Minor League Report (9/22): That's All, Folks!

[Matt Braun]

The Saints, perhaps fittingly, concluded the Twins minor league system with a loss. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

TRANSACTIONS
No moves were made on Sunday.

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 4, Indianapolis 9
Box Score
Caleb Boushley: 4 2/3 IP, 9 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
HR: Rylan Bannon (18), Patrick Winkel (7), Jair Camargo (3)
Multi-hit games: Payton Eeles (2-for-4, R, BB), Michael Helman (2-for-4, 2B, RBI)

The Saints launched three homers, but came up short in their farewell to the 2024 season.

It’s been a year to forget for St. Paul. Following an excellent 84-64 2023 season, the malevolent forces surrounding minor league roster fortune spat out mediocrity, leaving Toby Gardenhire and his players stuck in a mediocre quagmire. In other words: they were ok. Inoffensive as they were, the pantheon of professional baseball will likely not remember them. There are worse fates to have. Just ask Bill Buckner.

Nonetheless, they ended their nondescript season with a stinker, falling 9-4 in a game in which their bats struck out 17 times.

Starter Caleb Boushley appeared to be dealing. A run scored in the 1st off a pair of fielding errors—hardly his fault, despite what the “earned run” stat may say—but the veteran hunkered down and kept Indianapolis at bay, at least for a time. In the 5th, right before one could officially describe him as “in the zone,” Boushley opened the frame by allowing a pair of solo homers, portending a disastrous six-run nightmare he would not escape; Jaylen Nowlin had to relieve the righty.

That put a great deal of stress on the Saints’ bats—stress they were not prepared to handle. Eeles may have jump-started a skirmish in the 1st, but his efforts only plated one run. Bannon may have netted the team’s third inside-the-park-homer of the year, but, yet again, St. Paul was only rewarded with one run.

Pat Winkel then kicked off the bottom of the 5th with a homer, but any more scores would simply be vanity; following the middle-innings blowup, St. Paul never got closer than four runs away from tying their opponent.

Rehabbing big-leaguer Justin Topa pitched a scoreless inning with a pair of strikeouts, both looking. He topped out at 92.5 MPH with his sinker.

Eeles reached base thrice and stole a trio of bases to give him 41 on the year. I have no idea if the Twins hold a spot for Eeles on their major-league roster, but he has done just about everything possible to force the issue. At 5’5” and scrappier than all hell, he could be the kind of player the team hasn’t had in quite some time.

Indianapolis is the Triple-A affiliate for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a talented farm system with a trio of hurlers—Bubba Chandler, Braxton Ashcraft, and Thomas Harrington—populating the Indianapolis starting rotation. Still, it was their 16th-ranked player, Mike Burrows, who best represented the franchise on Sunday: he struck out 10 over five innings, allowing three runs along the way. 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Justin Topa/Jeff Brigham/Jorge Alcalá
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Rylan Bannon

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) - 0-for-1
#5 – Zebby Matthews (Minnesota) - 4 2/3 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 87 pitches, 55 strikes (63.2%)

MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
There are no more Twins minor league games to be played this year. Thank you for an excellent 2024 season, and we’ll see you again in 2025!

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[SD happy]

I’m going to miss these reports!

[RogerCarew]

I also

 

[D.C Twins]

Same headline coming for the game 2 Twins recap?!

[nclahammer]

Terrific report Matt and TD.    The minor league updates are always my first stop on Twins Daily each morning, and nobody does it better that TD!

[Doctor Wu]

Justin Topa ... still rehabbing 

[Doctor Wu]

13 hours ago, SD happy said:

I’m going to miss these reports!

I'll miss these minor league reports too. Always interesting. But these mystery photos still drive me up the wall! Who is this one?

[Omgbenji]

1 hour ago, Doctor Wu said:

I'll miss these minor league reports too. Always interesting. But these mystery photos still drive me up the wall! Who is this one?

I think they've done better for the last month or so with us all complaining enough. Though it's not as consistent as we would like. But, I would guess that this is Payton Eeles as this dude looks extra small.

[Doctor Wu]

2 minutes ago, Omgbenji said:

I think they've done better for the last month or so with us all complaining enough. Though it's not as consistent as we would like. But, I would guess that this is Payton Eeles as this dude looks extra small.

