Minor League Report (4/9): Will Anyone Score on Andrew Morris?

[Matt Braun]

If Betterridge's law of headlines is true, the International League is screwed.

Image courtesy of William Parmeter

TRANSACTIONS
OF Walker Jenkins placed on 7-day IL. Tyler Dearden activated by the Wind Surge from the Development List. 

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 3, Omaha 2
Box Score
Andrew Morris: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
HR: Jair Camargo (1), Carson McCusker (1)
Multi-hit games: Emmanuel Rodriguez (2-for-4), Austin Martin (2-for-3, BB), Carson McCusker (2-for-4, HR, R, RBI)

The Saints squeaked out a win on Wednesday.

One of these days, Andrew Morris will allow a run. That day was not last Wednesday, nor was it this one: the righty breezed through five shutout innings, scattering four hits and two walks while striking out three. Thrice a runner made it as far as 2nd base—and one of them attempted to come all the way home, before being stopped by a beautiful one-hopper from Austin Martin—but Morris worked out of danger every time.

Like he did last week, Cory Lewis entered in relief of Morris. Things did not go as well this time. Omaha jumped on Lewis for a pair of runs in the 6th, before the righty righted the ship and cleaned up his outing the best he could with two scoreless innings. Anthony Misiewicz pitched the 9th.

While the Saints only mustered three runs, that total proved enough to do the job. Jair Camargo notched the first two scores with a two-run blast in the 4th, and Carson McCusker blasted a solo shot in the 6th. That’s all they did; that’s all they needed.

 

Brooks Lee went 1-4 with a strikeout while playing seven innings at third base.

Old friend Nick Gordon singled and walked in four trips to the plate for Omaha. 

The Storm Chasers are the AAA affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. No player on their MLB.com top 30 prospects list appeared in this game. 

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 4, Rockhounds 8
Box Score
Ricky Castro: 2 ⅔ IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
HR: Rubel Cespedes (1)
Multi-hit games: Rubel Cespedes (2-for-4, HR, 2B, R, 4 RBI)

The Wind Surge lost handily on Wednesday.

Offensively, it was the Rubel Cespedes show. The 24-year-old knocked in all four of Wichita’s runs with a 1st-inning grand slam, perfectly stroked out deep into right field. He later tacked on a double.

The early explosion only begat a tepid showing from the rest of Wichita’s lineup. That eventful 1st contained two of their five hits on the night; a handful of meager threats across the coming frames were always snuffed out, and by the time a runner finally saw 3rd base again, the deficit was too much to recover from.

Mike Parades and Jaylen Nowlin made quality appearances out of the bullpen, combining for 5 ⅓ scoreless innings with five strikeouts.

The Rockhounds are an affiliate for the Franchise Formerly Known as the Oakland Athletics. The tremendously named Henry Bolte is their 8th-best prospect, and he singled and walked in five plate appearances while playing center field. 

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 0, Beloit 10
Box Score
Ross Dunn: 3 ⅓ IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: None

The Kernels were thumped on Wednesday.

Sometimes you don’t have it, and sometimes you really don’t have it. Oddly enough, this wasn’t quite that black and white: the Kernels were reasonably competitive up until the 9th when a 3-0 game ballooned into a 10-0 laugher with some diabolical ERAs. 

Cedar Rapids’ bats didn’t help matters. Doubles by Billy Amick and Kaelen Culpepper marked the only significant shots taken off Sky Carp pitching. The box score is a graveyard: five starting hitters failed to reach base safely and of the four that did, only Khadim Diaw did so more than once. 

The Kernels allowed 10 stolen bases, with six alone coming from Emaarion Boyd. 

Beloit starter Noble Meyer, the 82nd best prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com, pitched 4 ⅔ scoreless innings in his outing.

Mussels Matters
Fort Myers 5, Tampa 1
Box Score
Michael Carpenter: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Byron Chourio (2-for-3, 2B, 2 R, BB), Yasser Mercedes (2-for-3, 2B, R, BB)

Fort Myers ran a smorgasbord of pitchers to win on Wednesday.

Lefty starter Michael Carpenter made his Twins organization debut. The 20-year-old from Menomonee Falls—and selected in the 11th round of the 2024 draft out of Madison Area Technical College, the alma mater of just three other draftees—led all of JUCO DII with a 1.03 ERA in his draft year and tossed 45 consecutive shutout innings.

Carpenter’s initial foray into pro ball was curt but successful. He struck out the first two batters he faced before beginning to labor, allowing a double and two walks to inflate his pitch count. He punched out Tampa’s Tyler Wilson with his 36th and final pitch of the night. With that out of the way, 2025 should hold big things for the fascinating small-school prospect.

