Twins Minor League Week in Review (7/1-7/7): Promotions and Schedule Changes

[Ted Schwerzler]

Last week was the first of the year that featured Monday games for the Twins farm system. A couple of top prospects also made their way to the big leagues.

 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge

TRANSACTIONS:

• RHP Zack Weiss rehab transferred from Fort Myers to St. Paul
• OF Maddux Houghton transferred from Fort Myers to St. Paul
• INF Rubel Cespedes activated from IL by Cedar Rapids.
• INF Danny De Andrade underwent season-ending ankle surgery.
• LHP Connor Prielipp has been cleared to start throwing.

WEEK IN REVIEW
Triple-A: St. Paul Saints

• Overall: 44-42 (3-3 last week) Third place in the IL West
• Overview: The Saints were at home against Gwinnett and split the series. Three of the six games saw a side score double-digit runs.
• Matt Wallner batted 6-for-12 in three games before earning a promotion to St. Paul.
• Chris Williams batting .333 in five games while blasting four homers and driving in seven runs.
• Randy Dobnak led the team with five strikeouts.
• Diego Castillo was back after re-signing and worked two scoreless innings.
• What’s Next: A trip to Louisville is on deck. Brock Stewart will join St. Paul for a rehab assignment.

Double-A: Wichita Wind Surge

• Overall: 35-46 (2-4 last week) Fifth place in the Texas League North
• Overview: Playing a Monday game, and having one contest suspended, it was a down week for Wichita against the Drillers.
• Luke Keaschall was selected by the Twins to take over for Brooks Lee in the Futures Game.
• Carson McCusker batted .417 over six games while racking up three doubles and a pair of home runs.
• Jake Rucker hit .346 across six games, he drove in four.
• Marco Raya struck out a team-high seven batters.
• Cory Lewis worked a four inning start allowing just one hit while striking out four.
• Kyle Jones made a three inning scoreless start while striking out three.
• What’s Next: Playing Springfield on the road, it’s a touch test against the top Texas League North squad.

High-A: Cedar Rapids Kernels

• Overall: 48-31 (4-2 last week) Second place in the Midwest League West
• Overview: The Kernels knocked off Quad Cities to stay ahead of them in the standings.
• Rayne Doncon blasted three home runs and hit .400 while driving in eight runs.
• Gabriel Gonzalez was back after a lengthy stay on the injured list. He batted .400 and hit a pair of home runs with seven RBI.
• Tyler Dearden made a good first impression by batting .467 with a pair of doubles in four games.
• Kyle Bischoff worked 2 2/3 scoreless in relief and struck out a team-high six batters.
• Jordan Carr and Ty Langenberg both had scoreless starts of 5 2/3 innings. They each struck out four.
• Jeremy Lee worked a five inning scoreless start while striking out five.
• What’s Next: A date with Beloit on the road looms. 

Low-A: Fort Myers Mighty Mussels

• Overall: 42-37 (5-1 last week) Third place in Florida State League West
• Overview: Picking up a place in the standings, Fort Myers was just a win away from a sweep against Bradenton.
• Byron Chourio had 10 total bases and hit a dinger while driving in five runs.
• Wilfri Castro and Dameury Pena both hit a pair of home runs.
• Walker Jenkins batted .294 while drawing seven walks. 
• Spencer Bengard worked a scoreless six innings while striking out five and walking none.
• Tanner Hall only turned in three innings for his start, but struck out seven.
• Paulshawn Pasqualotto worked three innings of relief and struck out six.
• What’s Next: Back home to face Tampa, the Mighty Mussels tangle with the Florida State League West’s worst team.

Complex League: FCL Twins

• Overall: 22-25 (2-4 last week) Fourth place in Florida Complex League South
• Jayson Bass batted .500 across 12 at bats and recorded both a double and triple.
• Yasser Mercedes hit a pair of home runs while driving in five and tallying 11 total bases.
• Adrian Bohorquez struck out a team high five batters.
• Juan Cota worked three scoreless innings during his start.

Dominican Summer League: DSL Twins

• Overall: 7-8 (2-3 last week) Sixth place in Dominican Summer League South
• Victor Leal, Eduardo Beltre, and Irvin Nunez all hit home runs.
• Carlos Silva had a pair of doubles.
• Melvin Rodriguez worked three innings in relief and struck out four.
• Cristian Hernandez’s eight strikeouts were a team high.

