Twins Minor League Report (8/27): Saints Fall, System Wins

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins farm system was in full swing Sunday afternoon and the St. Paul Saints were the only affiliate to drop their action. Walkoffs and blowouts both happened with plenty of contributors making an impact.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

SAINTS SENTINEL 
Omaha 5, St. Paul 3
Box Score
The Saints started Michael Boyle as an opener on Sunday and he gave them three innings. Four runs scored on two hits and two walks while Boyle failed to record a strikeout.

The Storm Chasers ripped off four runs in the first inning to grab a big lead. In the bottom of the second inning, DaShawn Keirsey Jr. recorded his second big fly at Triple-A to put the Saints on the board.

In the third inning Willi Castro singled home Chris Williams before Kyle Garlick played Andrew Stevenson on a ground out. Down by just one, the Saints allowed another run during the fifth inning and saw the lead pushed to 5-3.

Austin Martin went 2-for-2 as the only Saints hitter to record a pair of hits. Jovani Moran worked a scoreless inning of relief while striking out the side.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 6, Arkansas 5
Box Score
Travis Adams took the ball for the Wind Surge Sunday. He gave up just a single run on five hits while walking two and striking out four.

Patrick Winkel kicked off the scoring with a first inning solo blast. Aaron Sabato launched a solo dinger of his own in the second inning to make it 2-0. In the third inning, Tanner Schobel tripled home Will Holland and Wichita had a 3-0 lead.

In the fifth inning Yoyner Fajardo homered for the eighth time, bringing home Willie Joe Garry Jr., and giving the good guys a 5-0 lead. After giving back a run in the sixth and seventh innings, Holland stole second allowing Alerick Soularie to come home in the ninth inning. Arkansas answered with a three-run blast in the bottom half, but came up one-run short.

Sabato had a trio of hits on the afternoon with Fajardo grabbing two of his own.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 7, South Bend 1
Box Score
It was Kyle Jones on the bump Sunday for Cedar Rapids. He put up 6.0 innings of one-run baseball on just four hits. Jones allowed only a single walk and struck out seven.

Cedar Rapids started with three runs in the first inning. Jorel Ortega singled home Noah Miller and Emmanuel Rodriguez before Andrew Cossetti tripled for the third time. His three-base hit brought home Ortega and made it a 3-0 game.

In the second inning Miller singled to center field and Carson McCusker raced home. After giving back a run on a third inning solo shot, the Kennels added their fifth when Jose Salas scored on a wild pitch during the fourth inning.

Kyler Fedko blasted his fifth homer during the sixth inning, and the solo shot gave Cedar Rapids a 6-1 lead. Kala’i Rosario then lifted a sacrifice fly during the eighth inning to score Fedko and make it a 7-1 game.

Miller had three hits out of the leadoff spot, and Cossetti combined with Fedko to grab a pair each.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 6, Daytona 4 (F/10)
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels had Juan Mercedes take the ball on Sunday afternoon. He worked four innings of three-run baseball. Mercedes allowed five hits but just one walk. He did strike out two on the afternoon.

Fort Myers scored first when Rubel Cespedes singled home Walker Jenkins in the first inning. They gave up a pair during the second inning, and allowed another in the third inning. During the sixth inning, they found an answer.

Cespedes clubbed his 12th homer of the season, and the two-run shot brought in Danny De Andrade as well to tie the game. After Dayton scored in the top of the 10th inning, Fort Myers walked it off in the bottom half. Jenkins singled home Luke Keaschall and Ricardo Olivar launched his 10th home run to trot the bases safely.

Olivar, Cespedes, Jenkins, and Maddux Houghton each had a pair of hits on the day.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Kyle Jones (Cedar Rapids) - 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K
Hitter of the Day – Rubel Cespedes (Fort Myers) - 2-4, R, 3 RBI, HR(12)

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:

#2 - Walker Jenkins (Fort Myers) - 2-5, 2 R, RBI
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-2, 3 BB, R, 2 K
#7 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 2-2, 2B, BB
#8 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-5, RBI, 3B(1)
#10 - Luke Keaschall (Fort Myers) - 1-4, R, BB
#13 - Kala’i Rosario (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, RBI, K
#17 - Danny De Andrade (Fort Myers) -1-3, R, BB, 2 K

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Columbus @ St. Paul (7:07PM CST) - TBD
San Antonio @ Wichita (7:05PM CST) - TBD
Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35PM CST) - TBD
Fort Myers @ Clearwater (5:300PM CST) - TBD

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

View full article

[DJL44]

Cossetti needs to move up to Double-A.

