Minor League Report 8/19 Jorel Ortega Walk-Off Punctuates Uneven Day on the Farm

[Matt Braun]

One of his teammates took Hitter of the Day honors, though.

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson (Image is Anthony Prato)

 

TRANSACTIONS
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Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 4, Indianapolis 5
Box Score
Simeon Woods Richardson: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
HR: Yunior Severino (2)
Multi-hit games: Yunior Severino (2-for-4, HR, 2 R, RBI), Gilberto Celestino (3-for-3, R, BB), DaShawn Keirsey Jr. (2-for-4, R)

The Saints made it close on Saturday.

Simeon Woods Richardson continued to pitch effectively on Saturday; the 22-year-old held an ERA of 2.96 in July, and now he’s at a 2.79 mark in August. 

It took a while for the bats to get going, but when they did, they did so with gusto. Yunior Severino blasted a 461 foot moonshot to center, apparently clearing the batter's eye for the first time since St. Paul became an affiliate of the Twins. 

More runs soon followed for the Saints—they plated a trio in the 8th—but Indianapolis struck for three before they could, leaving St. Paul with a one run disadvantage. All three runs scored off a Hernán Pérez double.

The heart of St. Paul’s lineup came up in the 9th, but they went down 1-2-3. Brooks Lee’s sharp lineup was the only non-strikeout.

Indianapolis possesses a few notable players. The first, Quinn Priester, started for the first time since his brief, ineffective stint with the Pirates. He pitched four shutout innings. The other—Canaan Smith-Njigba—is brothers with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whom the Seahawks just selected in the 1st round of the NFL Draft in May.

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 2, Springfield 11
Box Score
Curtis Taylor: ⅓ IP, 2 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Alex Isola (3-for-4, 2B, R), David Bañuelos (3-for-4, 2B, RBI)

The Wind Surge were thoroughly blown out on Saturday. 

It’s never great when your starter can’t finish the first inning; it’s even worse when he can only find one out. The Cardinals lineup struck him for four earned runs, turning a leadoff double into a nightmare frame. The more astute amongst us may notice that Taylor earned three strikeouts but only one out. That means that—yes—twice a man reached first on a wild pitch strikeout. Sometimes, it may have been better to avoid the ballpark altogether.

Wichita’s bats weren’t up to the herculean task of matching their opponents, but two batters—Alex Isola, and David Bañuelos—collected three hits in the game. For Isola, the game was simply a continuation of an outstanding August; he’s now slashing .295/.396/.659 in the month. 

Will Holland swiped his 24th base of the season.

Cardinals leadoff man Victor Scott II is St. Louis’ 4th-best prospect; he went 3-for-5, with a walk, a stolen base, and a caught stealing. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 6, Wisconsin 5
Box Score
C.J. Culpepper: 5 ⅔ IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
HR: Ben Ross (17), Kyler Fedko (4)
Multi-hit games: Ben Ross (2-for-5, HR, 3B, R, 3 RBI), Jorel Ortega (2-for-4, 3B, RBI), Kyler Fedko (2-for-3, HR, 2 R, RBI, BB)

The Kernels won on a walk-off on Saturday.

Cedar Rapids blew a lead late, coming close to sending their fans home disappointed, before they struck with a run in the 9th, overcoming the Timber Rattlers for an exciting win.

Starter C.J. Culpepper was strong as usual, reaching the sixth inning while only allowing one run along the way. He struck out four and walked two. His bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, however, as Alejandro Hidaglo and Malik Barrington allowed runs to eventually knot the game at five. 

It stung for a Cedar Rapids offense that had been explosive up to that point. They collected a perfectly normal nine hits, but fully loaded them with extra-base hits, giving them two doubles, two triples, and two homers respectively in the game. 

With Emmanuel Rodriguez on first, Jorel Ortega blasted one out to left field, greeting the yellow home run line in left with a startling crack. The shot didn’t clear the fence, but it was enough to plate Rodriguez, who ran like lightning to score off the hit.

Big leaguer Jesse Winker played 1st base for the Timber Rattlers, singling once in three at bats. 

Milwaukee’s 1st-round pick in 2023—3rd baseman Brock Wilken—singled twice in four trips to the plate.

Mussel Matters
Ft. Myers 4, Palm Beach 0
Box Score
John Klein: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Jay Harry (2-for-3, R, BB)

Mighty Mussels pitching and defense allowed just one hit on Saturday.

John Klein was dominant. The Brooklyn Park native diced up Palm Beach’s lineup, tossing six scoreless innings with eight punchouts and two baserunners allowed. The 21-year-old has been fairly nondescript outside of an incredible debut start for the FCL Twins on June 10th, but starts like this will certainly put him on the prospect map.

The Fort Myers offense wasn’t overwhelming, but that did everything they needed to do to support their excellent pitching. Maddux Houghton scored on an error. Luke Keaschall—the man on base because of the mistake—scored on a single. Later efforts pushed Fort Myers’ scoring to four runs. That was enough.

The Mighty Mussels swiped three bases on Saturday—one each from Maddux Houghton, Luke Keaschall, and Rubel Cespedes.

The Cardinals’ 21st overall pick in 2023—and outfielder named Chase Davis—walked once in three plate appearances. 

Complex Chronicles
Game One: FCL Twins 1, FCL Red Sox 2 (7 Innings)
Box Score
Spencer Bengard: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: None

The FCL Twins lost the first game of their doubleheader against the FCL Red Sox on Saturday.