Yeah, they have been better lately, but sometimes I have no idea at all who is pictured. Thanks for that! He really is a tiny guy!

[jmlease1]

Always a little sad to see the end of the minor league season; there's always hope to be found within these reports and new prospects to envision as part of the MLB club. While the clubs didn't have the best seasons in terms of wins and losses, there was quite a lot of success in player development in the farm system this season.

Looking forward to seeing where the next prospect list lands and what the community thinks of the top 30!

[LambchoP]

They had better put Eeles on the 40 man. I hope he has a hot spring training and gets a call up to the majors at some point. A spark plug type guy like him that can actually steal bases would be a perfect lead off hitter for us. Of course Rocco doesn't believe in lead off hitters, or lineups in general, seeing as they are running a different lineup out there every single day. Margot leading off, seriously? Buxton? Larnach? No no no, these are not lead off hitters.

[chpettit19]

50 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

They had better put Eeles on the 40 man. I hope he has a hot spring training and gets a call up to the majors at some point. A spark plug type guy like him that can actually steal bases would be a perfect lead off hitter for us. Of course Rocco doesn't believe in lead off hitters, or lineups in general, seeing as they are running a different lineup out there every single day. Margot leading off, seriously? Buxton? Larnach? No no no, these are not lead off hitters.

He won't be added to the 40-man until they're ready to call him up. No reason to take up a 40-man spot during the offseason.

[DJL44]

10 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

He won't be added to the 40-man until they're ready to call him up. No reason to take up a 40-man spot during the offseason.

And no reason to burn options before it's necessary. Eeles doesn't have to be added to the 40-man until December of 2026.

[chpettit19]

1 minute ago, DJL44 said:

And no reason to burn options before it's necessary. Eeles doesn't have to be added to the 40-man until December of 2026.

He better make it on there long before that, though. Or he's never making it. But, yeah, no reason at all to add him to it until he's on his way to Target Field (or wherever the Twins are playing their next game).

[Steve Lein]

5 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

I'll miss these minor league reports too. Always interesting. But these mystery photos still drive me up the wall! Who is this one?

Payton Eeles.

Big thanks to Matt and all of our wonderful MiLB Report writers for another great season. These can take a lot more effort than you might think, and I'll speak for all of us in saying the support is greatly appreciated! 

This marks the end of year 10 doing them for me! Off the top of my head I don't remember having a season without any playoff games, which makes me sad. 

[jkcarew]

Eeles…

111 G, 114 H, 19 2B, 8 3B, 12 HR, 67 BB, 68 K, 41 SB, 307/435/497 (932)

…and this after starting the season with Southern Maryland of the Atlantic League (independent)

I’m not positive the Twins consider him a prospect…although I would think they do at this point. It’s not like he’s 28 (he’s 24).
 

One indication would be if they give him Minor League PoY. Nobody as deserving. Anyone with comparable/better numbers missed large parts of the season with injuries.

 

[nclahammer]

IMHO DaShawn Keirsey Jr. will be the Minor League Player of the Year.   111G/71R/133H/14HR/81RBI/.300BA/36SB

Eeles has also had an outstanding season, especially coming from independent ball.

 

[jkcarew]

13 hours ago, nclahammer said:

IMHO DaShawn Keirsey Jr. will be the Minor League Player of the Year.   111G/71R/133H/14HR/81RBI/.300BA/36SB

Eeles has also had an outstanding season, especially coming from independent ball.

 

I think he’s probably the next most deserving behind Eeles.

Fwiw, Eeles was better than Keirsey at St. Paul….higher OBP, even a higher SLG. And Eeles is 3 years younger. Keirsey probably much more valuable defensively, though? Great season for Keirsey…don’t want to take anything away from him. He’s been grinding it out for some time now.

[DJL44]

AFL rosters announced. I'm guessing this will get a new thread.

2024 Arizona Fall League rosters (mlb.com)

No big prospects for the Twins

[ashbury]

2 hours ago, DJL44 said:

No big prospects for the Twins

F it, I'm still making the drive down.  But this is underwhelming.  Kala'i Rosario, Danny De Andrade, Ben Ross, Liam Rocha, Devin Kirby (Kevin Derby?), Jacob King, Kade Bragg.  A veritable Who's Who of "Who's He?"