Twins Minor League Report (6/1): Fort Myers Produced Three Wins on Saturday

[Seth Stohs]

St. Paul and Wichita both fell short again in losses. Fort Myers got a sweep against Bradenton while the FCL Twins offense showed up ready to go. Who hit? Who pitched? 

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 32-26 
St. Paul Saints: 24-31
Wichita Wind Surge: 19-30
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 30-19
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 23-27
FCL Twins: 13-7  

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

TRANSACTIONS
Saints catcher Jair Camargo began a rehab assignment in the FCL. 

The Cedar Rapids Kernels placed RHP C.J. Culpepper on the 7-Day Injured List with a right forearm strain. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 8, Rochester 11
Box Score
The Twins current and previous Triple-A affiliates went back and forth in this one right from the start. The Saints scored four in the top of the first inning, but the Red Wings responded with three in the bottom of the inning. They added single runs in the second and fourth frames before putting a five-spot on the board in the fifth inning. St. Paul scored four runs in the eighth inning, but the comeback fell short. 

In the top of the first inning, following walks to Austin Martin and Matt Wallner, Michael Helman doubled in Martin. Wallner scored on an infield single by Tony Kemp. Two batters later, Chris Williams drove in two runs with a single. 

Things were pretty quiet until the top of the eighth inning. After a single by Yoyner Fajardo and a walk by Anthony Prato, Martin drove in Fajardo with a single. Wallner followed with a three-run homer, his eighth since joining the Saints. 

What a day for Michael Helman! He went 4-for-5 with three doubles in the game. Martin went 2-for-4 with a walk. Fajardo went 2-for-4 with a walk. 

David Festa started and went the first four innings. He was charged with five runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out five batters. Jeff Brigham was charged with three runs in 2/3 of an inning. He had three walks. Scott Blewett gave up two runs on two hits and a walk in 1 1/3 innings. Ronny Henriquez worked the final two innings and gave up a run on one hit and one walk. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 2, Springfield 8
Box Score
Pierson Ohl has been really good of late for Wichita, but Saturday’s start didn’t go so well. However, he still was able to give his team six innings. He was charged with six runs on nine hits. He had one walk and one strikeouts. 

John Stankiewicz came in and gave up two runs on four hits in 1 2/3 innings. He had one strikeout. Austin Brice got the final four outs of the game. He had a walk, but the outs all came on strikeouts. 

The Wind Surge had just six hits and three walks in the game. Aaron Sabato went 2-for-4 with his second home run. Jorel Ortega had two walks. Andrew Cossetti hit his 10th double. 

Emmanuel Rodriguez was again out of the Wind Surge lineup. He had not played since last Sunday. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 3, Lake County 11
Box Score
Lake County scored 10 runs in the top of the first. However, if you want a positive, after that half-inning, the Kernels outscored them 3-1. 

Jeremy Lee started for the Kernels. He faced seven batters. He gave up seven runs on three hits, two walks, and two hit batters. Already at 32 pitches (14 strikes), Jose Mercedes came into the game. He allowed an inherited runner to score and was charged with three more runs on four hits. He had four strikeouts. He needed 31 pitches to get through the first inning, so his day was done as well. 

Again, after that, things went OK. Jay Harry led off the bottom of the first inning with his third home run of the season. AJ Labas gave up one run over four innings. Juan Mendez struck out four batters over two scoreless innings. Sheldon Reed had two strikeouts over two scoreless innings. 

Facing #OldFriend Steven Hajjar, Nate Baez scored on a Rubel Cespedes single for the Kernels’ second run. In the eighth inning, Misael Urbina scored on a ground out by Kyle Hess. He had advanced to third base on an Agustin Ruiz double. 

Cespedes went 2-for-3 with two walks and his 12th double. Baez was 2-for-4. In the bottom of the ninth, Dalton Shuffield was called out on strikes and immediately ejected. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Game 1: Fort Myers 3, Bradenton 1
Box Score
These teams had their Thursday game postponed due to weather. It was made up in the first game of Saturday’s double header. 