A slew of hurlers carried the pitching effort the rest of the way. Kade Bragg, Devin Kirby, Jacob Kisting, Ivran Romero, and Tyler Stasiowski combined for eight frames, five hits, one earned run, six walks—a little heavy on the free passes—and ten strikeouts. The 22-year-old Kisting was the star of the show; the Madison-born righty out-pitched his Wisconsinite brother by breezing through 2 ⅓ innings. Six of those seven outs came via the strikeout. 

Fort Myers’ bats were efficient. Although, really, it was their legs that delivered them to success: Byron Chourio sparked a 1st inning run with a walk and a steal, quickly advancing to 3rd off an errant throw by Tampa’s catcher. Dameury Pena brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Then, Yasser Mercedes scored in the 4th when a steal put him in position to score off a Jose Rodriguez single. Finally, a 7th-inning skirmish—fueled by a Pena two-run knock—concluded when Pena scampered home following a wild pitch. 

The Tarpons are an affiliate of the New York Yankees. Always a talented system, shortstop Roderick Arias—the franchise’s 7th-best prospect—went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Andrew Morris
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Rubel Cespedes

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:
#2 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 2-4, K
#3 – Luke Keaschall (St. Paul) - 0-4, 3 K
#5 – Andrew Morris (St. Paul) - 5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
#7 – Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, 2B
#8 – Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, K
#9 – Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 2 ⅓ IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
#13 – Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) -0-3, BB, 2 K
#15 – Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 2-3, 2B, R, BB
#16 – Rayne Doncon (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4, 2 K
#17 – Billy Amick (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, 2B
#18 – Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 1-4, R, 2 K
#19 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-4
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 0-3, R, BB

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Omaha @ St. Paul (5:37 PM) - RHP Marco Raya
Midland @ Wichita (5:35 PM) - RHP Chase Chaney
Beloit @ Cedar Rapids (5:35 PM) - RHP Ty Langenberg
Tampa @ Fort Myers (5:05 PM) - RHP Jakob Hall

 

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[FlyingFinn]

The way Morris and Matthews are pitching, I sure wish one of them would get called up to replace Paddack in the rotation.

On the down side, Jenkins injured again. How bad is it? With over half of the starting rotation injured as well, that's a rough looking roster in Wichita right now. Winokur and Doncon showed flashes of good baseball in spring training. Yikes, they are off to a tough start, both batting below .100 in the middle of the Cedar Rapids lineup.

[mikelink45]

I am also anxious to see Morris and Matthews instead of Paddock - maybe a six man rotation will allow more starters to be prepared to pitch deeper in the game like Ryan just did.  What is the status of Lopez?  MLB expects him to go on the IL - that means both pitchers can come up if we move Paddock to the pen. 

[mikelink45]

I am concerned about Walker - we have this long list of issues - Kiriloff, Buxton, Lewis, Correa, Lee, and Stewart and Canterino - and it will be sad to see Walker have the same on-field, off-field career. 

[Trov]

What is the story on Jenkins?  Is it a long term issue or just a few weeks?  This is sadly becoming a trend for the superstar prospect.  

[Dman]

You can look at Carpenter’s outing in different ways.  The positives are no earned runs allowed and a 100% K rate or 27/9 using the other stat.  The fastball was up to 95 and he threw a lot of breaking and offspeed stuff, unfortunately control was lacking.

The negative is he has a WHIP of 3 giving up a double and two walks and it took 36 pitches to get out of one inning. So it looks like there is a fair bit to work on.  Finding a good chase pitch for strike three or something that will weakly be put in play would help him excel. 

Amick is making me look like an idiot at least so far this season. While the K rate remains high as predicted his contact in zone has been better than I thought it would be. It is early but as of right now he clearly is the most dangerous hitter on that Kernals team.

[rdehring]

Great seeing EmRod with a pair of hits, Matt.  And thanks for the report.

Also liked the game Austin Martin had.  Interesting seeing Lee at third base.

For those of us who are Badgers, was exciting seeing Carpenter make his professional debut.  It wasn't perfect, but he got it behind him and should be better next time out.

[LambchoP]

Looks like Mathews will probably get 2 or 3 starts while Lopez is on the IL. My guess is Paddack gets a few more starts to prove he belongs. I'd rather see him moved to the pen and give Festa or Morris a shot. Why is it that ALL of the Twins ' top prospects are so injury prone? Is it a curse? Do we just draft fragile guys? Durability is an ability and scouts and recruiting needs to realize that. You can have the best player in the world, but if he never plays a full season, is it really worth it?

