Minor League Report 4/28 Three Shutouts; One by Pitching, Two by Nature

[Matt Braun]

April in the Midwest can be fickle. 

Image courtesy of William Parmeter (photo of Ty Langenberg)

TRANSACTIONS
No moves were made on Sunday.

Saints Sentinel
The Saints game never started due to rain. St. Paul will make up the match at a later date, expected to come sometime in late May.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 1, San Antonio 3
Box Score
Nick Wittgren: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Ben Ross (2-for-3, 2B, RBI)

Wichita fell silently on Sunday.

Your eyes do not deceive you; the 32-year-old former big leaguer—most known to us as a member of Cleveland’s bullpen for three years—started the game. The Twins just signed him the other day. 

It appears their plan was to Frankenstein Monster their way through nine innings, with Aaron Rozek and a group of tertiary arms working to deliver the game to its ending. The plan worked; Wichita only allowed three runs in the game. The plan also failed; Wichita lost.

But that failure falls more on the bats, who collectively decided to mimic complex physics, in that their existence was theoretical, not tangible. Ben Ross and Noah Cardenas were the only hitters with some sign of offense. The seven other batters combined for one hit and two walks, hardly a successful day at the plate. 

Thanks in part to the rainouts, Ross’ RBI double marked the only run scored by a Twins affiliate on Sunday. 

San Antonio—masquerading as the “Oat Milkers,” with handy back titles that inform each of their members to be simply a “baseball player”—are, appropriately, an affiliate of the Padres. Their best prospect is centerfielder Jakob Marsee; he went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids also did not play on Sunday, thanks to a drenching from the heavens. The game is canceled; it will not be made up at a later date. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 0, Palm Beach 4
Box Score
Ty Langenberg: 5 1/3 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Poncho Ruiz (2-for-4)

The Mighty Mussels failed to score during Sunday’s action.

Credit to Cardinals’ starter Chen-Wei Lin: the 6’7” righty carved through the Mighty Mussels lineup with shocking efficiency, finishing off his seventh inning of work on just his 66th pitch. You don’t see that in the low minors too often. He struck out seven, allowed just three singles, and never saw a runner reach second base; two of the singles were erased with double plays. It’s a start he’ll never forget.

That makes Ty Langenberg one unlucky fella. He pitched well. On a normal day, his line would be the better of any two starters. His only flaw appeared to be timing. 

Poncho Ruiz was the lone Mighty Mussel with a modicum of success; he earned a pair of singles to push his season batting average up to .317. Not bad for the undrafted free agent out of San Diego State. 

Palm Beach’s best prospect is centerfielder Chase Davis, who lived up to his namesake by going 0-4 with two strikeouts. Perhaps he should have tried pitching. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Ty Langenberg
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:
#7 - Austin Martin (Minnesota) - Game in progress
#11 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-4, 2 K
#13 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 0-4, 2 K

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Louisville @ St. Paul (11:07 AM) - RHP David Festa 
Wichita @ NW Arkansas (7:05 PM) - TBD
Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM) - RHP Andrew Morris
Fort Myers @ Bradenton (5:30 PM) - TBD

 

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[Old Crow]

Are any of the Twin Cities TV outlets ever covering any of the Saints games?

[MN_ExPat]

51 minutes ago, Old Crow said:

Are any of the Twin Cities TV outlets ever covering any of the Saints games?

It's not a local affiliate, but MiLB TV does provide coverage, although I'm not sure if there are any blackout restrictions for for the minors.  If not, it's only $29 (I think) for the season and it provides coverage for all minor league affiliates.

[Steve Lein]

40 minutes ago, MN_ExPat said:

It's not a local affiliate, but MiLB TV does provide coverage, although I'm not sure if there are any blackout restrictions for for the minors.  If not, it's only $29 (I think) for the season and it provides coverage for all minor league affiliates.

MiLB.tv continues to be the greatest value in baseball watching myself, as an avid minor league fan, has ever invested in. It is also perfect for anyone (also me) who is not going to pay cable package prices to watch baseball or just the Twins, as that's the only channel I'd ever watch, and only for their actual games. It's a ludicrous waste of money for what I would venture is most people these days.

