Twins Minor League Report (4/2): Woods Richardson Deals in the Rain

[Steve Lein]

Simeon Woods Richardson took the mound for the St. Paul Saints in their series opener against the Nashville Sounds, with a tornado watch looming in the background.

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Simeon Woods Richardson)

TRANSACTIONS

• At Triple-A, the Saints activated SS Tanner Morris, and in a corresponding move assigned SS Dalton Shuffield to Wichita.
• As an injury update, IF Luke Keaschall will begin the season in a limited role for Cedar Rapids:

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 4, Nashville 5 
Box Score
After a bit of rough 2023 season that saw Simeon Woods Richardson be one of the Twins’ first callups to make a start on April 22, only to never make another one as his velocity backed up, Tuesday’s start for the righthander was the turning of a page on his development. Still just 23 years old, it is foolhardy to completely give up on him (David Festa is 24, as an example), but it is important for him to get back the stuff that once made him a top-100 prospect.

So far, so good.

Woods Richardson held the Nashville Sounds scoreless through five innings, allowing three hits, walking two, and striking out four. He kept his pitch count down through the first four frames, but then ran into a bit of trouble in the fifth after starting with a pair of strikeouts. He ended up throwing 73 pitches, with 46 of them going for strikes (63%), including a healthy 14 swinging. But most importantly, his fastball sat 92-94 MPH, topping out at 95.1, which is quite an improvement from last year when he was consistently throwing below 90. I’ll be keen to keep an eye on this moving forward and as he is on the 40-man roster, he is one of the top options for the Twins to recall when a need pops up.

The Saints lineup was kept off-balance for the first five innings by Aaron Ashby, who has made 23 starts in the bigs with the Brewers, though he did not pitch for them in 2023 as he dealt with a torn labrum that required surgery. They finally got to him in the sixth.

Will Holland led off the frame with a walk, stole his first base of the season, then was driven in by a single off the bat of leadoff man Michael Helman for a 1-0 lead. José Miranda followed with a single of his own, his second knock of the game, before the thunderstorm halted their momentum and put the game into a delay.

When play resumed over an hour later, Jair Camargo made it 2-0 with an RBI single, and DaShawn Keirsey followed a few batters later with an RBI single of his own. Before the inning was over, Alex Isola added a sacrifice fly and the Saints had a 4-0 lead.

Jordan Balazovic came on in relief of Woods Richardson for the bottom of the sixth, and quickly gave back two of those runs. He allowed two hits and two walks in his lone inning. Hobie Harris came on for the seventh and worked a scoreless frame, striking out two. Back out for the eighth, things went off the rails. A leadoff single was followed by his third strikeout, before a walk put the go-ahead runner in the batter's box and they ended his appearance with a three-run homer for a 5-4 Nashville lead. Scott Blewett came on and retired the next two hitters to end the inning and the Saints needed a comeback.

Keirsey led off the inning, but went down via strikeout. Pat Winkel pinch-hit for Isola and fared the same. Down to Yoyner Fajardo, he, too, couldn't catch up with the 95+ MPH fastballs they were facing, also striking out to end the game. 

Miranda led the way for the offense with two hits in four at-bats and a run scored. Keirsey added a single and stole his second base of the season. As a team the Saints did not have an extra-base hit, went 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and left four men on base. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Simeon Woods Richardson, St. Pail Saints (5 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 K)
Hitter of the Day – José Miranda, St. Paul Saints (2-for-4, R, K)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
#7 – Austin Martin (Minnesota) – Pinch ran for Carlos Correa in the 9th.
#16 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 0-for-3, BB, 2 K
#20 – Simeon Woods Richardson (St. Paul) – 5 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 K

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Nashville (6:35 PM CST) – RHP Caleb Boushley (0-0, -.—ERA)

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

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[jmlease1]

Nice start for SWR. It'll be interesting to see where he's at by the end of April. Hopefully, he'll be able to keep the velocity up all month and reposition himself as being one of the first options if/when the Twins need reinforcements for the rotation. It's just one start, so I'm not going to get ahead of myself here, but happy to see the touted velocity increase from spring training carry over. Hopefully he's able to keep the walks manageable as well. 

Miranda is off to a good start as well, hopefully this means his shoulder is feeling good and he's fully recovered. He's absolutely important depth this season and could be an important role player in the future if he finds his stroke consistently. I'll be curious to see where he's at towards the end of the month as well. At some point he'll need to start taking some walks, right? lol.