On the mound for the Mussels was lefty Ross Dunn. He gave up an unearned run in the first inning and then tossed two scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked one and struck out four batters. Ricky Castro came in for his first outing in the Twins organization. The first batter he faced reached on catcher’s interference. After that, it was six-up, six-down. In fact, he was credited with his first Win in affiliated ball. 

If you want to talk about dominance, Nolan Santos came on for the final two innings and recorded his fourth save of the season. He faced six batters and struck out all six of them. When I chatted with Mussels play-by-play voice John Vittas said of Santos, the Twins 7th round pick a year ago from Bethune-Cookman, “Santos has the makings of four really good pitches. His fastball is probably the worst one. It’s only 91-92. But his offspeeds are as polished and consistent as I’ve ever seen at this level. He’s got a curveball, a slider, and a change that are easily distinguishable.” 

The Mussels’ offense didn’t do much in Game 1 on Saturday. They had just four hits. Fortunately, they were able to bunch a couple of hits, a walk, and a wild pitch with a couple of Marauder errors to score three runs. That accounted for all of the game’s run scoring. Matthew Clayton singled. Gregory Duran walked. Yohander Martinez singled to right field. On the play, Clayton and Duran scored thanks to a throwing error that also sent Martinez to third base. He later scored on a wild pitch. 

Of the four hits, Rixon Wingrove’s double was the lone extra base hit. Clayton had the final and walked once. 

Game 2: Fort Myers 8, Bradenton 3
Box Score
Unlike Game 1, the Mussels bats were much better in Game 2. They had 10 hits and seven walks in the game. Of the six innings in which they batted, Fort Myers scored in five of them. 

Poncho Ruiz led the way. He went 3-for-4 with his 10th double and two RBI. He even stole his first base. Payton Eeles was great as the instigator in the leadoff spot. He went 2-for-2 with two walks, two runs scored and two RBI. He even stole two bases. Carlos Aguiar was 2-for-3 in the game with a double. Brandon Winokur was 1-for-2 and had two walks. 

Charlee Soto was on the mound to start the game. He was charged with three runs on seven hits over just 2 2/3 innings. He had no walks but two strikeouts. Two of the hits were home runs though. Paulshawn Pasqualotto earned his first win by tossing 4 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out four batters. 

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins 16, FCL Red Sox 6
Box Score
In baseball, when your team scores crooked numbers, that is a good thing. On Saturday, that’s just what the FCL Twins did on Saturday. 

They scored three runs in the first inning and then added seven more in the second innings. They scored one run in the third inning, none in the fourth, and five runs in the fifth inning. In case you were wondering, 37105 is the Zip Code for Lee County, North Carolina, an area of small-ish communities between Raleigh and Fayetteville. 

All nine Twins starters had at least one hit. All but one starting hitter had at least one walk. Walker Jenkins continued his rehab. In this game, he went 3-for-4 with a walk. Jair Camargo batted second and DHd in his first rehab appearance. He went 2-for-3 with a walk and a double. He was also hit by a pitch. Javier Roman went 2-for-4 with a walk. Anderson Nova launched his first home run of the season, a grand slam in the five-run fifth frame. Harold Grant drove in three runs with a double. He and Yilber Herrera each had two walks in the game. Grant had two stolen bases, and Herrera had one. 

16 runs. 16 hits. 10 walks. It’s probably not worth worrying (or even mentioning) that they left nine runners on base and went 6-for-18 with runners in scoring position. 

On the mound, Dylan Questad had probably his best start. The lanky right-hander gave up one hit over three scoreless innings. He walked three and struck out five batters. Liam Rocha came on and worked the next three innings. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on five hits and two walks. He had two strikeouts. Alejandro Crisotomoro started the seventh inning and gave up two runs. He gave up one hit and walked three batters. In addition, he threw three wild pitches. But he struck out two batters. Wilker Reyes came in to get the final out of the game. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day - Michael Helman (Saints) - 4-for-5, 3-2B(9), R, RBI, SB(8), K.   
Pitcher of the Day – Nolan Santos (Mighty Mussels) - 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 6 K, 30 pitches, 19 strikes (63.3%)