As mentioned, MiLB.tv is about $30 for the entire season, there are no blackouts, and you can watch every single team that exists, basically.  I can't recommend it enough! Saints broadcasts are great. I love Tim Grubbs with Wichita. Always fun to see who the probable pitchers are at each affiliate every night and be able to check out whomever I want that day.

Edited April 29, 2024 by Steve Lein

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Langenberg,  is one I was optimistic about.  Obviously being a Hawkeye I'm rooting for his success.  I do think he is a little further down on the 2023 draft prospects with the best chance to succeed,  but he has enough talent to continue to improve and be a back end of the rotations starter.  He seemed a little off to start the season.  This is a good bounce back start after taking a week or two off and working in the development complex.   

So far Soto,  Pasqualotto, Dunn and Langenberg Lee have done well or appear to be improving.   Hall has struggled a bit, but I still have high expectations for him.  Either due to injury or continue to wok on stuff, Stoffal, Dougherty, and Questad have not pitched yet this year.   

[LambchoP]

Will be interesting to see if they finally let Festa pitch past the third or fourth inning on Tuesday...

[MN_ExPat]

3 hours ago, Steve Lein said:

MiLB.tv continues to be the greatest value in baseball watching myself, as an avid minor league fan, has ever invested in. It is also perfect for anyone (also me) who is not going to pay cable package prices to watch baseball or just the Twins, as that's the only channel I'd ever watch, and only for their actual games. It's a ludicrous waste of money for what I would venture is most people these days.

As mentioned, MiLB.tv is about $30 for the entire season, there are no blackouts, and you can watch every single team that exists, basically.  I can't recommend it enough! Saints broadcasts are great. I love Tim Grubbs with Wichita. Always fun to see who the probable pitchers are at each affiliate every night and be able to check out whomever I want that day.

Totally agree, LOVE IT and have subscribed to it myself the last couple of years now. 

It's even more awesome now that Low A games are being televised which gives us the chance to watch prospects new to the Twins (I.E. I was watching Ft. Myers the other night when Winokour had a great day at the plate which was super awesome to see).

[Old Crow]

22 hours ago, Steve Lein said:

MiLB.tv continues to be the greatest value in baseball watching myself, as an avid minor league fan, has ever invested in. It is also perfect for anyone (also me) who is not going to pay cable package prices to watch baseball or just the Twins, as that's the only channel I'd ever watch, and only for their actual games. It's a ludicrous waste of money for what I would venture is most people these days.

As mentioned, MiLB.tv is about $30 for the entire season, there are no blackouts, and you can watch every single team that exists, basically.  I can't recommend it enough! Saints broadcasts are great. I love Tim Grubbs with Wichita. Always fun to see who the probable pitchers are at each affiliate every night and be able to check out whomever I want that day.

Thanks for all the info folks,  I signed up for the $29 package and am looking forward to tonight.

[Steve Lein]

On 4/29/2024 at 10:42 AM, LambchoP said:

Will be interesting to see if they finally let Festa pitch past the third or fourth inning on Tuesday...

Made it through 5, much more efficient with his pitches today. Also tied the Saints franchise record for K's in a game. Which surprisingly, even with them only being an affiliate a few years now, is only 10...hah!

[Steve Lein]

On 4/29/2024 at 12:33 PM, MN_ExPat said:

Totally agree, LOVE IT and have subscribed to it myself the last couple of years now. 

14 hours ago, Old Crow said:

Thanks for all the info folks,  I signed up for the $29 package and am looking forward to tonight.

Thanks for joining the revolution! 😀

[wabene]

On 4/29/2024 at 9:20 AM, Steve Lein said:

MiLB.tv continues to be the greatest value in baseball watching myself, as an avid minor league fan, has ever invested in. It is also perfect for anyone (also me) who is not going to pay cable package prices to watch baseball or just the Twins, as that's the only channel I'd ever watch, and only for their actual games. It's a ludicrous waste of money for what I would venture is most people these days.

As mentioned, MiLB.tv is about $30 for the entire season, there are no blackouts, and you can watch every single team that exists, basically.  I can't recommend it enough! Saints broadcasts are great. I love Tim Grubbs with Wichita. Always fun to see who the probable pitchers are at each affiliate every night and be able to check out whomever I want that day.

Yes and it is all on demand. For example I wanted to watch Varland and Duran pitch the other day, easy, took about half an hour. Wanna watch Soto pitch or Winokur's plate appearances? Dial it up.