Twins Minor League Report (5/16): Wichita Puts on an Offensive Show, Klein Shoves

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Wichita Wind Surge watched the entirety of their lineup go off on Thursday night, and they were led by an outstanding performance from Jake Rucker. Cedar Rapids blanked the opposition after a strong start from John Klein. St. Paul played 11, and Fort Myers kept it close. Check out all of the action within.

TRANSACTIONS

• INF Kevin Maitan signed by Minnesota and assigned to Cedar Rapids

SAINTS SENTINEL
Final: Omaha 9, St. Paul 8 (F/11)
Box Score

Randy Dobnak was on the bump for St. Paul on Thursday night and churned out five strikeouts through three innings of one-run baseball. He wound up going five innings while allowing three runs on six hits and a pair of walks. Dobnak’s strikeout total finished at five.

Michael Helman opened the scoring with his second home run of the season. The two-run blast in the 2nd inning scored Matt Wallner and made it a 2-0 lead for St. Paul. Omaha added a run in the 3rd inning, then two more in the 4th inning to take the lead.

The bottom of the 6th inning saw the Saints put up a big crooked number. The rehabbing Byron Buxton grounded out, but scored Anthony Prato in the process. Wallner doubled home Diego A. Castillo to retake the lead for St. Paul, then Helman singled home both DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and Wallner making it a 6-3 game. Capping off the frame, Yoyner Fajardo singled and brought home Yunior Severino.

After getting one back in the 8th inning, Omaha tied things in the 9th inning against Diego Castillo. Unable to scratch a run across, the sides were headed for extras. Omaha pushed their eighth run across in the top of the 10th inning, and St. Paul was down to their final three outs. Dalton Shuffield started at second base and advanced on a ground out. He then came home on a wild pitch and the score was again tied. Omaha plated their placed runner during the 11th inning while the Saints couldn't score theirs, and this one ended in defeat.

Castillo, Helman, and Prato each had a pair of hits for the Saints. Castillo's tough outing wound up being enough to sink St. Paul in a game that they used seven different pitchers.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 11, Tulsa 8
Box Score

Jaylen Nowlin took the ball for the Wind Surge on Thursday and he turned in three strong innings before an ugly 4th inning did him in. Finishing with four innings of work, Nowlin gave up six runs on three hits and four walks. He struck out three.

Wichita opened the scoring during the 2nd inning when Jake Rucker doubled home Aaron Sabato and Kalai Rosario. Emmanuel Rodriguez followed with his 5th home run of the season and it was a 4-0 game early.  In the 4th inning Tulsa responded with a six-spot to take over the lead.

The Wind Surge came roaring back in the 6th inning. Jake Rucker doubled Tanner Schobel home before a Jorel Ortega fielder’s choice scored Sabato for the tie. Rucker then came in on a wild pitch and Wichita was back in the lead.

Schobel grabbed his sixth double of the season in the 7th inning, and the base hit brought both Andrew Cossetti and Rosario home. Rucker singled again to give the Wind Surge a 10-6 lead. Schobel drew a bases loaded walk in the 8th inning to make it an 11-6 game, but the Drillers made things interesting with a two-run bottom half to make it 11-8.

Jared Solomon stayed on to close things out and was able to slam the door. Wichita finished with 10 hits, and plenty of the damage came from the bottom of the lineup. Rucker had three of them while Schobel and Sabato each had a pair of their own. Though the Wind Surge did strike out ten times, they also drew ten walks.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 1, Quad Cities 0
Box Score

The Kernels turned to John Klein and got nothing short of an exceptional performance from him. Working six innings allowing just a single hit and one walk, the Cedar Rapids starter struck out six.

A Jay Harry single in the 1st inning started the scoring with Ricardo Olivar coming across the plate. That’s where things stood the rest of the way. Cedar Rapids managed just five hits. Two came from Harry with the other two coming from Luke Keaschall, who was picked off twice on the basepaths.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Lakeland 3, Fort Myers 2
Box Score

Fort Myers sent Ty Langenberg to the bump and he put up an eight strikeout performance allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits and a walk. Jack Noble turned in three innings of relief work giving up just a single hit while striking out five and walking two.

Lakeland took the lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning and it wasn’t until the 5th inning that Fort Myers found themselves ahead. Payton Eeles singled home Isaac Pena before Byron Chourio lifted a sacrifice fly to score Angel Del Rosario.

The Flying Tigers tied things in the bottom of the 5th inning and walked off the Mighty Mussels when a passed ball got by Poncho Ruiz in the 9th inning. Fort Myers mustered just six hits in the game and had an ugly 16 strikeouts.