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

#1 - Walker Jenkins (Fort Myers) - 3-for-4, BB, 3 R (full game, CF, rehab in FCL)
#2 - Brooks Lee (St. Paul) - Game 2: 1-for-3, BB, RBI (rehab in FM, DHd)
#4 - David Festa (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 K, 83 pitches, 53 strikes (63.9%)
#7 - Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) - Game 2 (2.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 49 pitches, 36 strikes)
#8 - Austin Martin (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, BB, 2 R, RBI
#9 - Luke Keaschall (Wichita) - 1-for-4. 
#10 - Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) - Game 1 (DNP), Game 2 (1-for-2, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI)
#12 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 0-for-4, 2 K
#13 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, R, K.
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K (DHd)

SUNDAY’S SCHEDULE AND PITCHING PROBABLES

St. Paul @ Rochester (12:05 PM CST) - RHP Randy Dobnak (3-4, 5.06 ERA) 
Springfield @ Wichita (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Andrew Morris (0-1, 3.38 ERA)
Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Miguelangel Boadas (1-3, 6.38 ERA)
Bradenton @ Fort Myers (11:05 AM CST) - RHP Spencer Bengard (2-0, 1.31 ERA)

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

 

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[FlyingFinn]

Wow, except for Fort Myers, our starting pitching was even worse than yesterday. Then, the bad news that CJ Culpepper has the dreaded right forearm strain.

Payton Eeles is just killing low A pitching. Time for him to be promoted.

[Ghost of Kirby Puckett]

29 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Wow, except for Fort Myers, our starting pitching was even worse than yesterday. Then, the bad news that CJ Culpepper has the dreaded right forearm strain.

Payton Eeles is just killing low A pitching. Time for him to be promoted.

Yes, it is worrying and was my first thought also. Hoping for the best for Culpepper.

[Doctor Wu]

What is the reason that E-Rod hasn't played for the Wind Surge since last Sunday? 

[FlyingFinn]

17 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

What is the reason that E-Rod hasn't played for the Wind Surge since last Sunday? 

Minor injury is what I read.

[Doctor Wu]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Wow, except for Fort Myers, our starting pitching was even worse than yesterday.

Yeah, sorry see both Ohl and Soto struggling in their starts. Hope they can turn it around in June. 

[DJL44]

The "let's bring up Festa" article is aging like fresh fish.

[DJL44]

Even if you exclude Austin Martin's 7 walk game he's walking twice as often as he's been striking out.

[Yoke]

Aaron Sabato has had a pretty decent 19 game run in AA this season. I don’t think they need to move him up or anything, but it’s nice to see.

 

Jenkins has to be done with his rehab stint pretty soon, right?

[LambchoP]

It sure does look like Austin Martin has hit real well since he got sent down. Surely he would be a great improvement over someone like Margot if management would accept they made a mistake and dnf him. Looks like Lee should get moved back to AAA to see if he's ready for the show or not. Jenkins looks like he should go to high A and work towards a late season call up to AAA. Hope E-Rod isn't hurt too bad, I think he's earned a promotion more than anyone this year.

[Dman]

Santos was dealing.  When he needed a pitch he went to what MiLB said was his cutter and he also got a couple of K's on the curve.  A 30% K rate should get you moved up.  They will probably wait until the second season starts in a couple of weeks, but he has good enough pitches to move up.  So far he has come out of the pen but if ha has three pitches I wonder if they start him at some point.

The new Guy Castro pitched pretty darn well too for his first time out.  4K's no hits no walks.  Both pitchers are slightly old for the level so hopefully they move up soon.

My man Poncho pumping that OPS up to .900.  Quite the find for a free agent after the draft.  

[Einstein]

Nice to see Aaron Sabato swinging well.  
 

Question for those in the know, what type of prospect is John Stankiewicz?  He seems to put up decent stats wherever he pitches. 

[mikelink45]

I always look first at the pitching prospects - today was not a good day to do that. 

[Patzky]

3 hours ago, DJL44 said:

The "let's bring up Festa" article is aging like fresh fish.

Or last month's sausage.

[Seth Stohs]

7 hours ago, Yoke said:

Jenkins has to be done with his rehab stint pretty soon, right?

My assumption (or, educated guess?) is that on Tuesday Royce will be back with the Twins, Lee will head back to St. Paul and Jenkins will join the Mussels. Based on absolutely nothing but timelines and such.