[tony&rodney]

Matthews has been uber dominant and it is almost certain he pitches versus Detroit this coming Sunday. Morris has been very good. He keeps the ball off the barrel and controls the plate appearances. My sense is that Morris is emerging as a talent but still behind Matthews and Festa. Morris looks like he is just getting by on either deception or control but then he blows hitters away with a 95 mph fastball. Morris is fun to watch pitch.

Speaking of barrels .... nobody hits the ball harder than Carson McCusker. He had an absolute rocket single to left field and catapulted a 98 mph pitch for a home run. McCusker is not a polished outfielder but covers a ton of ground with his long strides. He made at least three catches routinely that would have fallen with Severino out there. In Severino's defense, it was a little ridiculous to put him out there. 

Emmanuel Rodriguez covers center really well and had a few hits. He has been struggling. Keaschall looks fine at second base but is missing his pitches at the plate and went down looking a couple times. Brooks Lee had his best swing that I have seen from him this year, a single off the wall. Lee is so slow, but he is looking healthy. Rodriguez was trapped between second and third because Lee didn't score from second on a long single. 

Cody Lewis must be a nightmare to hit against. Nearly all of his pitches are  between 85-89 mph, but the batter gets anything from a fastball to a knuckleball with sliders, curveballs, and a changeup in there as well. He was pretty solid.

Austin Martin is working hard to make a case he belongs with the Twins. A beautiful throw again last night and he has played a strong left field. At the plate Martin has been a tough out. I'm not sure why the Twins are down on Martin. 

[jorgenswest]

The Twins will send Paddack, Woods-Richardson and Matthews against Detroit. Hopefully all step up and make it a difficult decision about how to proceed when Lopez returns.

Can a pitcher be successful in the majors with strikeout rates under 20% in AAA? Dobnak was at 22% last year. I wonder if too much of the weak contact that Morris is generating in AAA will turn into hard contact in the majors.

[tony&rodney]

6 minutes ago, LambchoP said:

You can have the best player in the world, but if he never plays a full season, is it really worth it?

True. There will never be an answer though or it doesn't seem like there will be. We have watched Bobby Witt Jr. play every play like it is Game 7, sprinting full out every single time and diving headlong on the field and on the bases. He plays with more abandon than anyone I can recall and yet he has over 2,000 plate appearances in 3 season of games. He plays every single game. Meanwhile some of the Twins (and other players on other teams to be fair) routinely jog on the bases. We see players go faster on home run trots than they do in live action when they could be going first to third or second to home or running out a routine ground ball. Comments are made that the players must reserve themselves and avoid injury. I actually no longer question the effort. And yet, there is Bobby Baseball making everyone else look OLD. Injuries happen is my conclusion.

[jmlease1]

Really hope it's nothing serious with Walker Jenkins. feel like the Twins deserve better luck with prospect injuries.

Great start to the season for Morris. he's another guy like Zebby who shot up through the system in a big old hurry last season, so it's good to see him doing well in AAA. It'll be interesting to see where his peripherals are as the season goes along and see where his K/9 and WHIP are sitting after a few more starts. results matter the most, but I'm a little concerned he's going to start giving up runs in bunches if he's not able to K a few more batters and limit the baserunners.

Wonder what the internals look like on winokur; is he just a little off? because right now he's having a dreadful start. Hopefully he just needs some warm weather? Culpepper & Amick certainly don't seem bothered and it's good to see two guys in their first full season of pro ball off to a nice start while being moved fairly aggressively.

[Linus]

How do you give up 10 stolen bases?

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

The way Morris and Matthews are pitching, I sure wish one of them would get called up to replace Paddack in the rotation.

On the down side, Jenkins injured again. How bad is it? With over half of the starting rotation injured as well, that's a rough looking roster in Wichita right now. Winokur and Doncon showed flashes of good baseball in spring training. Yikes, they are off to a tough start, both batting below .100 in the middle of the Cedar Rapids lineup.

It's from Jenkins trying to return too quickly from a sprained ankle. For whatever reason, the Twins really seem to struggle with keeping guys off the field when they're a little hurt until they're a lot hurt.

https://www.mlb.com/news/twins-top-prospect-walker-jenkins-on-il-with-ankle-injury#:~:text=Jenkins%2C 20%2C experienced “renewed,to miss much of camp.

[DJL44]

40 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

Austin Martin is working hard to make a case he belongs with the Twins. A beautiful throw again last night and he has played a strong left field. At the plate Martin has been a tough out. I'm not sure why the Twins are down on Martin. 

