Twins Minor League Report (4/10): Saints Pannone'd with Big Blast of Wisdom

[Seth Stohs]

The Mighty Mussels made a valiant comeback only to give up their lead late. The Saints fell to a veteran starter who is off to a great start and a power-hitting rehabber. Wichita got rained out. Here is the primary Minor League Report for Wednesday. There will be a Kernels-only report as well, filled with quotes after their first win of the season. 

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photo of Maddux Houghton going through the line on Opening Day).

Please note that today's Minor League Report is actually split into two reports. Below, you will find most of the information you would expect. However, since I am in Cedar Rapids, and the Kernels won their first game, and there is a lot to write about that game, I am going to do a separate Kernels report. Please check that out. It will be available soon. 

We are still incredibly early in the season. Over the rest of the week, there will be several pitchers making their first starts of the season for their Twins’ affiliate, but there are already lots of storylines to follow. While we don’t really have any reason to look at the standings for a couple of months, I’ll include it anyway.  

Minnesota Twins: 4-6 
St. Paul Saints: 5-5
Wichita Wind Surge: 1-3 
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 1-3
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 3-2  

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

TRANSACTIONS
Wichita placed RHP Cody Laweryson on the 7-Day Injured List. 

In a surprise move, RHP Jace Stoffal, the team’s eighth-round pick in 2023 from Oregon, officially retired on Tuesday. 

In recent days, catchers Duncan Hewitt and Frank Nigro were released by the Twins. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 1, Iowa 4
Box Score
29-year-old lefty Thomas Pannone made his third start of the season for the Iowa Cubs. In his first start, he gave up two hits over five scoreless innings. In his second start, he gave up two hits over 5 2/3 scoreless innings. So maybe the Saints shouldn’t feel too bad about scoring just one run on three hits and two walks against Pannone. 

Powerful Patrick Wisdom provided the offense the Cubs’ needed to take down the Saints. Wisdom hit a deep fly ball to right-center field that landed beyond the fence. Jake Slaughter and Ali Sanchez scored in front of the rehabbing-big leaguer. Wisdom is currently on the Cubs’ Injured List. Over the past three years with Chicago, he has hit a combined 76 home runs. 

Until that point, Randy Dobnak was very good again. However, his final line shows three runs allowed on five hits. He walked one and struck out seven batters. Matt Bowman struck out three batters over 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Diego Castillo came on and gave up one run on two hits over 1 2/3 innings. He gave up a solo home to Cubs powerful outfield prospect Alexander Canario. Ryan Jensen came in for the ninth inning and struck out three batters. 

The Saints had just six hits in the game. Chris Williams led the way with two hits including his second double. Michael Helman hit his first double of the season. Helman scored the team’s lone run in the sixth inning on a Yunior Severino single. 

The game began 32 minutes late due to a rain delay, but it finished in two hours and 43 minutes. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita, Springfield (Postponed)
Box Score

The game was postponed due to inclement weather. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Friday. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 11, Dayton 2  
Box Score
It was a terrific night in Cedar Rapids for the Kernels. The bats showed up. The pitching was fantastic. I talked to quite a few people. So, I decided to create a separate article for the Kernels report. Be sure to check that out right here. 

Lots of quotes from the likes of Brian Dinkelman, Zebby Matthews, Rubel Cespedes, Nate Baez, and more. 

Click here for the Kernels Report: Rubel Cespedes and Zebby Matthews Lead Kernels to Season's First Win.  

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 7, Clearwater 8
Box Score
It was a back-and-forth game in Clearwater on Wednesday night. The Threshers grabbed two in the bottom of the third. The Mussels responded with one in the fourth. Clearwater added three in the bottom of the fifth frame. 

All five runs were charged to starting pitcher Ty Langenberg. The 2023 draft pick from the University of Iowa gave up five runs on nine hits in five innings. He walked none but struck out, you guessed it, five batters. Spending the past couple of days in Cedar Rapids, there are some Kernels fans who are eager to see Langenberg move up to High-A. I would suspect it won’t take more than about a half-season.

Lefty Wilker Reyes came on and struck out three batters over two scoreless innings. That allowed the Mussels to show off their muscles. Maddux Houghton’s first homer of the season drove in Yohander Martinez and Angel Del Rosario to cut the deficit to 5-4. With Byron Chourio on base, Brandon Winokur’s first home run put the Mussels ahead 6-5. The Mussels added another run in the eighth inning on a Houghton ground out.  

Up by two, Brian Meyer turned to Xander Hamilton for the bottom of the eighth. Unfortunately, he gave up three runs on two hits and a walk in the inning. The Mussels went quietly in the top of the ninth. 

