Twins Minor League Report (8/13): Isola Powers Surge; Kernels Comeback Again

[Seth Stohs]

The Saints game was shortened by rain, but the Wind Surge played a little extra to make up for it. The Kernels did what the Kernels have done all season. With apologies to LL Cool J, the best word for it is a "comeback." And, the Mighty Mussels' pitchers walked 15 batters in nine innings and still doubled-up the Marauders from Bradenton. 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of David Festa)

I will be the first to tell you that age-related-to-level of competition ultimately isn't terribly important as it relates to a player potentially helping a big-league team. We all know of many examples of players who didn't debut in the big leagues at 26, 28, or even 33 years old. And while in many cases that may hurt their chances of having enough longevity to get to the Hall of Fame, that player can still be an impact player for several years. 

On the other hand, age-to-level of competition tends to be a huge factor in prospect rankings, and understandably so. It is the outliers that move more quickly and get challenged at higher levels. If you were to just look at Marco Raya's season stats and compare him to other starting pitchers at Cedar Rapids or Wichita, they don't compare well. However, the fact that Raya turned 21 a week ago and is five years younger than the average player in the league matter. 

First, I will share the youngest Twins players, and then under each affiliate's section, I'll post the youngest players as well.  For the two rookie-level leagues, I split them into pitchers and hitters. 

Here are the records of the Twins and their six affiliates through games on Sunday. 

Minnesota Twins: 62-58
St. Paul Saints: 66-47 
Wichita Wind Surge: 47-60
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 66-42
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 52-56
FCL Twins: 21-26
DSL Twins: 12-33 

Let’s get to the report. As always, please feel free to discuss and ask questions. 

TRANSACTIONS
No transactions on Sunday. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 6, Louisville 8 (6 innings-rain)
Box Score
The rains came and this game shut down early. But enough happened in 2/3 of a game, that after a short rain delay, they called it a full game. The Saints started with a six-run first inning. Unfortunately, the Bats scored two in the top of the second and then had a six-run inning of their own. Then things went quiet until the rains came. 

Carlos Luna made his first Saints start. The first inning went well. He got a fly out and then struck out the next two batters. 

With one out in the bottom of the first, Royce Lewis singled, scored second, and then scored on a single by Brooks Lee. After a ground out for the inning’s second out, Anthony Prato singled in Lee. After stealing second base, Jair Camargo walked. Gilberto Celestino drove in Prato with a single. Austin Martin stayed hot and hit a three-run homer. After DaShawn Keirsey singled, the Bats brought in former Twins prospect Casey Legumina who got a strikeout to end the inning. The Twins 10th-round pick in 2019 struck out three more batters in the second inning.

Unfortunately, Luna’s final line didn’t look great. In 2 2/3 innings, he gave up eight runs on seven hits and a walk. Two, three-run homers accounted for all six runs in the third inning. 

Ronny Henriquez came on and got the final out of the third inning and then worked two more innings. He gave up a total of just one hit and one walk, and he struck out four batters. Andrew Bechtold had a 1-2-3 sixth inning. 

Royce Lewis went 2-for-3, the only Saints player with more than one hit. He appears healthy and should be in a Twins uniform on Tuesday when the Tigers come to town.  

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 9, NW Arkansas 8 (10 innings)
Box Score
David Festa was on the mound to start this game. The hard-throwing righty went the first five innings. He gave up just one run on three hits. He walked three and struck out four batters. 

Alex Scherff came on to start the sixth inning. He gave up two runs on one hit and one walk and recorded just one out. Miguel Rodriguez came on and was charged with three unearned runs n two hits and two walks before getting third final out of the inning. 

Down 6-3, the Surge scored five runs in the top of the seventh inning to reclaim the lead. Alex Isola came to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed a grand slam. It was his second homer of the game and 14th of the season. Two batters later, Patrick Winkel doubled to score Jake Rucker and make it 8-3. 

Francis Peguero worked a scoreless seventh inning but gave up one run in the eighth frame to make it 8-7. Isaac Mattson came in for the ninth and gave up a run to tie the game 8-8 and send the game to an extra inning. 

In the 10th inning, Winkel added another double which scored Isola with the go-ahead run. Mattson got the 10th inning and got three outs before even the Manfred Man was able to score which gave the Wind Surge a one-run lead.  

