Twins Minor League Report (4/16): Pitching Falters Throughout System

[Steve Lein]

Chris Paddack being roughed up in the majors for the Minnesota Twins was a bad omen for the entirety of the system on Tuesday night. Of the 12 pitchers who made an appearance in the minors, just three of them went unscathed. Only a rainout in Wisconsin was able to limit the damage.

Image courtesy of Seth Stohs, Twins Daily (photo of Will Holland)

TRANSACTIONS

• The Minnesota Twins recalled OF Trevor Larnach from the St. Paul Saints before he even appeared in a game for them after rehabbing with Fort Myers. In somewhat demoralizing news, he swapped roster spots with that OF Matt Wallner, who was optioned to make the room.
• The Saints also activated RHP Austin Schulfer, who made his first appearance of the season in Indianapolis.
• Down in the Midwest League, the Cedar Rapids Kernels transferred RHP Alejandro Hidalgo from the 7-day injured list to the 60-day. Hopefully that doesn’t signal the end of his season as he deals with a shoulder injury.
• The Mighty Mussels placed SS Yohander Martinez on the 7-day IL, and were assigned RHP Julio Bonilla from the FCL roster in his place.

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 6, Indianapolis 10
Box Score
The Saints jumped out to a 1-0 lead after a half-inning as Diego A. Castillo led off the game with a triple, and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. followed with a triple of his own.

Right-hander Randy Dobnak got the starting nod and surrendered the tying run in his first inning. He ended up finishing four innings and was charged with five earned runs on six hits and three walks, while striking out three. He ran up a high pitch count, throwing 79 with just 45 going for strikes (57%).

Before Indianapolis’ three-run third inning, the Saints went back ahead in the top of the second after Anthony Prato led off with a single, moved to third on an errant pickoff attempt, and scored on a sac fly from Tanner Morris. They tied the game at four in the fourth thanks to RBI singles from Will Holland and Keirsey Jr. The offense added two more runs in the sixth for their final total, when Holland drilled his second home run of the season.

Relievers Michael Boyle (1 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, BB) and Josh Staumont (1 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 K) also got roughed up a bit by the Indianapolis offense. Scott Blewett (1/3 IP, 2 H, K) and Austin Schulfer (1 IP, K) finished off the game for the Saints.

Castillo (3-for-4, R, 3B, SB), Keirsey Jr. (2-for-5, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 K), Morris (2-for-4, 2 R, 2B, RBI, BB) and Holland (2-for-3, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI, BB, SB) had multiple hits in the loss. Anthony Prato finished 1-for-4 with a run scored and another walk, giving him 13 in 12 games so far this season, as his OBP sits at .490 thus far.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Tulsa 15, Wichita 4
Box Score
Rafael Marcano made the start for the Wind Surge and made himself work a bit for his results for the first three innings, which included just one run allowed but also four walks and a few errant pitches. It caught up to him in the fourth, when he was lifted after walking the first two hitters of the frame. They both came around to score, leaving him charged with three earned runs in three-plus innings. He allowed one hit, walked six, and struck out four.

Wichita took a 2-1 lead after the third inning after Jake Rucker led off with his first home run of the season.

Alerick Soularie followed with a walk, stole second base, and advanced to third on a throwing error from the catcher. Two batters later Ben Ross brought him in with a sac fly. The offense went cold in the middle innings, as the Wind Surge fell behind 9-2 through seven.

Those other six runs were charged to right-hander Scott Engler (2 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 2 K) and Taylor Floyd (2 IP, 3 ER, 3 H, 3 BB) in those innings.

The Wind Surge offense added two runs in the eighth after Emmanuel Rodriguez led off with a walk before Andrew Cossetti and Kala’i Rosario clubbed back-to-back doubles to make it 9-4.

Miguel Rodriguez couldn’t escape a drilling either, allowing six runs (3 earned) on six hits to finish off the game’s final two innings. He struck out two.