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
Scheduled to host the Tampa Bay Rays Complex League team, wet field conditions forced a postponement. The makeup date has been set for June 3.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – John Klein (Cedar Rapids) - 6.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K
Hitter of the Day –  Jake Rucker (Wichita) - 3-4, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 2B, BB

PROSPECT SUMMARY
#3 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) – 1-3, R, 2 RBI, HR(5), 2 BB, K
#10 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 1-4, 2 K
#11 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 2-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B, BB, K
#12 – Luke Keaschall (Cedar Rapids) – 2-4, 2B
#13 – Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) – 0-3, 2 R, 2 BB, K
#16 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 1-5, K
#19 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 1-3, R, 2B

FRIDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul vs Omaha (6:37 PM CST) – RHP David Festa (0-1, 3. ERA)
Wichita @ Tulsa (7:00 PM CST) –RHP Marco Raya (0-0, 3.38 ERA)
Cedar Rapids vs Quad Cities (6:35 PM CST) – RHP C.J. Culpepper (0-0, 3.31 ERA)
Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CST) – TBD

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

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[Doctor Gast]

Klein had a pretty impressive outing, 1st time I really noticed him. Should be a good one.

[FlyingFinn]

Wow, John Klein signed as a free agent and is from Brooklyn Park, MN. Decent #'s at Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids last year. Anyone know more about him? Does he actually have a chance to make it to MLB?

[Dman]

Klein has been a bit up and down to start the year, but the numbers do look good.  Don't know what to think about him just yet, but that Kernals rotations has been really good again this year.

Keaschall needs to get it together on pick offs.  Gifting the other team outs really hurts and kills rallies.  Hopefully he is more mindful about from here on out.

The AA bats are starting to heat up and the pitching has improved from the beginning of the year, but more work to be done there.

[terrydactyls]

"Klein Shoves"

What the heck does this even mean?  I asked this same question two weeks ago and the only responses were that they didn't know and had the same question.  I'm assuming it's a positive comment but it makes no sense whatsoever.  Did Klein shove an umpire and is going to get suspended?  Or worse yet, Klein was arrested for assault because he shoved someone?  If anyone knows the etymology of this curious slang, please enlighten me

[LambchoP]

I think management seriously needs to consider sending Kiriloff down to AAA for a reset. Especially since there are several intriguing options to replace him in the short term. I'd love to see what Keirsey Jr can do at the top level. If not him, it sounds like Wallner s been hitting well with the saints. Something needs to be done about the horrible twins outfielders lately...

[Craig Arko]

13 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

"Klein Shoves"

What the heck does this even mean?  I asked this same question two weeks ago and the only responses were that they didn't know and had the same question.  I'm assuming it's a positive comment but it makes no sense whatsoever.  Did Klein shove an umpire and is going to get suspended?  Or worse yet, Klein was arrested for assault because he shoved someone?  If anyone knows the etymology of this curious slang, please enlighten me

I assume it is similar to what, my day, we would call ‘dealing,’ as in “Johan was dealing” when he pitched a shutout with a lot of K’s.

[roger]

Saw ERod had a home run, so I clicked on the box score and saw he was 1-3 with two walks and one K.  Thought two walks versus one strikeout was interesting, so went looking deeper into his year-to-date stats. 

See that in 131 PA he has struck out 39 times.  That's a bit high (just under 30%), but not as bad as some.  Then saw he had 35 walks and thought, WOW, that's almost one walk for every strikeout.  Yes, this young man has an OBP of .466.  So he gets on base nearly one-half of the time, which I like...alot.  

Continue to believe that this young man just might be special.  And if he can get his K rate down just a bit, he just might solve the question of who the Twins should be playing in left field as early as next season.

 

[Cory Engelhardt]

Curious, Darren Bowen had been slated to start for Cedar Rapids yesterday, but John Klein did instead. Anyone know if there is an update on Bowen?

Thanks!

[FlyingFinn]

2 hours ago, LambchoP said:

it sounds like Wallner s been hitting well with the saints.

He's not ready yet. Had a good, but short streak in early May. Recently, he has returned to striking out way too much. And I'm a Wallner fan.

[LA Vikes Fan]

Wallner needs to show 4-6 weeks of consistent hitting before he gets called back up. While he was decent in July and August  and very good last year in September 2023, he was brutally bad in the playoffs, lousy in Spring training, and just horrendous in all of 2024 in the bigs. His MLB slash line in 2024 is .080/.273/.240(.513) with 17 SOs in 25 ABs, 28 PAs, for a SO rate of  60.7%! That's beyond just bad. HIs AAA slash line so far is .214/.278/.429 (.707), That's not recall worthy. Add to that the fact that he's not much of an OF, albeit with a good arm, and he goes only so far as his bat takes him. Right now his bat is taking him to AAA and leaving him there. Something's off and he needs to show that he can consistently it AAA pitching before he can be recalled. 

The Twins do need OF help, particularly defensively. Keirsey is the much more deserving candidate if a recall is in play. I'd like to see them put Topa on the 60 day DL and elevate Keirsey to the 40 man. Buxton replaces Martin, I'd call Keirsey up to replace Kirilloff, who also has lost his plate Mojo and has become a liability in the field.