Twins Minor League Report (6/28): Mixed Results Across the System

[Ted Schwerzler]

The Minnesota Twins saw a few key prospects show out on Friday night, but the results were mixed from a team perspective. Check out the action within.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 45-36
St. Paul Saints: 40-38
Wichita Wind Surge: 32-41
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 42-29
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 36-36
FCL Twins: 18-21
DSL Twins: 10-9

TRANSACTIONS

• UTIL Will Holland has been placed on the 7-day IL by St. Paul with a right fibula fracture.
• IF Rubel Cespedes placed on the 7-day IL by Cedar Rapids with a right wrist sprain.

SAINTS SENTINEL
Iowa 8, St. Paul 1
Box Score

Caleb Boushley could have been considered by the Minnesota Twins for their open rotation spot on Thursday. Instead he was making the Friday night start for St. Paul. He worked five innings of one-run baseball. He gave up four hits and walked two while striking out five.

Giving up a run in the first inning, the Saints were without a hit through the sixth inning. DaShawn Keirsey Jr. changed that with his tenth home run of the season. St. Paul coughed up another six runs in the eighth inning and couldn’t claw back in the ninth inning.

Keirsey Jr. recorded the only two hits of the game for the Saints and they couldn’t do anything with their five walks. All of the six late Iowa runs were charged to Ronny Henriquez, but only one of them was earned.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
NW Arkansas 11, Wichita 6
Box Score

Pitching prospect Marco Raya went for Wichita on Friday. Consistently handled with kids gloves, he threw just 63 pitches. Raya allowed a pair of runs on three hits and two walks while striking out seven.

The Naturals scored first with a run in the first inning. Carson McCusker responded with a triple that scored Tanner Schobel and Andrew Cossetti to take the lead. The Naturals tied it in the second inning, but the Wind Surge answered again in the third inning. McCusker homered, his fifth of the season, scoring Schobel and making it a 4-2 game.

Jaylen Nowlin coughed up a fifth inning solo shot, but Wichita held a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately, Northwest Arkansas got Nowlin for another eight runs, five of which were earned. A Jake Rucker bases loaded sixth inning walk scored Luke Keaschall to make it 7-5 at the time, but four more runs coming across put the Wind Surge in a bad spot.

McCusker scored Schobel on a ninth inning single, before Dalton Shuffield singled home Cossetti. Wichita had the bases loaded with two outs and all of a sudden the tying run was up. Ortega worked a 3-2 count but he grounded out to end the game.

The Wind Surge got three hits out of McCusker with two more coming from Schobel. McCusker drew five RBI in the game, and Jorel Ortega walked three times.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 7, Beloit 6
Box Score

It was Ty Langenberg’s turn on the bump. He had a tough outing allowing six runs on ten hits. He walked a pair and struck out three.

The sides traded runs in the first inning. After getting down 3-0, the Kernels responded with three runs. Rayne Doncon homered for the second time this year, and Payton Eeles came across the plate. With Beloit pushing it to a 6-2 lead by the middle of the fifth, Cedar Rapids had worked to do.

Nate Baez scored on a Jose Salas groundout, and Misael Urbina raced home on a wild pitch, drawing back within two. Kevin Maitan doubled home Jay Harry and suddenly it was a 6-5 game heading to the seventh inning.

Needing a run to tie in the ninth inning, the Kernels walked it off. Ricardo Olivar drew a bases loaded walk to score Urbina, and Gabriel Gonzalez ended it with a sacrifice fly that scored Salas.

The Kernels recorded seven hits with Harry recording two of them. Juan Mendez and Jacob Wosinski both worked a pair of scoreless innings while allowing a hit apiece.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Tampa 9, Fort Myers 2
Box Score

Charlee Soto worked 3 1/3 innings while giving up six hits and five runs. He walked one and struck out three. Wilker Reyes came on in relief and allowed three runs. The Mighty Mussels lineup needed to get it done.

Through six innings the Tarpons posted nine runs and had Fort Myers in a big hole. Yohandez Martinez doubled home Carlos Aguiar. Nick Lucky brought home Martinez with a single of his own, and the Mighty Mussels had posted a pair of runs.

Fort Myers couldn’t put together a greater rally and that’s how the game ended. The Mighty Mussels managed just four hits while striking out nine times and drawing four walks.

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Red Sox 17, FCL Twins 5 (F/7)
Box Score

Zack Weiss drew the start for the Twins on Friday. He has been on the injured list since spring training, and his scoreless inning with a pair of strikeouts was his first work of the year. Miguel Cordero followed him allowing eight runs (five earned) in 1 1/3 innings, and Cleiber Maldonado allowed six runs (three earned) in just one inning. Davin Kirby gave up three runs (two earned) across 2 2/3 innings to close out the game.