[DJL44]

Bring back Castro for the Cleveland series, please.

[Mike Sixel]

Free Austin Martin 

[FlyingFinn]

Moran - the writeup says one scoreless inning. The whole story - he gave up 1 hit and 3 walks in that 1 inning. No way the Twins can trust that on the playoff roster.

Miller is smoking hot - 3 more hits today.

Jenkins had better slow down. The Mickey Mantle comparison hysteria is going to explode over the winter.

[TwinkieFan4life]

I know he is a little old for a prospect, but DaShawn Keirsey is getting hard to ignore.  Premium defense at a premium position.  Great on the bases.  High obp and ba.  Hits for reasonable power.  Strikeouts are reasonable.  He's 26 (and still will be at the start of next season) and could be an asset to the Twins for 3-5 years if he can sustain this.

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

Free Austin Martin 

I don't know what else you could ask of him.  He has been awesome in August.   Hitting 359 with an OBP of 481.   I just don't think anyone who is not on the 40-man gets a shot this year.

[Mike Sixel]

28 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

I don't know what else you could ask of him.  He has been awesome in August.   Hitting 359 with an OBP of 481.   I just don't think anyone who is not on the 40-man gets a shot this year.

Agreed. They'd rather throw away outs than call him up. Luplow and Gallo should be gone. 

[RpR]

44 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

I don't know what else you could ask of him.  He has been awesome in August.   Hitting 359 with an OBP of 481.   I just don't think anyone who is not on the 40-man gets a shot this year.

So what?

It is AAA pitching not major league pitching, bring him up and let him be made a joke by Major League pitchers?

Jeffers and Wallner went 0-5 in the last game, and they have experience.

[Launch Angle]

8 hours ago, RpR said:

So what?

It is AAA pitching not major league pitching, bring him up and let him be made a joke by Major League pitchers?

Jeffers and Wallner went 0-5 in the last game, and they have experience.

Great take! Let's keep all our hitters at AAA so they don't potentially get embarassed by major league pitching.

 

Frankly, Jeffers and Wallner should be cut after such terrible games.

[Major League Ready]

8 hours ago, RpR said:

So what?

It is AAA pitching not major league pitching, bring him up and let him be made a joke by Major League pitchers?

Jeffers and Wallner went 0-5 in the last game, and they have experience.

We all understand at this point that you loathe young players.  We all understand that you utterly ignore the fact that it's by far the most successful way to build a team.   Furthermore, we understand that you chose to ignore the many examples around the league.  Even the Dodgers are primarily homegrown.  Atlanta was built around their young players.  Houston was built by getting rid of every decent experienced player they had and then remained good by the addition of young players.  They let Springer and Correa go and replaced them with young players.

You show extreme bias by using a tiny sample size (last game) regarding our young players instead of recognizing they have carried the team.  Take the last month or the whole year or whatever reasonable sample size you like and the only veterans doing really well are Kepler and Solano.   

You ignore the fact that the two best records in the AL (by far) are products of building from within.  As a matter of fact, those two teams often trade experienced players for prospects and rarely the other way around.  You ignore the fact that our experienced players we were counting on (Buxton/Correa, and Vasquez have been mediocre at best.  You ignore that Julien instantly made a difference.   You ignore Arraez did the same thing when he came up and you ignore that it's happening all around the league.  In other words, it's not a well-informed point of view to put it kindly.

[Major League Ready]

9 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Agreed. They'd rather throw away outs than call him up. Luplow and Gallo should be gone. 

I don't think that's entirely fair, Mike.  They have Buxton, Kirrilloff, Castro, and Stewart, very likely coming back and possibly Paddack / Alcala / Gordon.  That will require they cut quite a few guys from the 40 man.  I think it's more about not losing guys they want to keep for next year.  He is not guaranteed to be better than Taylor and they plan to use Buxton in CF.  Plus, they are only 4 days away from adding two roster spots. 