Wichita’s lineup was led by Rucker, who collected two other hits in the game in addition to his homer. Emmanuel Rodriguez drew two walks in five at-bats and scored a run. He has reached base in every game so far this season.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (Postponed – Rain)
Another week, another series being played at a stadium I’ve had the pleasure of visiting in my minor league baseball watching travels. Unfortunately, the Kernels series opening matchup with the Timber Rattlers on Tuesday was postponed due to the same rainstorms that hit the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The game will be made up tomorrow as part of a doubleheader beginning at 12:10 PM with Andrew Morris scheduled to be on the bump in Game 1, followed by Zebby Matthews in Game 2.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Jupiter 7, Fort Myers 4
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels defense had a big of a rough day, committing three errors that led to three unearned runs, all of which were charged to starting pitcher Ty Langenberg. Other than that, Langenberg was solid enough, finishing five innings and allowing two earned runs in addition on three hits and one walk, while striking out four.

Fort Myers scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning when Isaac Pena singled and came around on a double from Rayne Doncon that made it 3-1 Hammerheads.

The bullpen duo of Samuel Perez (2 IP, 2 ER, 2 H BB, 2 K) and Danny Moreno (2 IP, H, 3 K) finished out the game for the Mighty Mussels.

Down 7-1 in the seventh, Maddux Houghton led off the inning with a single, then three batters later scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Pena. That was Pena’s only plate appearance in this one that didn’t result in a hit or walk, but he still reached base in each at-bat after starting the season in a 1-for-23 slump. In the eighth inning, the offense added two more runs to their final tally after Brandon Winokur led off the inning with a double, scored on a Poncho Ruiz groundout, and later a wild pitch allowed Rafael Cruz to scamper home.

Pena (3-for-4, R, 2B, RBI, BB), Doncon (2-for-5, 2B, RBI, K), and Houghton (2-for-3, R, 2B) each had two hits in the loss.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Danny Moreno, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (2 IP, 1 H, 3 K)
Hitter of the Day – Will Holland, St. Paul Saints (2-for-3, 2 R, HR (2), 3 RBI, BB, SB (3))

PROSPECT SUMMARY
#3 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) – 0-for-3, R, 2 BB, 2 K
#10 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 1-for-5, R, 2B, 2 K
#13 – Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) – 1-for-4, 2B, RBI, 2 K
#16 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 1-for-5, K

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Indianapolis (11:05 AM CST) – RHP David Festa (0-0, 2.16 ERA)
Tulsa @ Wichita (12:05 PM CST) – RHP Jarret Whorff (0-0, 2.25 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (Game 1: 12:10 PM CST) – RHP Andrew Morris (0-0, 0.90 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (Game 2) – RHP Zebby Matthews (1-0, 1.80 ERA)
Jupiter @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Ross Dunn (0-0, 2.57 ERA)

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

 

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[mikelink45]

Sad to see, I do not see Randy in a Twins uniform this year, but if he does it is a total collapse of the MLB rotation.  Staumont needs to step up if he is going to save our pen. We can only hope Severino and Rodriguez push out Margo and Santana.

I am not confident at all that we are finding the right pitchers and developing them.  How does Cleveland keep doing it?  Their secret sauce was kept away from our FO team. 

[Kenny Powers]

Yuck.  I think I'll just concentrate on the Timberwolves for now and come back to baseball in about a month.  What a gross start to the season (at every level).

Only positive thing I see is Austin Shulfer is back.  Keep an eye on that guy.  He has a good arm.

[Dman]

I wonder if there is a system with worse pen arms than the Twins system.  The lack of development there seems astounding to me.  Wichita would be at least 500 if the pen hadn't blown so many games.  St Paul would have a better record as well.  Either they aren't finding pitchers with enough upside or just don't have a good plan for developing arms for the pen I don't know, but a lot of arms look really bad this year.

I was a Randy backer again this year but it looks like the same old Randy.  Whatever he had is gone now.  I guess he just plays things out at AAA. 

Rough start to the season have to hope things get better soon. 

[DJL44]

Will Festa pitch more than 3 innings tonight? There is an opportunity if they let him compete for it.

[roger]

Its tough watching games of the Twins or their minor league teams right now.  Might help having Jenkins or Lee back, but it has been ugly.

[Steve Lein]

1 hour ago, Dman said:

I wonder if there is a system with worse pen arms than the Twins system.  The lack of development there seems astounding to me.  Wichita would beat least 500 if the pen hadn't blown so many games.  St Paul would have a better record as well.  Either they aren't finding pitchers with enough upside or are just don't have a good plan for developing arms for the pen I don't know, but a lot of arms look really bad this year.

