Twins Minor League Report (9/4): John Klein Posts Best Start of Young Career; Mussels Fall out of First Place; Buxton Ejected

[Seth Stohs]

Strong Pitching. Timely hitting. That might be the story in St. Paul on Wednesday. But it won't be. There were some intriguing bookends in Cedar Rapids, but they got a great start from a Minnesota native. Was Fort Myers able to stay in first place? What do they need to do in their final four games to make the playoffs. Tons of information for you in Wednesday's Twins Minor League Report. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 75-64
St. Paul Saints: 64-69
Wichita Wind Surge: 54-74
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 65-61
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 64-57
FCL Twins: 27-31 (season complete)
DSL Twins: 30-25 (season complete) 

TRANSACTIONS
LHP Brent Headrick was activated from the Saints 60-Day Injured List on Thursday.
RHP Louie Varland was recalled from St. Paul while RHP Diego Castillo was optioned to the Saints. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 2, Iowa 1 
Box Score
Yes, the big story of this game will be about Byron Buxton. However, this was really a terrific game for the Saints, in particular a terrific game for the Saints pitching staff. 

Brent Headrick made a start for the Saints on April 6th. On Wednesday night, he returned to the mound in St. Paul and did a very nice job. The southpaw threw three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out four batters. 

At that point, Randy Dobnak came on, and he worked the final six innings. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk. He struck out six batters. The lone blemish in his outing was a solo home run by Iowa’s Chase Strumpf (yes, Royce Lewis’s high school teammate). Dobnak improved to 11-6 on the seasons and his ERA dropped to 3.87. 

The Saints got on the scoreboard first. With one out in the bottom of the third, Payton Eeles walked. Two batters later, he scored from first base on DaShawn Keirsey’s 20th double. 

Strumpf’s homer led off the top of the fifth inning with the home run. The game remained tied at 1-1 until the bottom of the seventh inning. 

With one out, Jair Camargo walked. He advanced to second base on a passed ball. Carson McCusker singled to score Camargo and give the Saints the 2-1 lead. 

The Saints had just four hits in the game. Keirsey went 2-for-4 with the double and RBI. He also stole his 36th base of the season. McCusker was 2-for-3 with the go-ahead RBI. Eeles reached on a walk and was hit by a pitch. 

For the Cubs fans out there, 2023 top pick Matt Shaw went 2-for-4. Iowa had just four hits. Brandon Birdsell went the first six innings for Iowa and gave up just one run. He was the Cubs fifth round pick in 2022 out of Texas Tech. In 2021, he was the Twins 11th round pick. The Twins offered him the remaining money that they could within their draft bonus limit, but he was determined to pitch one more year at Texas Tech. In 2022, he was a teammate and roommate of Twins 2022 fourth round pick from Texas Tech, Andrew Morris. 

Buxton went 0-for-2 before the ejection with two strikeouts. It would seem to make sense that he would be called back to the big leagues before the Twins big series in Kansas City starting on Friday. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 1, Frisco 2
Box Score
Wichita got on the board first when they scored in the top of the first inning. With two outs, Andrew Cossetti drove in Tanner Schobel  with a single. 

Unfortunately, that was it for the Wind Surge on this night. The team had just five hits. The lone extra base hit was a first-inning double by Kala’i Rosario, his 17th of the season. 

Jaylen Nowlin started and gave up two runs on five hits over five innings. He had two walks and six strikeouts. 

Mason Fox faced six batters over two perfect innings. He had three strikeouts. 

Kyle Bischoff gave up a hit and a walk in a scoreless eighth inning. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 4, Wisconsin 3 (10 innings)  
Box Score
The Alpha and the Omega. El principio y el fin. The beginning and the end.  In this game, that’s all we really need to know about. Things were pretty quiet in between. 

The Kernels took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs and a runner on first, Rubel Cespedes walked. Rayne Doncon followed with a double to score both Gabriel Gonzalez and Cespedes. Doncon then scored on a single by Agustin Ruiz. 

That is how the score remained through eight innings. Burnsville native John Klein made the start and tossed a season-high seven scoreless innings. He gave up six hits, walked none, and struck out six batters. Klein also became the first Cedar Rapids pitcher to reach 100 innings since 2019 when Josh Winder (125 ⅔ IP) and Luis Rijo (107 IP) reached that milestone. 

Juan Mendez pitched a scoreless eighth inning. He allowed a hit and hit a batter. He hit Luke Adams. 

The Kernels maintained the 3-0 lead going to the ninth inning. Xander Hamilton came in and gave up three runs (2 earned) on three hits and a walk. He recorded just one out (on a strikeout). Jordan Carr came in and stranded two runners to keep it at 3-3. 

The Kernels went scoreless in the bottom of the ninth. Carr tossed a scoreless top of the 10th inning. That brought us to the bottom of the 10th. Kyle Hess was the Manfred Man. He was still standing on second base with two outs. However, Gabriel Gonzalez doubled to drive in Hess with the winning run. 

When Gonzalez put the ball in play, he did good things. He went 2-for-5 with three strikeouts. The walkoff double was his 19th of the season. Ruiz was 2-for-3 with a walk. Doncon’s double was his 11th with the Kernels.   

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 0, Lakeland 4
Box Score
If you look at his overall numbers, it probably doesn’t jump out as exciting. Following a loss to Lakeland on Thursday, Soto’s season record is 1-7 with a 5.23 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. In 74 innings, he had 33 walks and 87 strikeouts. Soto completed a full season as an 18-year-old. In fact, this was literally the only start he made this season as a 19-year-old. Just 10 of plate appearances against him were with batters who were younger than him. 