[FlyingFinn]

Very nice start to the season for SWR. It would really help if he pitches like this and would be ready to pitch for the Twins when needed. 

[wabene]

Edit: Oops wrong thread.

[Doctor Gast]

I was looking forward to seeing SWR pitch, he didn't let us down. Even in adverse conditions, he pitched well. Too bad Balazovik & Harris couldn't nail it down. Miranda continues to hit well 

[terrydactyls]

I have a question.  I am 1500 miles from the Twins Cities so all I know about the Twins farm system is what I read.  Is Woods-Richardson's first name pronounced like Paul Simon or like San Simeon?

[nicksaviking]

Good to see SWR start off hot.

Alex Isola is in the OF now, interesting.

This is one of my favorite AAA teams I've ever seen from this organization. The only offensive players on the team that weren't drafted by the Twins are Fajardo and now Tanner Morris but those guys are only 25 and 26 and actually look a bit intriguing. Usually they like to stuff it full of guys like Ryan LaMarre, Andrew Stevenson, Tony Wolters and Hernan Perez.

[bean5302]

31 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

I have a question.  I am 1500 miles from the Twins Cities so all I know about the Twins farm system is what I read.  Is Woods-Richardson's first name pronounced like Paul Simon or like San Simeon?

Sih-mee-uhn like Sam Simeon to the best of my understanding. Could be wrong, but that's the only way I've heard interviewers and Twins broadcasters say it.

Then again, remember Visanthe Schiancoe with the Vikings? It was years before he said, no, actually his name was pronounced Visanth. Not Visan-tay. 

[bean5302]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

...Miranda is off to a good start as well, hopefully this means his shoulder is feeling good and he's fully recovered...

Based on the way he was hitting the ball in Spring Training and throwing in January, I was pretty confident he was 100% and a good choice for the 26 man out of the gate. Have I mentioned I really don't like the Carlos Santana signing anywhere? Probably not... 

[Steve Lein]

37 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Good to see SWR start off hot.

Alex Isola is in the OF now, interesting.

This is one of my favorite AAA teams I've ever seen from this organization. The only offensive players on the team that weren't drafted by the Twins are Fajardo and now Tanner Morris but those guys are only 25 and 26 and actually look a bit intriguing. Usually they like to stuff it full of guys like Ryan LaMarre, Andrew Stevenson, Tony Wolters and Hernan Perez.

Isola was the DH in this one. 

Agree that it's fun to see development paying off, though I'd rather see this on the pitching side when it comes to triple-A!

[jmlease1]

16 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Based on the way he was hitting the ball in Spring Training and throwing in January, I was pretty confident he was 100% and a good choice for the 26 man out of the gate. Have I mentioned I really don't like the Carlos Santana signing anywhere? Probably not... 

heh. I didn't mind the Santana signing, but I'm less thrilled the more clear it became that they planned on him being the every day 1B and not a platoon guy to deal with LHP. Think he's going to be overexposed and they'll justify his no-bat performances with florid praise about his defense. that said...Miranda does have a ways to go to be a competent 1B. If he does figure it out and stays healthy, then I'm excited for him to hop the light rail and go to Target Field.

[nicksaviking]

Just now, Steve Lein said:

Isola was the DH in this one. 

Agree that it's fun to see development paying off, though I'd rather see this on the pitching side when it comes to triple-A!

I do see Isola has already played two games in the OF, which is two more than he's ever played, even in college. I like it, it means they are willing to be creative in getting their best hitters to St. Paul.

I'd also like to see it with the pitching, but it's getting close. Boushley is the only non-Twin-developed starter. The bullpen is obviously a different animal, signing relievers to MiLB deals and relievers with options was clearly the plan this winter. I have to think that most of the Twins future internally developed relief options are still starting in AA and lower. I think that conversion to reliever maybe needs to start a bit earlier with this organization though. 

[bean5302]

3 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

heh. I didn't mind the Santana signing, but I'm less thrilled the more clear it became that they planned on him being the every day 1B and not a platoon guy to deal with LHP. Think he's going to be overexposed and they'll justify his no-bat performances with florid praise about his defense. that said...Miranda does have a ways to go to be a competent 1B. If he does figure it out and stays healthy, then I'm excited for him to hop the light rail and go to Target Field.

