Minor League Report (9/1): Plucky Saints Swipe a Win in Omaha

[Matt Braun]

That's about where the good news ends, though. 

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Pierson Ohl)

TRANSACTIONS
Y’all ready?
OF Nick Lucky activated (A Fort Myers)
SS Kevin Maitan activated (A+ Cedar Rapids)
3B Billy Amick placed on 7-day IL with left rib strain (A Fort Myers); move is retroactive to August 31st
INF Michael Helman selected by Twins
RHP Diego Castillo selected by Twins
INF Brooks Lee completed rehab assignment, returned to Twins
RHP Caleb Boushley DFA’d

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 4, Omaha 3
Box Score
Travis Adams: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: None

The Saints came back late to best the mighty Storm Chasers on Sunday.

St. Paul sent a special starter to the mound. After returning to Wichita for a second-straight season, Travis Adams shaved nearly two runs off his ERA and cut his WHIP to acceptable levels. August was an especially dominant month; the righty allowed two earned runs. The entire month. Two. The exceptional performance earned him a promotion to St. Paul—and today’s match marked his AAA debut.

It went ok. Real life is often less fun than fiction. Omaha—heartless and evil as they are—ambushed him in the opening frame, dropping three runs on the Palm Springs native before he could even earn a second out.

That was the worst of it, though, and Adams settled into a relative groove, holding the Storm Chaser offense at bay through the next four innings. In fact, the Saints never gave up another run; Jeff Brigham, Giovanny Gallegos, and Hobie Harris smothered their opponents with four combined frames, six strikeouts, and just one hit allowed. 

That bought plenty of time for the Saints offense to kick into action. They struck in the 5th with a droopy RBI knock from Diego A. Castillo and another well-placed single from DaShawn Keirsey Jr.

 

Then—with two on in the 7th—Castillo knotted the game with a sacrifice fly, and Yunior Severino gave St. Paul their first lead with a double into the corner.

The aforementioned reliever triumvirate took over, crushed any and all hope, and St. Paul walked away the victors of a thrilling, impressive win. 

The Storm Chasers are the AAA affiliate of the Royals, whose farm system leans young. Their best prospect on Sunday was the last one mentioned in MLB Pipeline’s top 30: RHP Eric Cerantola. He allowed two runs and took the loss. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 2, Springfield 5
Box Score
Pierson Ohl: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Kala’i Rosario (2-for-5), Tanner Schobel (2-for-4, 2B, R)

Too little, too late: Wichita’s third-act comeback attempt came up short on Sunday.

Starting for the first time since June 25th, Pierson Ohl looked like his old self. Always one for modesty, Ohl delivered a minimalist pitching line, allowing just two hits—a pair of singles—without a run or a walk. He struck out one. After a disastrous start to the season, you may have forgotten about the young righty, which portended a month-and-a-half absence, but he may be back on the horse now; we’ll see how he throws down the stretch.

The Wind Surge bats, once again, were sparse. That’s been a common theme for them this year. Sunday looked to be the zenith of their un-offensive nature, with the Cardinals holding them hitless until the 6th, but a furious 8th snapped them into place. 

Kala’i Rosario singled, Tanner Schobel doubled, and Alex Isola drove both runners in with a single up the gut. Aaron Sabato cracked a double to right to put the tying run in scoring position, but Andrew Cossetti was caught window-shopping to kill the rally. 

Springfield responded with a fifth and final run to put the game solidly out of reach.

Cardinals’ DH, Leonardo Bernal, is the 9th-best prospect in St. Louis’ usually excellent system. He collected an RBI and a single in four at-bats. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 3, Lake County 6
Box Score
Ricky Castro: 4 1/3 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
HR: Jose Salas (4), Kyle Hess (2)
Multi-hit games: Rixon Wingrove (2-for-4, 2B, RBI)

A middle-inning melee did the Kernels in on Sunday.

Starter Ricky Castro continued his A+ culture shock, allowing four earned runs across 4 ⅓ frames with as many walks as strikeouts. Command eluded him, and his inefficiency could only be rivaled by the country's muckiest bureaucracy; Castro needed 86 pitches to coax his 13 outs. His Kernels ERA is now 4.94.