The more immediate question is who goes off the active roster?  We add 2 but have 3 coming back and Martin would make 4.  Would you cut Taylor?  Martin is not getting time at 2B.  Julien and Polanco are ahead of him there.  Add all of those things up and it's reasonable he is not being added.

BTW .... Gallo is not getting many ABs when Kirilloff / Castro / Buxton are back. and Luplow only against LH pitching where frankly we need him.  

[terrydactyls]

9 hours ago, RpR said:

So what?

It is AAA pitching not major league pitching, bring him up and let him be made a joke by Major League pitchers?

Jeffers and Wallner went 0-5 in the last game, and they have experience.

You can't get experience if they won't let play.  How awful would Martin have to play to not be an improvement over Gallo or Luplow.

[terrydactyls]

59 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

In other words, it's not a well-informed point of view to put it kindly.

RpR is the Mr. Grinch of Twins Daily.  All his comments are negative.

[mikelink45]

I love the give and take in the comments.  We all have opinions and it is interesting and frustrating to see how the FO and the fans differ.  I know - we are just fans, but as fans we also follow the events daily so Luplow and Gallo are not hard to want to see replacements.  

The BP has been obvious to fans all year and is still a big issue.  How can the fans eye view differ so much from the FO? Oh wait, we got Floro!  

Sometimes being a fan is as difficult as being the manager!

[roger]

Great seeing Castro playing for the Saints.  Expect he will not be recalled until Friday, when he will be one of the two players added when the roster goes to 28.

Will double down on questioning your comment, Ted, regarding Moran.  Yes, he didn't allow any runs, but the box score says he pitched one inning with a hit and 3 walks, not strikeouts. 

Also elated how well Miller has been hitting.  If memory serves, I recall that he wore down last year and didn't hit a lick the last few months of the season.  Great seeing him pick it up this year and may be hitting the best of his career the past several weeks.  Also great seeing the Mick, Walker Jenkins, follow his three hit game with two singles in his third game at A ball.

Saw something interesting in the Fort Myers box score.  A pitcher for the other team was Cody Adcock, who is from Arkansas.  Recall one of the best power hitters in the game back in the 50's was the Braves Joe Adcock.  Recall he was from either Arkansas or Louisiana.  Gotta wonder if Cody could be related to the man who once hit four home runs in a game with a double that came within a few feet of going out.

[Major League Ready]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I love the give and take in the comments.  We all have opinions and it is interesting and frustrating to see how the FO and the fans differ.  I know - we are just fans, but as fans we also follow the events daily so Luplow and Gallo are not hard to want to see replacements.  

The BP has been obvious to fans all year and is still a big issue.  How can the fans eye view differ so much from the FO? Oh wait, we got Floro!  

Sometimes being a fan is as difficult as being the manager!

We should all look back to last off-season's commentary here .  Kepler should be traded / Jeffers was a back-up at best / Gordon should be a starter according to many / How could anyone think Pagan should be on the team / many complained about trading Urshella.  He has a wRC+ of 91 and .4 WAR. Many said Wallner would not make it / Julien's fielding precluded him from playing regularly / it would be a travesty of Correa was not signed / the addition of Solano was not exactly applauded / etc.  Point being we keep score of FO decisions but ignore how often we as fans were way off.

[Mike Sixel]

2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

I don't think that's entirely fair, Mike.  They have Buxton, Kirrilloff, Castro, and Stewart, very likely coming back and possibly Paddack / Alcala / Gordon.  That will require they cut quite a few guys from the 40 man.  I think it's more about not losing guys they want to keep for next year.  He is not guaranteed to be better than Taylor and they plan to use Buxton in CF.  Plus, they are only 4 days away from adding two roster spots. 

The more immediate question is who goes off the active roster?  We add 2 but have 3 coming back and Martin would make 4.  Would you cut Taylor?  Martin is not getting time at 2B.  Julien and Polanco are ahead of him there.  Add all of those things up and it's reasonable he is not being added.