I don't care for using OAA on it's own (assuming that's what you're using to say Miranda is a poor 1B). OAA a wildly inconsistent statistic whipping around from god-like values down to the depths from year to year even on veteran players. The value for 1B appears to be broken for Miranda in 2022 as well. Miranda's UZR/150 was +3.3 at first base in 2022 with only 3 errors in 77 games played there. Hard to find a way his defense could be so awful at 1B if he's not making errors and recording a normal amount of outs and assists at the position. It's not like there are a lot of 1B with elite range and speed to make up for a solid error rate.

[Alex Schieferdecker]

Encouraging starts from St. Paul on the starting pitching front. If Festa, SWR, and Dobby are pitching well, that helps us out a lot. Also glad to see Miranda raking.

[2wins87]

Woods-Richardson's fastest tracked pitch last year was 94.5, so the 95.1 was definitely a high water mark.  More important though, he averaged 93 and change all through spring training and his first AAA start, which is a big improvement from last year when he averaged just under 91, and averaged under 92 in every individual appearance.

Reportedly he changed the arm slot slightly to get to the velocity, though he still looks to be coming from almost completely over-the-top, so I don't think he's really lost much of the uniqueness in his delivery that is also a positive aspect for him.

His fastball and changeup were dominant yesterday, with 50% whiffs on his FB and 67% on his changeup.  Seems like he still needs to find a way to miss a few more bats with his slider or curve, which only got 2 whiffs yesterday and few whiffs in spring training too.

I am starting to get optimistic about a resurgence though.

[bean5302]

23 hours ago, 2wins87 said:

Woods-Richardson's fastest tracked pitch last year was 94.5, so the 95.1 was definitely a high water mark.  More important though, he averaged 93 and change all through spring training and his first AAA start, which is a big improvement from last year when he averaged just under 91, and averaged under 92 in every individual appearance.

Reportedly he changed the arm slot slightly to get to the velocity, though he still looks to be coming from almost completely over-the-top, so I don't think he's really lost much of the uniqueness in his delivery that is also a positive aspect for him.

His fastball and changeup were dominant yesterday, with 50% whiffs on his FB and 67% on his changeup.  Seems like he still needs to find a way to miss a few more bats with his slider or curve, which only got 2 whiffs yesterday and few whiffs in spring training too.

I am starting to get optimistic about a resurgence though.

Woods-Richardson needs to do this for several games in a row before I'll bat an eye. His problem has been keeping steady on his mechanics for years and years and years now. Largely great at 91-92mph; un-rosterable at 88-89mph. I don't know why Woods-Richardson has struggled so much with mechanics, but this is probably his last chance season to remain on a roster and get a good opportunity at the MLB level.

[2wins87]

30 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Woods-Richardson needs to do this for several games in a row before I'll bat an eye. His problem has been keeping steady on his mechanics for years and years and years now. Largely great at 91-92mph; un-rosterable at 88-89mph. I don't know why Woods-Richardson has struggled so much with mechanics, but this is probably his last chance season to remain on a roster and get a good opportunity at the MLB level.

If you count spring training it has been 4 games.  Average FB velocity per outing was 93.1, 93.1, 93.4, 93.3.  He hit 94.6 in the 5th inning of his last outing and his 71st pitch was the last fastball he threw at 93.8, so he maintained well for this start at the very least.

Obviously we'll have to see him maintain it later in the season, but it's enough for me to call it more than a blip. He was pretty consistently averaging 90-91 something in every appearance last year.  His current velocity is something that we haven't seen in at least 2 years I think, so it's encouraging.

Some were pointing to his improved second half ERA last year which honestly didn't move me very much since it didn't come with a discernible change in stuff or a particularly big increase in strikeouts.  The early velo numbers this year is much more interesting to me.

[bean5302]

15 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

Some were pointing to his improved second half ERA last year which honestly didn't move me very much since it didn't come with a discernible change in stuff or a particularly big increase in strikeouts.  The early velo numbers this year is much more interesting to me.

Agreed. Woods-Richardson's results were better in the second half, but his underlying numbers weren't exactly glowing. The 20.5% K vs. 12.0% BB was almost exactly the same. The .230 BABIP was unsustainable as was the 0.79/9 HR rate. He didn't pitch better, he just got better results.

If Woods-Richardson is able to sustain the velocity improvement for a few games in a stable competitive atmosphere, I'll take notice because I'm pretty sure the results will follow.