Cedar Rapids’ offense was… concentrated. Perhaps mild if you don’t care to be kind. Rixon Wingrove doubled home a run in the 4th to kick off the scoring, but the well ran dry after back-to-back blasts by Jose Salas and Kyle Hess the following frame. In fact, a Kernel runner only reached scoring position once more when a Gabriel Gonzalez single advanced Walker Jenkins to second in the 8th. It was a solid opportunity to make Lake County sweat a little. Kaelen Culpepper struck out, and Rubel Cespedes popped out to end the threat.

The game ended Jenkins’ 10-game hitting streak

Recent 1st overall pick and current 12th overall prospect, Travis Bazzana, homered and reached base three times in five plate appearances.

MUSSEL MATTERS
The Mighty Mussels were supposed to play a doubleheader on Sunday, but action never came to fruition; unplayable field conditions rendered both matches unplayable. The games are canceled and will not be made up later. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Pierson Ohl
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Kyle Hess/Jose Salas

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:

#1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) - 0-2, 2 BB, 2 K
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) - 1-4
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-4, R, K
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 2-5, R, K
#17 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 0-4, K

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Iowa @ St. Paul (4:07 PM) - TBD
Wichita @ Frisco (6:05 PM) - RHP C.J. Culpepper (0-1, 10.13 ERA) 

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[tony&rodney]

My mantra - get Emmanuel Rodriguez to St. Paul or at least Wichita. Florida is very wet and not conducive to rehab even with the dorms and fine facilities in Ft. Myers.

[Dman]

Nice to see Adams settle in and make it 5 innings after that rough first inning,  Still glad they moved him to AAA.  I don't know much about his stuff as he has never been on a top 30 list and Fangraphs rates most all his pitches as average, but he has been lights out in AA the past month.  Hope he continues to pitch well at AAA.  While it looks like he could make it as a starter I still think he would\could be a nice relief arm for them as well.

 

 

[jmlease1]

Glad to see Rosario looking healthy and hitting back in AA. Hoping he keeps developing, would be a nice RH OF option if he can keep sharpening his skills. He's still pretty young, so seeing him do well despite missing a lot of injury time this season is good.

Ohl is someone where I think the margins might end up being too fine for him to really make it as a starter in MLB, but you never know. Development is not linear, so maybe there's still a another gear to find, and it's not like he doesn't understand how to pitch. He might have trouble finding a slot in AAA early next season just because of the depth we're projecting up there.

[LambchoP]

Both Emmanuel Rodriguez and Kalaii Rosario could be two potential RH OF bats to go along with our two LH OFers in Wallner and Larnach. With Buxton always going to need a good backup, we could do a lot worse than these two. There's always Keirsey too, if one of our lefties goes down. I still say signing a decent outfielder to a one year deal would be smart. Just until we're sure ERod or Rosario are healthy and ready for the big leagues.

[Matt Braun]

46 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

Both Emmanuel Rodriguez and Kalaii Rosario could be two potential RH OF bats to go along with our two LH OFers in Wallner and Larnach. With Buxton always going to need a good backup, we could do a lot worse than these two. There's always Keirsey too, if one of our lefties goes down. I still say signing a decent outfielder to a one year deal would be smart. Just until we're sure ERod or Rosario are healthy and ready for the big leagues.

(Emmanuel is a lefty) 

[Daniel Anderson]

Buxton and ERod in St. Paul today.

[tony&rodney]

Good to see Emrod playing for St. Paul. I was not able to watch the game but two walks is a start.   

[twinstalker]

On 9/1/2024 at 6:13 PM, tony&rodney said:

My mantra - get Emmanuel Rodriguez to St. Paul or at least Wichita. Florida is very wet and not conducive to rehab even with the dorms and fine facilities in Ft. Myers.

Yeah, I understand the thinking, but they can make it work in Wichita, and that's where he needs to prove he can hit breaking balls and changeups.

[tony&rodney]

5 hours ago, twinstalker said:

Yeah, I understand the thinking, but they can make it work in Wichita, and that's where he needs to prove he can hit breaking balls and changeups.

EmRod was in the lineup for St. Paul yesterday (0-3 with 2 BB/2Ks) and will be the remainder of the year. He doesn't have problems with any pitches. He has a small hole at the top of the strike zone (past observation) and must learn to protect with two strikes on borderline pitches. Emmanuel has an even more discerning eye at the plate than Julien but crushes pitches in the zone. He needs to show an ability to stay healthy and have sustained success.