The bats were cool all game; the Twins collected just two hits—singles from Brayan Acuna and Walker Jenkins. They did take three walks, though.

It was a bullpen day on the mound with Devin Kirby pitching the bulk of the game’s innings. His relation to Seattle’s George and Nintendo’s pink blob is unclear. His pitching was excellent, though, as he punched out six over just three frames of work. 

The team committed four errors, three of which came from 3rd baseman Issac Pena. 

Game Two: FCL Twins 5, FCL Red Sox 0 (7 Innings)
Box Score
Nolan Santos: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K
HR: Jose Rodriguez (6), Jankel Ortiz (2)
Multi-hit games: Walker Jenkins (2-for-4, 2B, R, RBI), Brandon Winokur (2-for-4, 2B, R, RBI), Jose Rodriguez (3-for-4, HR, R, 2 RBI)

The FCL Twins took game two, though.

The bats were much more potent in their second look at FCL Red Sox pitching. It started early, as Brandon Winokur knocked in a pair in the 1st inning, setting the expectations for the game. Later extra-base hits by Jose Rodriguez, Walker Jenkins, and Jankel Ortiz brought the team to five runs.

2023 draftee Nolan Santos started the game for the Twins. The 7th-round selection out of Bethune-Cookman University—the alma mater of a handful of former big leaguers—pitched one scoreless inning, striking out a batter in the process.

Kyle Bischoff inhaled the plurality of innings, though, as he whiffed six over four scoreless frames. FCL Twins pitchers struck out 21 batters in the doubleheader. 

Dominican Dailies
DSL Twins 3, DSL Phillies White 5
Box Score 
De Jesus: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K
HR: Junior Del Valle (1)
Multi-hit games: None

The DSL Twins reached halfway to Satan on Saturday. That is, each number in their “R,” “H,” and “E” column was 3. 

As you could probably predict, that didn’t go well for them; DSL Twins pitchers actually never allowed an earned run, as, instead, all five runs were unearned. 

DSL Twins hitters had a tough time at the plate, striking out 11 times while earning just three hits. Junior Del Valle’s homer served as the long extra-base knock.

Big-name international signing, Hendry Chivilli, continued his abysmal start to affiliated ball, striking out three times while committing his 12th error of the season. The 17-year-old has plenty of time to turn it around, but his Twins introduction has not gone well so far. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – John Klein
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Ben Ross

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:
#1 - Brooks Lee (St. Paul) - 1-4, 2B, BB
#2 - Walker Jenkins (FCL Twins) - 3-6, 2B, R, RBI, BB
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, 3B, R, RBI, BB, K
#8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 1-5, 2 K
#10 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-4, R, 2 K
#12 - Luke Keaschall (Ft. Myers) - 2-4, R, K
#13 - Brandon Winokur (FCL Twins) - 2-7, 2B, R, RBI, 2 K
#14 - Simeon Woods Richardson (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
#15 - Jordan Balazovic (Minnesota) - 1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 0 K
#17 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 2-4, HR, 2 R, RBI, 2 K
#18 - Jose Salas (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, 2 K
#20 - Jose Rodriguez (FCL Twins) - 3-7, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI, K

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Indianapolis @ St. Paul (2:07 PM) - RHP Randy Dobnak
Springfield @ Wichita (1:05 PM) - RHP Pierson Ohl
Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (1:00 PM) - RHP Zebby Matthews
Fort Myers @ Palm Beach (10:00 AM) - RHP Jose Olivares

 

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[FlyingFinn]

Taylor pitching a third of an inning for the Wind Surge and getting 3 strikeouts. I've never seen that before.

[nclahammer]

Heading down to Cedar Rapids for a day trip today and looking forward to watching Twins prospect Zebby Matthews pitch and seeing some of the other young talent.

[mikelink45]

Time for Balazovic to drop off the list, if not for innings in MLB, for lack of performance.  So disappointed.  

But Jenkins, Keaschall, and Winokur all are looking great - can we keep our batting coaches away from them and let them use their natural talents?

[DJL44]

I watched Woods-Richardson pitching thanks to the televised Saints game. He missed over the middle of the plate too often and was bailed out by AAA hitters. His stuff was decent but he had trouble hitting spots. His delivery is very over-the-top and I wonder if he has trouble repeating it. With his velocity he has to be able to hit spots to be effective.

[Old Crow]

How does one find out when the Saint's will be televised?

[jorgenswest]

8 hours ago, DJL44 said:

I watched Woods-Richardson pitching thanks to the televised Saints game. He missed over the middle of the plate too often and was bailed out by AAA hitters. His stuff was decent but he had trouble hitting spots. His delivery is very over-the-top and I wonder if he has trouble repeating it. With his velocity he has to be able to hit spots to be effective.

He did seem to have a lot of movement that made it difficult for hitters. He threw a low 90s cutter, slider and sometimes a slow change off of his cutter. He appears to have movement that is hard to teach and also hard to command. Would you keep him on the 40 man into next season? I would use his second option and  keep him on the 40 man roster for his age 23 season next year.

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, Old Crow said:

How does one find out when the Saint's will be televised?

St Paul Saints on The CW Twin Cities | WUCW (thecwtc.com)

Sept 2 @7pm: vs Columbus Clippers

Sept 3 @5pm: vs Columbus Clippers

Sept 23 @ 6:30pm: vs Toledo Mud Hens

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Would you keep him on the 40 man into next season? I would use his second option and  keep him on the 40 man roster for his age 23 season next year.

Absolutely