Yasser Mercedes homered for the fourth time, and his first inning solo shot put the Twins up 1-0. The Red Sox then took and extended their lead to 16-1 by the end of the fourth inning.  In the fifth inning Moises Lopez hit his first home run and scored Harold Grant on the play. Hendry Chivilli drove in Mercedes and it was 16-4 by the bottom of the fifth inning.

Following another Red Sox run, Mercedes doubled home Giovanny RIvero in the sixth inning to make it 17-5 and that’s how things ended. Mercedes was 3-for-4 with a pair of runs and RBI with two extra-base hits. He’s got a .973 OPS through 35 games this year.

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Twins 7, DSL Nationals 4
Box Score

Cristian Hernandez got the start and worked three innings of one-run (unearned) baseball. He didn’t give up a hit, but allowed four walks while striking out five.

Daiber De Los Santos started the game with a leadoff home run, his fourth of the season. Edouard Beltre then doubled home Luis Fragoza before scoring on a passed ball himself. A wild pitch brought Ramiro Dominguez home and the Twins had a first inning four-spot.

Allowing the Nationals to draw closer with three runs of their own, the Twins scored two more in the seventh inning. Carlos Silva scored on a wild pitch before a Ricardo Paez triple brought home Dominguez to make it 6-3.

The Nationals added another run in the seventh inning, but Paez hit his second hom run of the year, and the ninth inning solo shot made it 7-4. Beltre finished with three hits while Paez had a pair of his own.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Caleb Boushley (St. Paul) - 6.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
Hitter of the Day – Yasser Mercedes (FCL Twins) 3-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B(9), HR(4)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. 
#1– Walker Jenkins (Fort Myers) – 0-3, BB
#2 – Brooks Lee (St. Paul) – 0-4, K
#3 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (Wichita) – IL
#5 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-4, RBI, K
#6 – Marco Raya (Wichita) – 4.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
#7 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 3.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
#8 – Austin Martin (Minnesota) –
#9 – Luke Keaschall (Wichita) – 0-4, BB
#13 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 2-4, 3 R, BB, K
#18 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 0-4, K
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 0-3, RBI, 2 BB, K

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Iowa (6:08 PM CST) – RHP Louie Varland (2-6, 7.33 ERA)
Wichita vs NW Arkansas (6:05 PM CST) – RHP Travis Adams (4-5, 4.72 ERA)
Cedar Rapids vs Beloit (6:35 PM CST) – RHP John Klein (4-2, 4.75 ERA)
Fort Myers vs Tampa (5:05 PM CST) – RHP Jose Olivares (2-1, 2.55 ERA)

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

 

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[FlyingFinn]

And now a real stinker from Nowlin. Just not enough consistency.

Time for Mercedes to move to Fort Myers.

[nclahammer]

Jenkins seems to be in a bit of a funk down in Ft. Myers since coming back from his injury.   Hopefully, he can literally get back into the swing of things and get going.

[DJL44]

Raya's been in Double-A for nearly a year now and the results have been pretty bad. ERA around 5, too many walks.

[Doctor Gast]

Poor nite for the system. CR snuck one out & DSL. I honestly thought that Boushley would get the nod. Boushley & Keirsey had a good game against a tough Iowa team.

[LambchoP]

It sure looks like if we can find a trade partner for Kepler then Keirsey looks more than ready to replace him. On the pitching side I think we should look at packaging Raya or Soto as trade bait to get some starting pitching if we can. I'm not as high on them as the prospect rankings are ..

[Ted Schwerzler]

3 hours ago, nclahammer said:

Jenkins seems to be in a bit of a funk down in Ft. Myers since coming back from his injury.   Hopefully, he can literally get back into the swing of things and get going.

The stats haven't translated, but his process has been exceptional and the type of contact is good too. Assume it will turn.

[Ted Schwerzler]

2 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Raya's been in Double-A for nearly a year now and the results have been pretty bad. ERA around 5, too many walks.

Absolutely hate the way they have used him too.

[RpR]

If Larnach has foot problems, put on IL and let Kiersey Jr. play a few games in Left and DH to see if he can handle Big League pitching, then after Larnach's foot heals send him down.

[DocBauer]

Solid start by Raya. Now he needs to be bumped to 70-75 pitches so he can go 5.

Note to self: Quit saying nice things about any prospect because within days they will be hurt or have an awful game. Bad night for a lot of guys including Nowlin and Langenberg. Woof!

[LA Vikes Fan]

Is there any way you can track guys not on the prospects list who were already on the Twins and might be considered to come back?  I know Wallner and Julien are no longer "Prospects" due to their MLB experience but it would be nice to see their stats tracked every day to see if they are making progress towards coming back. Maybe an "Others of Note" listing or something like that? Could also be used for guys playing well but not on the top 20.