I was a Randy backer again this year but it looks like the same old Randy.  Whatever he had is gone now.  I guess he just plays things out at AAA. 

Rough start to the season have to hope things get better soon. 

Definitely a bad night for the system. But I think this take is a bit unfair from a global perspective.

Ronny Henriquez, Matt Bowman, and Ryan Jensen have been good. There is David Festa (a 13th round draft pick) and Brent Headrick (9th round) who are having success thus far. 

Randy needs to get back some consistency, for sure. That was his calling card when he first came up. It was something like 250 innings between giving up more than 4 runs in any game.

2 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I am not confident at all that we are finding the right pitchers and developing them.  How does Cleveland keep doing it?  Their secret sauce was kept away from our FO team. 

I know you are looking for bigger success story than these, but they have gotten results (at times) from players like Randy Dobnak, Louie Varland, Bailey Ober, etc... and despite the perception, none of these guys were drafted nearly as high or had the same initial talent that those guys you're thinking of from the Guardians. The Twins have Joe Ryan (7th round), Ober (12th round), and Varland (15th round) in their rotation right now.

The Guardians beginning of the year rotation had a fifth rounder (Tanner Bibee), second rounder (Logan Allen), round 1 CB (Triston McKenzie), and a fourth rounder (Shane Bieber, now injured) included. 

I don't view this as the same type of success or failure.

[Steve Lein]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Will Festa pitch more than 3 innings tonight? There is an opportunity if they let him compete for it.

They let his pitch count get up to 70 his last time out, but he didn't get more innings than the prior two starts (where his pitch count was 50) because he walked a bunch of hitters. If all goes well he can certainly get to 5 or more moving forward.

[Mike Sixel]

27 minutes ago, Steve Lein said:

Definitely a bad night for the system. But I think this take is a bit unfair from a global perspective.

Ronny Henriquez, Matt Bowman, and Ryan Jensen have been good. There is David Festa (a 13th round draft pick) and Brent Headrick (9th round) who are having success thus far. 

Randy needs to get back some consistency, for sure. That was his calling card when he first came up. It was something like 250 innings between giving up more than 4 runs in any game.

I know you are looking for bigger success story than these, but they have gotten results (at times) from players like Randy Dobnak, Louie Varland, Bailey Ober, etc... and despite the perception, none of these guys were drafted nearly as high or had the same initial talent that those guys you're thinking of from the Guardians. The Twins have Joe Ryan (7th round), Ober (12th round), and Varland (15th round) in their rotation right now.

The Guardians beginning of the year rotation had a fifth rounder (Tanner Bibee), second rounder (Logan Allen), round 1 CB (Triston McKenzie), and a fourth rounder (Shane Bieber, now injured) included. 

I don't view this as the same type of success or failure.

They are the ones choosing not to use high picks on pitchers.....so, IMO, it is ok to compare them. They have chosen to go bats, bats, bats (some of them awful) in the first two rounds almost exclusively. 

[Steve Lein]

5 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

They are the ones choosing not to use high picks on pitchers.....so, IMO, it is ok to compare them. They have chosen to go bats, bats, bats (some of them awful) in the first two rounds almost exclusively. 

I agree that this would actually be my argument around this topic, not that they are good or bad at developing.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

On 4/17/2024 at 9:55 AM, Dman said:

I wonder if there is a system with worse pen arms than the Twins system.  The lack of development there seems astounding to me.  Wichita would be at least 500 if the pen hadn't blown so many games.  St Paul would have a better record as well.  Either they aren't finding pitchers with enough upside or just don't have a good plan for developing arms for the pen I don't know, but a lot of arms look really bad this year.

I was a Randy backer again this year but it looks like the same old Randy.  Whatever he had is gone now.  I guess he just plays things out at AAA. 

Rough start to the season have to hope things get better soon. 

Bullpen hasn't been a focus, and I really don't think its worthwhile to spend a lot of assets in bullpen arms in the draft.  You can sign some, convert some starters and move on.  Varland very well could end up back in the bullpen.  I think things will get better at all levels on the pitching front and W/L  need to just get through this patch and get healthy.