BTW .... Gallo is not getting many ABs when Kirilloff / Castro / Buxton are back. and Luplow only against LH pitching where frankly we need him.  

If they are worried more about losing sands than having good at bats right now, they and I don't agree on trying to win, vs being afraid to lose. Which, I totally know. I know Martin isn't coming up. I disagree with them. 

[Otaknam]

11 hours ago, RpR said:

So what?

It is AAA pitching not major league pitching, bring him up and let him be made a joke by Major League pitchers?

Jeffers and Wallner went 0-5 in the last game, and they have experience.

Obviously success in AAA isn’t a guarantee of being successful at the major leagues level. But it can’t be held against them, with the  assumption that it doesn’t translate into more success. Using Wallner and Jeffers 0-5  to prove your point doesn’t prove anything. HOF players had plenty of 0-5 games. And there is only one way to find out about minor leaguers. I’m all for the continued youth movement, and Luplow isn’t part of it. I’m intrigued by Martin’s speed, versatility, and right handed batting skills that put the ball into play.  Hopefully we get to see what he can do in September.

[D.C Twins]

2 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

I don't think that's entirely fair, Mike.  They have Buxton, Kirrilloff, Castro, and Stewart, very likely coming back and possibly Paddack / Alcala / Gordon.  That will require they cut quite a few guys from the 40 man.  I think it's more about not losing guys they want to keep for next year.  He is not guaranteed to be better than Taylor and they plan to use Buxton in CF.  Plus, they are only 4 days away from adding two roster spots. 

The more immediate question is who goes off the active roster?  We add 2 but have 3 coming back and Martin would make 4.  Would you cut Taylor?  Martin is not getting time at 2B.  Julien and Polanco are ahead of him there.  Add all of those things up and it's reasonable he is not being added.

BTW .... Gallo is not getting many ABs when Kirilloff / Castro / Buxton are back. and Luplow only against LH pitching where frankly we need him.  

If the Twins 'need' Luplow for anything... we are in deep trouble :)

[RpR]

4 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

We all understand at this point that you loathe young players.  We all understand that you utterly ignore the fact that it's by far the most successful way to build a team.   Furthermore, we understand that you chose to ignore the many examples around the league.  Even the Dodgers are primarily homegrown.  Atlanta was built around their young players.  Houston was built by getting rid of every decent experienced player they had and then remained good by the addition of young players.  They let Springer and Correa go and replaced them with young players.

You show extreme bias by using a tiny sample size (last game) regarding our young players instead of recognizing they have carried the team.  Take the last month or the whole year or whatever reasonable sample size you like and the only veterans doing really well are Kepler and Solano.   

You ignore the fact that the two best records in the AL (by far) are products of building from within.  As a matter of fact, those two teams often trade experienced players for prospects and rarely the other way around.  You ignore the fact that our experienced players we were counting on (Buxton/Correa, and Vasquez have been mediocre at best.  You ignore that Julien instantly made a difference.   You ignore Arraez did the same thing when he came up and you ignore that it's happening all around the league.  In other words, it's not a well-informed point of view to put it kindly.

You ignore the fact that if he is good enough he WILL be at spring training showing his stuff, simple as that.

[RpR]

3 hours ago, terrydactyls said:

You can't get experience if they won't let play.  How awful would Martin have to play to not be an improvement over Gallo or Luplow.

Next spring all the chances to show his stuff.

[RpR]

1 hour ago, Otaknam said:

Obviously success in AAA isn’t a guarantee of being successful at the major leagues level. But it can’t be held against them, with the  assumption that it doesn’t translate into more success. Using Wallner and Jeffers 0-5  to prove your point doesn’t prove anything. HOF players had plenty of 0-5 games. And there is only one way to find out about minor leaguers. I’m all for the continued youth movement, and Luplow isn’t part of it. I’m intrigued by Martin’s speed, versatility, and right handed batting skills that put the ball into play.  Hopefully we get to see what he can do in September.

The infatuation with the AAA rookies, or some in AA is incredible , just incredible.

Next spring, they get their chances;

[Major League Ready]

8 minutes ago, RpR said:

You ignore the fact that if he is good enough he WILL be at spring training showing his stuff, simple as that.