Alex Isola led the way for the offense. He went 3-for-5 with two homers and six RBI. Pat Winkel was 2-for-5 and hit his 13th and 14th doubles. Seth Gray was also 2-for-4. Jake Rucker hit his third triple. In addition, Yoyner Fajardo had a single and a walk. He also stole his 40th base of the season. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 4, Quad Cities 2 
Box Score
Jorel Ortega’s sixth Kernels homer gave the team a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. They gave up two runs in the bottom of the second inning, but that was it. The Kernels staff pitched terrific, and the offense came through with big moments in the late innings to lead Davenport with the win. 

So let’s start with the pitching. C.J. Culpepper gave up two runs on three hits over five innings. He walked two and had seven strikeouts. Alejandro Hidalgo came on and worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out four batters .Jordan Carr gave up two hits, but he got the final four outs, two on strikeouts. 

Quad Cities pitching was also very good and the River Bandits held a 2-1 lead heading into the eighth inning. However, with one out in the top of the eighth inning, Carson McCusker took a 2-0 pitch and deposited over the left field wall to tie the game at 2-2. It was his third homer since joining the Kernels. 

With two outs in the top of the ninth and the score still tied, Noah Cardenas doubled to score Ortega and give the Kernels the lead. Andrew Cossetti singled to score Cardenas with an insurance run. 

The Kernels only had four hits in the game, but all four of them drove in a run. Jorel Ortega was the lone player to reach base twice, he had a walk to go with his homer. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 14, Bradenton 7
Box Score
No surprise that a game like this took over three-and-a-half hours. There were a lot of runs (21), a lot of hits (19), a lot of walks (21) and 13 pitchers used. Fortunately, the Mighty Mussels doubled-up the Marauders on the scoreboard. 

Let’s get the pitching part out of the way first, as it really wasn’t too pretty. John Klein made the start. He gave up two runs on four hits (one homer) and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. He had four strikeouts. Gabriel Yanez gave up a run on one hit (a homer) and three walks in 1 1/3 innings. He added two strikeouts. Johnathan Lavallee gave up one run on three walks (no hits) and got two outs. Jackson Hicks gave up one run on three walks (no hits) and got two outs. Zach Veen came on and faced two batters. He got both of them out, one on a strikeout. Develson Aria came in to start the ninth and gave up two runs on one hit and, you guessed it, three walks in 2/3 of an inning. Sam Perez gave up a hit before recording a strikeout to end the game. If you weren’t keeping count through that paragraph, that’ seven runs on seven hits and FIFTEEN walks. Yikes. 

Fortunately, the Fort Myers bats really muscled up and had some big innings. They led the game 6-0 after two innings and 8-0 after four frames. They added a field goal in both the seventh and eighth innings. 

The big hit of the four-run second inning was a three-run homer by infielder Yohander Martinez. It was his second long ball of the season. In the seventh inning, he drove in another run with his third double of the year. 

In the ninth, Rubel Cespedes drilled his 10th home run, a two-run shot. Cespedes went 3-for-5 with four RBI. Yohander Martinez went 2-for-2 with a walk. He was hit by a pitch and hit a double and homer. Danny De Andrade went 2-for-3 with two walks in the game. 

The Mussels also stole seven bases in the game. Luke Keaschall had three steals. Maddux Houghton stole two bags.

COMPLEX THOUGHTS from FLORIDA

COMPLEX THOUGHTS from BOCA CHICA

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Co-Hitter of the Day – Alex Isola (Wichita) - 3-for-5, 2-HR(14), 3 R, 6 RBI. 
Pitcher of the Day – David Festa (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, R, 3 BB, 4 K. 66 pitches, 41 strikes (62.1%) 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the new Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. The rankings will again be updated soon. You can help us by providing your rankings in this fun-to-use tool.

#1 - Brooks Lee (St. Paul) - 1-for-2, BB, R, RBI, K, SB(1)
#5 - Matt Wallner (Minnesota) - 0-for-4
#7 - David Festa (Wichita) - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 66 pitches, 41 strikes (62.1%)
#8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, HR(2), 3 RBI, R, 
#10 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-for-3, BB, HBP, 2 R, K
#12 - Luke Keaschall (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-2, BB, HBP, R, RBI, 3 SB(6)
#16 - Kala’i Rosario (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 3 K
#17 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 0-for-2, BB
#18 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K. (played 2B)

MONDAY’S SCHEDULE AND PITCHING PROBABLES
FCL Braves @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CST) - TBD 
DSL Phillies White @ DSL Twins (DH at 9:00 AM CST) - TBD

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Sunday’s games or any other Twins minor league topics!