Eight of the nine Mussels hitters had at least one hit. Rayne Doncon went hitless, but he walked twice. Del Rosario and Houghton, the team’s eight and nine hitters in this game, each went 2-for-4. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY (The Kernels will get their own, though both awards would certainly belong to Kernels on a normal report.)
Hitter of the Day – Maddux Houghton (Fort Myers) - 2-for-4, HR(1), R, 4 RBI,
Pitcher of the Day – Ryan Jensen (St. Paul) - 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the new Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday. 

#4 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-5 
#7 – Austin Martin (Minnesota) – 0-for-2, BB (played CF)
#10 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 1-for-4, HR(1), 2 RBI, 3 K (played 3B)
#12 – Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-4, 2B(1), BB, 2 R, RBI, 1 BB (DHd)
#15 – Danny De Andrade (Cedar Rapids) – 3-for-4, HBP, R, RBI, SB(1).  
#16 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 1-for-3, BB, RBI, K (played 3B)
#19 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-3, 2B(1), 4 R, 2 BB, K (played LF)

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE AND PITCHING PROBABLES
Iowa @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CST) - RHP David Festa (0-0, 1.59 ERA)
Wichita @ Springfield (6:35 PM CST) - LHP Jarret Whorff (First Start), facing Tink Hence.
Dayton @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) - RHP Andrew Morris (First Start)
Fort Myers @ Clearwater (5:30 PM CST) - Ross Dunn (0-0, 2.25 ERA) 

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

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[FlyingFinn]

Where is the Cedar Rapids article?

Not sure how Ryan Jensen gets pitcher of the day for his one inning of work. Zebby Matthews pitches 5 shutout innings with 8 K's and 0 BB's. 

The middle of that Kernels order had a great night with Olivar and De Andrade combining for 5 hits. But Rubel Cespedes stole the show - 4 for 5 with 7 rbi's including a 2B and HR. What's a guy got to do to get hitter of the day? He's never been talked about as a prospect with a chance to make MLB and repeated low A last year (.233 average with 13 HR's but 101 K's).

[Seth Stohs]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Not sure how Ryan Jensen gets pitcher of the day for his one inning of work. Zebby Matthews pitches 5 shutout innings with 8 K's and 0 BB's. 

The reason is because there is a second article. As the note says by the Players of the Day header, the Kernels will get their own. 

Article just published. 

[Doctor Gast]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Where is the Cedar Rapids article?

Not sure how Ryan Jensen gets pitcher of the day for his one inning of work. Zebby Matthews pitches 5 shutout innings with 8 K's and 0 BB's. 

The middle of that Kernels order had a great night with Olivar and De Andrade combining for 5 hits. But Rubel Cespedes stole the show - 4 for 5 with 7 rbi's including a 2B and HR. What's a guy got to do to get hitter of the day? He's never been talked about as a prospect with a chance to make MLB and repeated low A last year (.233 average with 13 HR's but 101 K's).

I saw Tom's podcast, Olivar made a great play in LF. Olivar is very athletic with a lot of potential of being a terrific catcher once they start to develop him there.

[Dman]

Kind of wondering if Langenburg is going to take the Pearson Ohl track all the way up.  He gives up hits and some runs, but refuses to walk anyone.  Just attack, attack, attack the zone.  Rough night for sure, but hopefully he refines his stuff and gets better along the way.

Definitely surprised about Stoffal.  He was supposed to have a really good change up and fell some due to injury.  Maybe the finger was just too much to overcome or wasn't coming back the way he wanted?  or he just didn't see a future for himself there?  Wonder what happened as you don't generally see many of these players give up on their dream that easily.  Must be something fairly big. Obviously I wish him the best going forward.

Still waiting for those St. Paul hitters to get going, but it is cold up north in April.  Seems like they are missing a spark plug at AAA this year.

 

[jmlease1]

Chourio is off to a very nice start. It'll be interesting to see how his development goes over this season and what he looks like as a prospect at the end of the year. Any one know how his defense looks?

Winokur has serious power. Can he make enough consistent contact? Will there be too many holes in his swing? I suspect we won't really know until he makes it to the upper minors. Be fun to track Jenkins, Winokur, and Chourio together since they're all in their age-19 season in low-A.

[Rosterman]

One wonders about the future opf Dobnak. He pitched very well tonight until his final inning. Like Brent Headrick, will be be better suited for long relief, and is he capable of maybe getting into a second round of the batting order. And, in doing so, will there ever be a palce for him in Twinsland or is he constantly "just behind" someone else on the prospect list who will be on the 40-man roster. It will be interesting to see who the Twins bring up for Saturday's double-header.

[saviking]

Seith, I just wanted to thank you for compiling this every day. I used to have to go to each team's site to retrieve the info. 

Big help!

[Mike Sixel]

1 minute ago, saviking said:

Seith, I just wanted to thank you for compiling this every day. I used to have to go to each team's site to retrieve the info. 

Big help!

Agreed. I love this part of the site! Everyone that does this work deserves thanks.