Minor League Report (6/2): Matt Wallner Leads the Way

[Matt Braun]

So did Kala'i Rosario, but Wallner's team actually won, so. 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge

TRANSACTIONS
C Jair Camargo transferred to Mighty Mussels from FCL Twins on Minor League rehab

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 8, Rochester 1
Box Score
Randy Dobnak: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 3 K
HR: Matt Wallner (9)
Multi-hit games: Tony Kemp (3-for-6, 2B, 2 R), Matt Wallner (2-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI), Yunior Severino (2-for-4, RBI, BB), Alex Isola (2-for-5, 2B, R, 2 RBI), Diego A. Castillo (2-for-3, 2 RBI, 2 BB)

The Saints smoked their opponents on Sunday.

Hitters up and down the lineup enjoyed the day; nearly every player reached base at once, and six did so multiple times. Including a pair of hit by pitches, St. Paul touched 1st base safely 20 times during the game. That’ll score some runs. 

The biggest bat of all belonged to Matt Wallner, who blasted his 9th Saints homer just above the fence in left-center field before finishing his day with an RBI double that nearly knocked down the wall.

Extra points go to Tony Kemp for netting his second three-hit game in the series against Rochester. Red Wings pitchers likely ushered him to the team bus with fanfare and delight. 

The offensive flurry accentuated a tremendous pitching effort by the Saints. Randy Dobnak enjoyed a sporadic relationship with the strike zone, walking more than he struck out, but only allowed one run during his time on the mound. Nick Wittgren, Ryan Jensen, and Kody Funderburk mowed down the Red Wings in his absence, needing just 41 combined pitches to work three scoreless frames. 

Former Twin Travis Blankenhorn doubled and walked in four plate appearances. Darren Baker, son of Dusty, walked twice and stole three bases. Yes, that’s the same son who J.T. Snow saved during the 2002 World Series. He is Washington’s 24th-ranked prospect.

 

Royce Lewis singled and walked in five plate appearances. Sunday was the sixth game of his rehab assignment. He is expected to join Minnesota for their game on Tuesday. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 2, Springfield 6
Box Score
Andrew Morris: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
HR: Kala’i Rosario (5)
Multi-hit games: Jeferson Morales (2-for-3), Aaron Sabato (2-for-4, R), Kala’i Rosario (2-for-4, HR, 2B, R, RBI), Kyler Fedko (2-for-2, 2B, RBI, 2 BB)

The Wind Surge imploded late on Sunday. 

Andrew Morris dazzled in his second AA start. The righty out of Texas Tech fired off six innings of one-run ball, punching out three as he limited the Cardinals to three hits and two walks. He threw 80 pitches. A runner reached second only twice on his watch. 

Kala’i Rosario brought the thunder offensively, banging his fifth homer of the year on a no-doubt wait-is-that-kid-wearing-a-Brian-Urlacher-jersey shot in the 4th. He also hit his 14th double of the season earlier in the game.

Wichita entered the 9th tied with Springfield before Miguel Rodriguez loaded the bases with no one out. After coaxing a pop out, Rodriguez fired him to Bryan Torres, who shot a sky-scraping fly ball into center that Kyler Fedko never got a good glimpse of. Both fielder and ball drifted back before the object rocketed back to earth, clanking off the wall and clearing the bases as Fedko scrambled to throw the ball back to the infield. Springfield scored once more in the inning for good measure. 

The game ended on a double play off the bat of Jake Rucker—the fourth turned by the Cardinals that day.

Springfield starter Max Rajcic is the Cardinals’ 14th-best prospect, according to MLB pipeline. He allowed two runs over 5 2/3 innings. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 1, Lake County 8
Box Score
Miguelangel Boadas: 2 1/3 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 1 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Jose Salas (2-for-3, BB), Dillon Tatum (2-for-3, 2 2B, RBI)

The Kernels never had a chance on Sunday.

Errors and walks defined the match’s opening act; a Jay Harry error begat a double and a wild pitch, allowing a self-inflicted run to score before the team could even hit. Dillon Tatum knotted the score with his first double of the year, but Cedar Rapids soon melted down and put the game far out of reach.

Miguelangel Boadas began the 3rd with a walk, a walk, a walk, a fielding error that scored two, a walk, and an RBI groundout before Brian Dinkelman pulled the plug on his starter, showing mercy to a hurler clearly out of whack. One more grounder scored a fifth run attributed to Boadas (only two were technically earned, even though it was Boadas himself who committed the run-scoring blunders. 

And that’s about it. The Kernels committed six total errors in a game whose high point was when Keoni Cavaco took the mound in the 9th and struck out a batter. Somehow, it was one of the better pitching displays by Cedar Rapids, outside of Ricardo Velez’s assumed dominance. 