PROSPECT SUMMARY

#1– Walker Jenkins (Fort Myers) – 5-15, 4 R, 3 RBI, 7 BB, 3 K, 3 SB
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 9-19, 3 R, 2B, HR, 6 RBI, BB, 2 K
#4 – David Festa (Minnesota) – 5.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
#5 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 8-20, 2 R, 2B, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 2 K
#6 – Marco Raya (Wichita) – 4.0 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
#7 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
#8 – Austin Martin (Minnesota) – 1-5, R, BB, K
#9 – Luke Keaschall (Wichita) – 5-22, 3 R, 2 2B, RBI, 4 BB, 6 K, SB
#11 – Simeon Woods Richardson (Minnesota) – 11.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 8 K
#13 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 2-20, 2 R, 2B, 2 RBI, 4 BB, 4 K
#14 – Zebby Matthews (Wichita) – 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
#15 – Cory Lewis (Wichita) – 4.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
#18 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 5-21, 2 R, 2 2B, RBI, 2 BB, 8 K
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 7-14, 7 R, 2B, 2 3B, 3 RBI, 4 BB, 2 K

Hitter of the Week - Carson McCusker (Wichita) - 10-24, 5 R, 3 2B, 2 HR, 5 RBI, 3 BB, 7 K, SB

Pitcher of the Week - Jeremy Lee (Cedar Rapids) - 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

 

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[mark sills]

pitcher of the week should of been Andrew Morris nine strike outs three hits no runs with three walks

[mark sills]

hope zebby not hurt only three innings tonight 

[Omgbenji]

God damn, some monster performances for some top prospects!! Look at high A!! Let’s go Chourio! Let’s go Gabe Gonzales!! Ricardo Olivar killing the week!! Priellip on the horizon?!?!!??? Brock Stewart?!??! Wallner exploding??!!! What. A. Week!!!

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

The Saints bats have really cooled after losing several players for a variety of reasons.  Lee and Wallner both called up.  Tony Kemp opted to go elsewhere.  Lastly,  I am surprised that this hasn't been discussed more A. his success B. Losing him likely for the rest of the season to injury - Will Holland.  Will Holland has always been one that has had questionable hitting skills, but he has been making a ton of contact this year.  We were at the Iowa Cubs game a week and a half a go when he got injured.  Started raining (should have probably been delayed) ball went over his head hit the wall and bounced back,  he sprinted to the wall realized going over his head tried to push off the warning track, jumped up a little and fell in pile. Really thought it was an ACL.  I saw somewhere where it stated a Tibia fracture, but also seen hamstring pull and otherwise haven't heard an update as to what the injury was.   As an aside,  talked to Chris Williams before the game, he signed my sons ball,  talked about how good the team was playing at the time.  Told him he would get back on track.  He said he appreciated it,  would keep working at it.  Hit a home run that night and been on a pretty good run since then.  

As to the minor leagues,  you have lots and lots of prospects performing well.  This is the best I have seen the FCL and DSL play,  and each has 2-3 really solid prospects.  Even after promoting Lee and Langenberg (who are both doing well in A+ ball),  The remaining rookie pitchers in A ball are starting to figure it out.  Still some decent prospects want to keep an eye on.  Bengard and Santos are both performing very well.  Bragg had before injury.  Still waiting to see if Hall, Pasqualotto or Dunn can really turn the corner.  Charlee Soto,  is doing pretty darn well for an 18 year old,  becoming more affective.  Needs to bring down the whip some,  1.2 to 1.4,  and with his strike out stuff would be pretty dominate.  So far the walks aren't the issue its the hits.  

Beyond that this is going to long,  you have bats and pitching prospects up and down the system.  Things are looking very very well as an organization.  Hope they can land a very good draft as well here in the next week.  

[LambchoP]

Is Emmanuel Rodriguez still hurt? I thought I read he was back again after jamming his thumb sliding into second.

[Ted Schwerzler]

13 hours ago, mark sills said:

hope zebby not hurt only three innings tonight 

He threw a 30 pitch inning almost. Just pitch count.

[Ted Schwerzler]

30 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

Is Emmanuel Rodriguez still hurt? I thought I read he was back again after jamming his thumb sliding into second.

Yes. He came back and reinjured it. Expect this time to be relatively lengthy.

[Ted Schwerzler]

13 hours ago, mark sills said:

pitcher of the week should of been Andrew Morris nine strike outs three hits no runs with three walks

Yeah, definitely an omission there.

[FlyingFinn]

3 minutes ago, Ted Schwerzler said:

Yes. He came back and reinjured it. Expect this time to be relatively lengthy.

He's on a rehab assignment right now in the FCL (unless you are saying he injured it for a third time).

[Steve Lein]

13 hours ago, mark sills said:

hope zebby not hurt only three innings tonight 

He got ran up to 37 pitches in the third inning. He's fine otherwise. Couple long at-bats and an error contributed. Twins for several years now have auto-removed any pitcher who throws 30+ pitches in any inning.

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

23 minutes ago, Steve Lein said:

He got ran up to 37 pitches in the third inning. He's fine otherwise. Couple long at-bats and an error contributed. Twins for several years now have auto-removed any pitcher who throws 30+ pitches in any inning.

Honestly pretty decent outing against a good team,  just ran into a long inning and they decided to shut him down.  He can learn from it.     We got a 3 headed monster from last year in Matthews, Morris, and Lewis who is starting to get back on track.  There are more from last years class doing well,  but all 3 of those look legit good.