Twins Minor League Report (8/9): Twins First Round Pick Kaelen Culpepper Debuts

[Ted Schwerzler]

Minnesota Twins 2024 first round draft pick Kaelen Culpepper made his professional debut on Friday, and he announced his presence with some authority. Marco Raya made another strong start and DaShawn Keirsey Jr. showed up in the box score once again. Check out the rest of the minor league report.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 65-50
St. Paul Saints: 56-54
Wichita Wind Surge: 45-61
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 56-48
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 54-47
DSL Twins: 24-23

TRANSACTIONS

• RHP Scott Blewett contract purchased by Minnesota.
• INF Kyle Farmer completed a rehab assignment, returned to Minnesota.
• LHP Aaron Rozek transferred to St. Paul.
• INF Luke Keaschall will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery for Wichita.
• UTIL Dalton Shuffield transferred to Wichita.
• INF Rixon Wingrove promoted to Cedar Rapids.
• INF Kaelen Culpepper added to Fort Myers.

SAINTS SENTINEL
Columbus 5, St. Paul 3 (F/10)
Box Score

Transferred from Wichita on Friday, Aaron Rozek made the start for St. Paul. He worked six innings allowing just a pair of runs on six hits. Rozek walked two and struck out one while giving the Saints a chance to win.

Down 2-0 after the top of the second inning, St. Paul responded with a Chris Williams sacrifice fly to score Diego A. Castillo. The sides remained within a run until the seventh inning when the Clippers added another tally to make it a 3-1 game.

DaShawn Keirsey Jr. sent his 12th big fly over the fence in the eighth inning to tie things at three. The home run scored Edouard Julien and made it a 3-3 ballgame. Hobie Harris struck out the side and gave the Saints a chance in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Clippers got Harris for a pair of runs (one earned) in the tenth inning, and the Saints had work to do. With runners on first and second, Keirsey Jr. ripped a liner that wound up in a game-ending double play. St. Paul found themselves coming up just short. Julien and Williams both wound up with a pair of hits on the night.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Corpus Christi 4, Wichita 1
Box Score

Marco Raya was on the mound to start and he went six innings of scoreless baseball. The top prospect allowed only two hits and walked one while striking out three. It was one of his best starts this season.

Both sides remained scoreless until the seventh inning. Wichita plated a run when Tanner Schobel scored on a wild pitch. Unfortunately the Hooks responded with a four-spot in the bottom half and Corpus Christi was ahead.

Wichita finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring positions and left six runners on base. Their five hits were scattered evenly with no one recording a pair. None of the base knocks went for extra bases either.

KERNELS NUGGETS
Peoria 1, Cedar Rapids 0
Box Score

It was C.J. Culpepper on the mound for the Kernels. He lasted just three innings but gave up only a single run. Culpepper worked around three hits and didn’t allow a walk while striking out four. Spencer Bengard came on in relief and pitched five scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts.

The Chiefs pushed across a run in the third inning to make it 1-0. That was the only tally of the game and Cedar Rapids never was able to come up with an answer.

Cedar Rapids recorded just five hits in the game and owned a 7/1 K/BB. Walker Jenkins was the lone batter to reach twice with hits, and one of his tallies was a double. The recently promoted Rixon Wingrove drew the only walk.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Jupiter 10, Fort Myers 5
Box Score

Jose Olivares drew the start and worked 2 2/3 innings while allowing a single run. He gave up three hits and a walk but struck out three. Paulshawn Pasqualotto was done in with six runs in 1 1/3 innings of relief.

Kaelen Culpepper doubled in his first professional at bat and Kyle DeBarge brought him home with a first inning double. Billy Amick then singled to make it a 2-0 game. After Jupiter answered with a run of their own, DeBarge singled again to bring in Byron Chourio and make it 3-1. In the third inning Jaime Ferrer doubled in Khadim Diaw and Derek Bender reached on a fielding error to score Ferrer and make it 5-1. It was downhill from there as Jupiter ripped off nine unanswered and won 10-5.

Culpepper made his professional debut with a pair of hits while DeBarge and Amick joined him there. Fort Myers racked up eight strikeouts but walked four times on the evening.

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Tigers2 21, DSL Twins 7
Box Score

The Twins and Tigers played each other for the second time in consecutive days. The result went the opposite way on Friday with the Tigers grabbing three touchdowns. Enyer Cepeda recorded just a single out while giving up four runs.