With that, in his game, he gave up four runs on four hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings. He had five strikeouts. He made his starts throughout the season and remained healthy. In fact, his four-seam fastball averaged 95.6 mph on Wednesday night and he touched 97.0 mph. Now hopefully he won’t pick up a baseball for the next three months!
     

Jack Noble came on and allowed two inherited runners to score. He gave up two hits and a walk and got three outs. Cleiber Maldonado struck out three batters over 1 2/3 perfect innings. Juan Mercedes gave up two hits in a scoreless inning. He had two strikeouts. 

The Mussels went scoreless in the game and had just four hits and no walks. Kyle DeBarge went 2-for-4. Jaime Ferrer and Nick Lucky each had one hit. Ferrer stole his sixth base. Lucky’s hit was his fifth double.

With the loss, Fort Myers falls into second place in the FSL West behind Lakeland. The two teams play four more games this week and the Mussels must win three of them to make the playoffs. Lakeland has won the first two games of this series. The Mussels have now lost five games in a row. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day - DaShawn Keirsey (St. Paul) - 2-for-4, 2B(20), RBI, SB(36).
Pitcher of the Day - John Klein (Cedar Rapids) - 7 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 HBP, 6 K, 87 pitches, 65 strikes (74.7%) 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our recently-updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Wednesday.

#1– Walker Jenkins (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4, BB, K.   
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – 1-for-4, BB, 2B(3), HR(3), R, RBI
#3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-3, BB, 2 K
#7 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 2-for-5, 2B(19), R, RBI, 3 K.     
#8 – Charlee Soto (Fort Myers) – 4 1/3 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 71 pitches, 45 strikes (63.4%)
#9 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K.   
#12 – Brandon Winokur (Fort Myers) – 0-for-4, 2 K.
#15 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B(17), 3 K.
#16 - Kyle DeBarge (Fort Myers) - 2-for-4, K, 2 CS(3).
#17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 1-for-4, R, 2 K.

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Iowa @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CST) – RHP Caleb Boushley (9-5, 4.97 ERA)
Wichita @ Frisco (7:05 PM CST) – LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 2.12 ERA)
Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CST) – Spencer Bengard (1-0, 1.42 ERA)
Ft. Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CST) – RHP Anthony Narvaez (0-0, 9.00 ERA) 

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

View full article

[Fezig]

Interesting story:

https://puckettspond.com/posts/minnesota-twins-prospect-might-be-the-best-story-in-baseball-01j6wpshs34k

[David HK]

It's a crime that Keirsey hasn't played across the river yet this year.  

A crime.

[tony&rodney]

Keirsey Jr. has continued to play well and deserves an opportunity to crack an MLB roster. Carson McCusker keeps hitting the ball hard. He hit a rocket to right field for his only out. While there are long levers and a huge strike zone to cover, McCusker has made continual improvement all season on staying away from flailing at sliders. He is a must watch right now.

The Iowa Cubs starter, Birdsell, was really good last night and was spotting his pitches well. He ate up Byron and Emmanuel with precise pitches and good velocity. The incident with Buxton may have been in part due to how overmatched Buxton was against Birdsell in his two at bats. While the home plate umpire should have walked up the third base line after Byron struck out, Buck over reacted. There was fault both ways. 

It was a good game to watch. 

[Old Crow]

1 hour ago, David HK said:

It's a crime that Keirsey hasn't played across the river yet this year.  

A crime.

What makes you think the Twins need someone who steals 36 bases, hits .290+, and can play CF?  

[Omgbenji]

OMG, get Keirsey Jr. to the big league club! Psssst, any Twins FO lurkers, this is a good player who could perhaps improve your club, you may want to try him out.

 

Also, Carson McCuster has been a fun prospect to follow. Nice pick!

[mikelink45]

All the commentators have beat me to the punch - Keirsey and McCusker - Twins - Yes.

Farmer and Margot not Twins.  

[LambchoP]

Keirsey continues to just keep on hitting and hitting. Good thing the Twins don't need a productive outfielder at all, especially one who can man center field in the absence of Mr Glass, I mean Buxton. Good news that Headrick is back. I don't think he'll be eligible for the post season, but he's probably a better lefty option than Theilbar. Looks like Winder has had some really good outings lately, kind of surprised he hasn't been called up considering the state of our pen...

[Tibs]

 

 

This may make some commenters here happy

[Rosterman]

I'm so hoping Headrick can develop into a lefty that can throw multiple innings in relief, maybe be an occasional opener. Even jut a one inning guy would be fine with me. Happy he's back for one month of work.

If Moran can come back as a lefty opetion, and Fundeburk can control his stuff, he Twins wiull have decent in-house options for 2025.

If looking for a long relief option, I would almost switch out Varland for Dobnak for the near term. Just to see if Dobnak deserves retention on the 40-man as the Twins try and get more for their investment. I have no words for his return to the Twins this year. Was he trying too hard, was he being quirky, was he really this kind of pitcher. Can he be THAT kind of pitcher.

[David HK]

On 9/5/2024 at 9:07 PM, Old Crow said:

What makes you think the Twins need someone who steals 36 bases, hits .290+, and can play CF?  

I posted that just as he got the callup- 

then he COMMITTED a crime taking that route on his first fly ball! 😂⚾😂