th win as the Saints manager.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Frisco 8, Wichita 5
Box Score
Wichita went with Jaylen Nowlin for the start on Sunday afternoon. He worked 3 2/3 innings of one-run baseball. He allowed only two hits, but did issue three free passes. Nowlin also struck out five during his outing.

Frisco kicked the scoring off with a run during the third inning and Wichita responded when Yoyner Fajardo homered in the bottom of the fourth inning. The teams traded runs in the fifth inning with Aaron Sabato singling home Yunior Severino to knot things up.

The RoughRiders pulled away with a three-spot in both the sixth and eighth innings, and Wichita didn’t have enough of an answer. Brooks Lee singled with the bases loaded to drive in Sabato, Fajardo, and Severino, but they still came up three short.

Severino’s home run streak came to an end at five games, and Lee may find a plane ticket in his locker in the coming days. Lee and Sabato both had two hits while Fajardo recorded three.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Wisconsin 4, Cedar Rapids 0
Box Score
The Kernels went with Andrew Morris Sunday afternoon, and he had traffic on the bases often. With four runs scoring on 10 hits, he did his best to work around baserunners allowing no walks. Morris did strike out a pair.

Wisconsin did most of their damage during a three-run fourth inning, and then added another run during the fifth inning. Cedar Rapids managed just two hits on the day, one each coming from Andrew Cossetti and Dalton Shuffield.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Palm Beach 5, Fort Myers 2
Box Score
Jack Noble drew the start Sunday for Fort Myers and he worked 4 2/3 innings allowing two runs on four hits and a pair of walks. Noble was good at putting hitters away registering seven strikeouts on the afternoon.

The sides matched zeroes through the first four innings before Palm Beach grabbed a pair in the fifth inning. Fort Myers had gotten on base with both Ricardo Olivar and Rafael Cruz drawing walks, but they ended the sixth inning with no hits.

Palm Beach added another three runs in their half of the seventh inning, and they nearly made it through the bottom half with the no-hitter intact. Instead, Cruz blasted his sixth homer and put Fort Myers on the board with their first hit and run. Cruz homered for the second time on the afternoon, hitting another solo shot in the ninth inning, but that was the extent of the Mighty Mussels comeback.

Cruz was the lone batter with multiple hits for Fort Myers.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Louie Varland (St. Paul) - 6.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Hitter of the Day – Rafael Cruz (Fort Myers) - 2-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR(7), BB, 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) - 2-5, 3 RBI
#5 - Matt Wallner (Minnesota) - 1-3, R, RBI, HR(5), K
#8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 2-4, R
#10 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-4
#16 - Kala’i Rosario (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, 3 K
#17 - Yunior Severino (Wichita) - 1-4, R, BB, 3 K

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Columbus (6:05PM CST) - TBD
Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05PM CST) - TBD
Lansing @ Cedar Rapids (6:35PM CST) - TBD
Fort Myers @ Dunedin (5:30PM CST) - TBD

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

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[RpR]

Garlick is making his rebound.

[FlyingFinn]

Why not include Severino with Lee in getting called up to the Saints. Julien's not going back down and Miranda's shoulder is, who knows as everything has been silent on him unless I missed something. There's room on the Saints for the both of them.

[Mortimerkenny21]

Made my first game of the year and maybe only. Might skip the Twins this year unless things drastically change. Hard to follow after them getting swept by K.C. The Saints game was great! My first ever there. Varland pitched great, and a little timely hitting. It was a beautiful day at the ballpark.

[Nashvilletwin]

Congrats Toby G - patience my friend, your day is coming and a cross town bus ticket might be on your desk sooner rather than later. The big club is soon going to need a manager whose strength is knowing how to develop young players. 

[Major League Ready]

Prato continues to impress.  He has the highest OPS of anyone to play in a Saints uniform this year.