The TIgers put up a ridiculous 21 runs on 15 hits. Merphy Hernandez and Eduardo Beltra recorded a pair of hits but the Twins couldn’t mount a comeback with their offensive output. The Twins struck out six times while drawing five walks.

Irvin Nunez doubled, as did Beltre. Hernandez tripled and homered while Beltre went yard.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Spencer Bengard (Cedar Rapids) - 5.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Hitter of the Day – DaShawn Keirsey (St. Paul) - 1-3, R, 2 RBI, HR(12), BB, 2 K

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 (Cedar Rapids) – 2-4, 2B K
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-4, 3 K
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Fort Myers) - 2-4, R, 2B, BB
#10 - Marco Raya (Wichita) - 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 0-5, K
#16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 2-4, R, 2 RBI, 2B, BB
#17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-4, R, K
#19 - C.J. Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul vs Columbus (6:37 PM CST) – RHP Caleb Boushley (9-4, 4.57 ERA)
Wichita @ Corpus Christi (7:05 PM) - RHP Travis Adams (4-7, 4.28 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Peoria (7:05 PM CST) – LHP Connor Prielipp (0-1, 5.79 ERA)
Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:00 PM CST) – RHP Adrian Bohorquez (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

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

 

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[FlyingFinn]

Not sure how Raya doesn't get at least co-pitcher of the day.

Great to see more great pitching from Raya, Bengard and Culpepper (he was probably just good).

[Blyleven2011]

Nice to see Raya going deeper into the games lately  and doing fine  ...

Keirsey Jr  needs to be protected from rule 5 draft this off season  and given an opportunity to make the twins out of spring training  , the kid has talent regardless of his age , injuries  held his development back but since he has remained healthy he has been producing  ...

[wabene]

K Culpepper says man this is easy, nice start, really for all the new guys. 

Raya is getting deeper, but where are the K's?

The Keaschall news is a huge bummer. Injuries system wide are getting tough to take, gah!

[Patzky]

Keaschall TJ news the same day as Ryan and Stewart. Tough one..

[wabene]

Regarding Luke Keaschall as reported by Bobby Nightingale, who has been a great addition to the Strib, “He did have an elbow injury that was diagnosed a while back that, ultimately, we knew would eventually require a Tommy John surgery,” said Derek Falvey, the Twins’ president of baseball operations. “He’s played through it and could play through it for a while. We made the determination a little while back now, knowing our timing, to go ahead and proceed with that surgery now, because we knew he’d need it in the offseason.”

This is why they had him at 1 St and DH so often. Letting him rake the way he did will be a good confidence boost for him entering next season.

[roger]

In addition to Culpepper there was what, six recent draft picks in the Fort Myers lineup?  I don't recall that many recent picks in the past beginning their careers in low-A, did they?

Was wondering if Raya's recent start when he went 79 pitches was his best.  That was until last night.  Interesting that he finished six innings with only 57 pitches.

The Kernels must have left their bats in Cedar Rapids.  Well, everyone except Jenkins who was 2 for 4 with a double.  See he has only a couple walks which is way down from when he was with the Mussels.  Expect he will be learning a lot from the move up to Hi-A.

[Twinsrtheworst]

1 hour ago, roger said:

In addition to Culpepper there was what, six recent draft picks in the Fort Myers lineup?  I don't recall that many recent picks in the past beginning their careers in low-A, did they?

Was wondering if Raya's recent start when he went 79 pitches was his best.  That was until last night.  Interesting that he finished six innings with only 57 pitches.

The Kernels must have left their bats in Cedar Rapids.  Well, everyone except Jenkins who was 2 for 4 with a double.  See he has only a couple walks which is way down from when he was with the Mussels.  Expect he will be learning a lot from the move up to Hi-A.

Could be because the Florida Complex league started and finished earlier this year than the past.  Many are in "fall instructionals" now also.

[roger]

42 minutes ago, se7799 said:

Could be because the Florida Complex league started and finished earlier this year than the past.  Many are in "fall instructionals" now also.

Didn’t realize the FCL was done early.  Do you know why?  

[Twinsrtheworst]

18 hours ago, roger said:

Didn’t realize the FCL was done early.  Do you know why?  

They started earlier this year.  I only know it was a planned event.  But unfortunately I am not sure why they adjusted the dates.