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[stringer bell]

Thanks for providing the age data for all the teams in the Twins’ system. BTW, the date should be 8/13. 

[FlyingFinn]

Wow, we have some young starters on that Wichita staff! And Danny DeAndrade certainly is young for Fort Myers.

Nice to see Festa pitching well today. 

[Doctor Wu]

Thanks for another great minor league report. I love reading about our prospects. The chart of ages was very interesting this time around too. Not that it makes me feel older than I already feel ... but yikes, some of these kids really ARE young. Just reinforces the notion that we need to be a bit patient with them as they are "developed" in the system. 

[nclahammer]

Great addition Seth including the ages of the youngest players of each affiliate.  Statistics like this help explain why the Cedar Rapids Kernels released pitcher Orlando Rodriguez back in late June, even though he was 7-2 at the time with an ERA of 2.43.  He was a 27 year old pitching at the A+ level to batters who were 5-7 years younger than him.  By the way, Rodriguez was eventually signed by the Gastonia Honey Hunters (they play in North Carolina) out of the Atlantic League.

[Doctor Wu]

Meanwhile, is it time to get seriously excited about Austin Martin? Great month so far!

[Seth Stohs]

2 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Meanwhile, is it time to get seriously excited about Austin Martin? Great month so far!

cautious optimism maybe? The key is he's healthy again. He's in a good place mentally. He's getting back to knowing who he is as a hitter. 

[roger]

Thanks for an interesting report, Seth.

Appreciated the age information.  Was surprised to see that Raya only turned 21 a week ago.  So he can now go out and order a beer.  But Miller is gonna have to wait another three months before he can.  Two very young prospects that have lots of time to get to where they will hopefully be.

Remember seeing Isola's name in these reports a lot last year.  Not so much this year.  Looked at his stats and he is having a decent year.  Is he still considered a catcher?

[2wins87]

Good to see Festa stretched out again too.  We were wondering why he wasn't getting stretched out sooner after the Futures Game, but it was a little lost how good he was in the shorter stints.  Between July 14 and August 6 when he was pitching 2 or 3 inning stints he struck out 22 in just 13 innings.  Hopefully he will be an MLB starter, but it is a good sign that his stuff could really play up as a reliever as a fall back.

Martin has been really good so far in August.  He's always had a pretty solid floor, even when the numbers weren't good, with his high contact rate and good BB+HBP rate.  Whatever adjustments he was trying to make last year weren't producing any more power, so going back to what feels natural didn't really have any downside.  His exit velocities in AAA have been quite low though.  His average EV is just 85 MPH.  There's still not a lot of upside showing yet, but if he can keep getting on base he'll still have value as a major leaguer.

Jay Harry is now working on over 50 professional PAs without a single strikeout.  He's been an extreme version of the slap-hitter profile, making even Martin look like a slugger by comparison.  Harry has yet to hit a ball over 100 MPH, his 90th percentile EV is under 95 MPH, and has averaged just 83 MPH.  I doubt that there is too much hope that he'll add any significant power, but I'm interested to see how far his extreme profile can take him.

[2wins87]

23 minutes ago, roger said:

Thanks for an interesting report, Seth.

Appreciated the age information.  Was surprised to see that Raya only turned 21 a week ago.  So he can now go out and order a beer.  But Miller is gonna have to wait another three months before he can.  Two very young prospects that have lots of time to get to where they will hopefully be.

Remember seeing Isola's name in these reports a lot last year.  Not so much this year.  Looked at his stats and he is having a decent year.  Is he still considered a catcher?

Isola has a 13% CS rate in his minor league career, including throwing out just 1 of 39 base-stealers in AA last year.  He's actually at 24% this year in fewer innings, so maybe like Cossetti he was able to make some improvements on his arm in the offseason.  My general impression is that (like Chris Williams) he'd only be an emergency catcher in the majors though.

[Mike Sixel]

I was surprised how young some of these guys are....and anyone giving up on SWR, at that age at AAA? Glad they aren't the GM of this team.....

[gman]

Doesn't look like Festa will make it to St Paul this year, but I think he could start there next year. His whip is still pretty high and his control still needs work.

It's good to see ERod with an obp of 394 and Rosario is not far behind him at 375. Looks like these 2 should be at Wichita next year.