That has very little to do with this conversation.

[RpR]

2 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

That has very little to do with this conversation.

It has every thing with the conversation, there is ZERO reason to bring him here, end of story.

The Twins are not an extended AAA team, they are a team trying to get into the World Series.

[Major League Ready]

13 minutes ago, RpR said:

It has every thing with the conversation, there is ZERO reason to bring him here, end of story.

The Twins are not an extended AAA team, they are a team trying to get into the World Series.

And having Gallo in CF helps that cause.  Probably more to the point is getting to the WS is a product of developing talent.  That's where we disagree.  Our chances for an extended playoff run are slim but we would have no chance if not for the emergence of Julien / Kirilloff / Jeffers and Wallner.  Again, you absolutely ignore how all of the successful teams have become successful.  How do you continue to make this argument when literally every successful team has been built primarily from drafted players and players that were acquired before becoming established?  The lower the revenue the more influential young players are to success.  Do you pay any attention to the rest of the league?

[TwinkieFan4life]

38 minutes ago, Major League Ready said:

And having Gallo in CF helps that cause.  Probably more to the point is getting to the WS is a product of developing talent.  That's where we disagree.  Our chances for an extended playoff run are slim but we would have no chance if not for the emergence of Julien / Kirilloff / Jeffers and Wallner.  Again, you absolutely ignore how all of the successful teams have become successful.  How do you continue to make this argument when literally every successful team has been built primarily from drafted players and players that were acquired before becoming established?  The lower the revenue the more influential young players are to success.  Do you pay any attention to the rest of the league?

You can add Lewis to the list :)

[RpR]

1 hour ago, Major League Ready said:

And having Gallo in CF helps that cause.  Probably more to the point is getting to the WS is a product of developing talent.  That's where we disagree.  Our chances for an extended playoff run are slim but we would have no chance if not for the emergence of Julien / Kirilloff / Jeffers and Wallner.  Again, you absolutely ignore how all of the successful teams have become successful.  How do you continue to make this argument when literally every successful team has been built primarily from drafted players and players that were acquired before becoming established?  The lower the revenue the more influential young players are to success.  Do you pay any attention to the rest of the league?

Gallos strike outs are moronic, I agree, some one should tell him if he does not stop swing at ghosts his days are numbered; this is the Twins, NOT other teams.

For every Elly De La Cruz there are four dozen Hicks and Rookers; bringing an untested rookie up and hoping for the best is a fools folly.

Of course Matin could be another Jake Cave ; he came up the first year and was absolutely great, then he burnt out. That was not a smart move.

[jkcarew]

Martin, yes.

But I’m with TwinkieFan…DaShawn Keirsey needs more love. Higher OPS at St Paul than Martin.

Unfortunately for Keirsey, left-handed outfield bats don’t seem to be a need anytime soon.

It is worth noting that OPS’s in that league are very inflated. A list of players with higher OPS (some much higher) than Marin and Keirsey at St Paul this year includes…Prato, Stevenson, Julien, Wallner…Chris Williams’s is on par, as well. If you include very small sample guys like Helman and Farmer, etc, then Martin/Keirsey are well down the list.

Still, what seems so enticing about Martin…besides the right-handedness: the defensive flexibility, the relatively low K’s…the relatively high BB’s, and the baserunning. Keirsey checks all those boxes except he’s only played outfield, and he’s a left-handed hitter.

 

 

[Major League Ready]

5 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

If they are worried more about losing sands than having good at bats right now, they and I don't agree on trying to win, vs being afraid to lose. Which, I totally know. I know Martin isn't coming up. I disagree with them. 

I would agree if the only downside was sending Sands back to STP but we are going to have 4-6 players coming off the IL.  Two will be taken up by the roster expansion.  All six are highly likely but 4 seem probable so if we add Martin we have to cut 3.  I really want to see Martin too but it's a tough call.  Sands is getting cut.  Who else goes is the question.  Will they finally let Gallo go.  It's not going to be Salano.  The only other possibility I see is Farmer who has an option BTW.  Gordon does not have an option.  It's going to be very interesting if other injuries don't make decisions for them.