Outfielder Jake Fox is Cleveland’s 18th-ranked prospect. He cracked an RBI double and walked in five trips to the plate. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 2, Bradenton 1
Box Score
Samuel Perez: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Payton Eeles (2-for-3, R, BB)

The Mighty Mussels won a squeaker on Sunday.

Starter Samuel Perez was dynamite. The lefty from Venezuela needed just 51 pitches to finish four frames of work, striking out five in the process while allowing just two baserunners. The start was nothing new, really; Perez’s career ERA sits at 2.39 through 244 1/3 innings in the Twins’ system. Sunday was only his fourth start, though. I think he’s earned a few more. 

Ben Ethridge, Aaron Holiday, and Jack Noble worked to deliver the pitching staff a combined 0 earned run performance. 

The bats were persistent but poorly-timed. A pair of early runs portended an ugly 1-for-12 showing with runners in scoring position. The lineup knocked around seven hits and took four walks, but the big blast never came; even those two aforementioned runs scored via a sacrifice fly and a groundout. Still, Payton Eeles reached base three times, and Brooks Lee cracked his first extra-base hit since joining the Mighty Mussels on his rehab assignment. 

Jair Camargo—also on a rehab assignment—singled and struck out twice as the designated hitter. 

Shalin Polanco, Pittsburgh’s 15th-ranked prospect, walked twice and stole two bases for the Marauders. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Andrew Morris
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Matt Wallner

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:
#2 - Brooks Lee (Fort Myers) - 1-3, 2B, R, BB, K
#9 - Luke Keaschall (Wichita) - 1-5, 2 K
#11 - Simeon Woods Richardson (Twins) - 4 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
#12 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-4, HR, 2B, R, RBI, K
#18 - Yunior Severino (St. Paul) - 2-4, RBI, BB, K

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
FCL Rays @ FCL Twins (9:00 AM) - TBD
FCL Rays @ FCL Twins (Game Two) - TBD
DSL Twins @ DSL Nationals (10:00 AM) - TBD

View full article

[FlyingFinn]

Nice to see our starters pitch well in 3 of 4 games - Dobnak, Morris and Perez. The Wichita bullpen has been better this week.............until today with one more blown save.

[Dman]

Nice to see Morris holding his own at AA.  That is not an easy thing to do.  SSS, but his numbers look the same as at high A to this point.

Still feels like Eeles could be something special.  I can't remember the Twins signing a free agent hitter with this much potential ever before.  He has the speed to steal bases (11).  He hits for average .341. He has been hitting for power SLG .537 and he walks about about as much as he strikes out giving him a .453 OBP. The guy is on base every other plate appearance. 

I get that he is old for this level and his BABIP is high at .400 but when your BA is .341 your BABIP is going to be higher. I'm just saying he appears to have every skill you would want in a hitter so I don't get why he wasn't drafted (I guess age)? At any rate he is playing better than some first round picks.  They should move him up so he can be an actual prospect.  They should try to get him to AA at the end of this year where his age would be closer to his level.  He has a chance to be a top 30 prospect IMO.

[bean5302]

12 hours ago, Dman said:

Nice to see Morris holding his own at AA.  That is not an easy thing to do.  SSS, but his numbers look the same as at high A to this point.

Still feels like Eeles could be something special.  I can't remember the Twins signing a free agent hitter with this much potential ever before.  He has the speed to steal bases (11).  He hits for average .341. He has been hitting for power SLG .537 and he walks about about as much as he strikes out giving him a .453 OBP. The guy is on base every other plate appearance. 

I get that he is old for this level and his BABIP is high at .400 but when your BA is .341 your BABIP is going to be higher. I'm just saying he appears to have every skill you would want in a hitter so I don't get why he wasn't drafted (I guess age)? At any rate he is playing better than some first round picks.  They should move him up so he can be an actual prospect.  They should try to get him to AA at the end of this year where his age would be closer to his level.  He has a chance to be a top 30 prospect IMO.

Eeles is an interesting prospect for sure. He was pretty successful in Indy league baseball after being overlooked in college. I'd suspect the Twins will be moving him up rapidly given his lack of pedigree and age. I'm a little surprised they started him off so low as Indy leagues like American Association would be at A+/AA level IMHO. Several former fringe-y MLB guys and players who made it to AAA on Eeles' Chicago Dogs team last year.

Nice to see Wallner's bat waking up. Last 10 games:
.235/.381/.677 OPS 1.058, great, but more importantly, the 16.7% BB vs. 21.4% K rate is the sign I've been looking for. Seems he's out of his own head at this point. I hope it continues and he's learned something through this adversity. If he did, I think he'll be an All Star caliber player going forward. If he hasn't learned the mental toughness he'll need, I expect he'll be a fringe guy.

[Fatbat]

How long will it be until Walker Jenkins is smoking linedrives in Iowa or Kansas?  That kid is fun to watch!! It will be even better when he gets to the midwest.  

[D.C Twins]

Don't look now, but Sabato is having a season... or something?!