	GAMES	PA	AVE	OBP	SLG	OPS
AnthonyPrato	37	116	0.345	0.487	0.664	1.151
MichaelHelman	12	45	0.333	0.434	0.711	1.145
RoyceLewis	8	33	0.333	0.371	0.727	1.098
KyleFarmer	4	13	0.308	0.4	0.692	1.092
AlexKirilloff	10	38	0.316	0.435	0.605	1.04
ErnieYake	10	31	0.29	0.371	0.581	0.952
EdouardJulien	38	133	0.293	0.435	0.496	0.931
MattWallner	67	254	0.291	0.403	0.524	0.927
AndrewStevenson	85	332	0.325	0.399	0.521	0.92
ChrisWilliams	69	232	0.25	0.367	0.53	0.897

[jmlease1]

Nice to see Martin have a 2 hit night. Hopefully he's starting to get his groove back and he can start adding back in a little more pop, plus taking a few more walks. Happy to see him healthy and hopefully he finishes the season strong.

[roger]

Was this Varland's best start since being sent down?  Got to see this kid keep pitching like this the rest of the year.  Doesn't matter if he is called back to the Twins, but they need to KNOW that he is a big league pitcher they can count on to be in the hunt for their #5 slot next spring.  Or at the worst, be their #6 guy who begins the season at St. Paul and is next up when needed.

Another two hit game from Lee.  Considering this is his first full season and he is at AA tells me this kid is for real.  Also great seeing Martin with two hits.  Seems like he has shaken off the rust from being out most of the year and is beginning to hit like we hoped.  Also interesting to see he was in left field on Sunday.  Seems to be playing as much or more in the outfield than infield.  Considering the Twins depth at second and third, will Martin still be a Twin tomorrow?

Was yesterday the Kernels' second straight loss?

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

Nice to see Martin have a 2 hit night. Hopefully he's starting to get his groove back and he can start adding back in a little more pop, plus taking a few more walks. Happy to see him healthy and hopefully he finishes the season strong.

He scorched another ball that was about 3 inches from going over the CFer's head.   

[Ted Schwerzler]

3 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

Prato continues to impress.  He has the highest OPS of anyone to play in a Saints uniform this year.

	GAMES	PA	AVE	OBP	SLG	OPS
AnthonyPrato	37	116	0.345	0.487	0.664	1.151
MichaelHelman	12	45	0.333	0.434	0.711	1.145
RoyceLewis	8	33	0.333	0.371	0.727	1.098
KyleFarmer	4	13	0.308	0.4	0.692	1.092
AlexKirilloff	10	38	0.316	0.435	0.605	1.04
ErnieYake	10	31	0.29	0.371	0.581	0.952
EdouardJulien	38	133	0.293	0.435	0.496	0.931
MattWallner	67	254	0.291	0.403	0.524	0.927
AndrewStevenson	85	332	0.325	0.399	0.521	0.92
ChrisWilliams	69	232	0.25	0.367	0.53	0.897

It's clear to me he was bored in Wichita to start the year. I think, at this point, I believe in Prato more than Miranda.

[Larry Janisewski]

6 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Congrats Toby G - patience my friend, your day is coming and a cross town bus ticket might be on your desk sooner rather than later. The big club is soon going to need a manager whose strength is knowing how to develop young players. 

Agree on the manager comment. I think it is time to dump Baldelli.

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

It's clear to me he was bored in Wichita to start the year. I think, at this point, I believe in Prato more than Miranda.

He wasn't promoted when Lewis went down. I see no path for him at this point, not with Lee around and CC in Minnesota. 

[FlyingFinn]

2 hours ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

It's clear to me he was bored in Wichita to start the year. I think, at this point, I believe in Prato more than Miranda

I don't agree as I see him as a player always bringing his best every day. Hitting .171 can end your career. He was called up as a warm body to fill a hole with the Saints and he has played super since coming to the Saints. But compare him to a healthy Helman (using last year's stats of 20 homers and 40 SB's) and I think even Helman is ahead of him in power and speed.