Martin is in AAA because of Bader. Are they down on him or is he playing everyday in AAA because they need depth? Keirsey has the 5th outfielder job because the job is to pinch run and play defense. It wouldn't help Martin at all to rot on the MLB bench.

[tony&rodney]

1 minute ago, DJL44 said:

Martin is in AAA because of Bader. Are they down on him or is he playing everyday in AAA because they need depth? Keirsey has the 5th outfielder job because the job is to pinch run and play defense. It wouldn't help Martin at all to rot on the MLB bench.

True I do know that, but when did Martin ever play an entire week of games for the Twins? What is his role going forward? Do you think he has a place?

[Jeff K]

15 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

Martin is in AAA because of Bader. Are they down on him or is he playing everyday in AAA because they need depth? Keirsey has the 5th outfielder job because the job is to pinch run and play defense. It wouldn't help Martin at all to rot on the MLB bench.

Except making a lot more money.

[DJL44]

18 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

True I do know that, but when did Martin ever play an entire week of games for the Twins? What is his role going forward? Do you think he has a place?

He's waiting for the inevitable injury, then he'll slot into Bader's current role.

[mark allen]

54 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

The Twins will send Paddack, Woods-Richardson and Matthews against Detroit. Hopefully all step up and make it a difficult decision about how to proceed when Lopez returns.

Can a pitcher be successful in the majors with strikeout rates under 20% in AAA? Dobnak was at 22% last year. I wonder if too much of the weak contact that Morris is generating in AAA will turn into hard contact in the majors.

just look at game yesterday. Ryan best effort of the year, and only four strike outs

[Linus]

Just now, mark sills said:

just look at game yesterday. Ryan best effort of the year, and only four strike outs

I was going to post that. To be really efficient means getting outs early in counts. I’ve always a rat he’s my head reading posts that are obsessed with strikeouts and also complaining because it takes the pitcher 90 pitches to get 5 innings. 

[jkcarew]

Jenkins.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to get excited to follow the Twins top prospects each season. It’s like watching and waiting for a kettle of water to come to boil on a stove with faulty burners.

 

[jorgenswest]

8 minutes ago, Linus said:

I was going to post that. To be really efficient means getting outs early in counts. I’ve always a rat he’s my head reading posts that are obsessed with strikeouts and also complaining because it takes the pitcher 90 pitches to get 5 innings. 

11 minutes ago, mark sills said:

just look at game yesterday. Ryan best effort of the year, and only four strike outs

I think Ryan fits my point. His strike out rate in the minors was 37% (same in AAA). It dropped significantly in the majors where that swing and miss turned into weak contact. Both home runs and hits overall are up in the majors as some of the weak contact in the minors turned into hard contact in the majors.

Back to my original wonder…

Will too much of the weak contact in the minors turn into hard contact in the majors?

Ryan had a lot of space to drop in strike out rate and increase in hard hit rate. Does Morris?

[Linus]

3 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

I think Ryan fits my point. His strike out rate in the minors was 37% (same in AAA). It dropped significantly in the majors where that swing and miss turned into weak contact. Both home runs and hits overall are up in the majors as some of the weak contact in the minors turned into hard contact in the majors.

Back to my original wonder…

Will too much of the weak contact in the minors turn into hard contact in the majors?

Ryan had a lot of space to drop in strike out rate and increase in hard hit rate. Does Morris?

Very valid question and only one way to find out. 

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, jorgenswest said:

I wonder if too much of the weak contact that Morris is generating in AAA will turn into hard contact in the majors.

This is what I was wondering as well as I watched Andrew pitch last night. He was facing a lineup that has had a considerable number of MLB plate appearances though. He did have a number of swings and misses and seemed to strike people out when he needed it a couple of times. For sure, Morris still needs to be a little sharper with all of his pitches, but he has not been scored upon in either ST against MLB players and in his first two starts for St. Paul. Keep an eye on him. 

[mikelink45]

I love that the comments reflect the fact that we're getting past the how many strikeouts question and how far does he pitch and how effective is he. I used to watch a lot of pitchers succeed with ground balls and smart placement of their pitches.  

[jmlease1]

4 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

I love that the comments reflect the fact that we're getting past the how many strikeouts question and how far does he pitch and how effective is he. I used to watch a lot of pitchers succeed with ground balls and smart placement of their pitches.  

it's part of why I mentioned his WHIP. having a great K/9 tells you things about someone's stuff, how dominant they are, etc. And K's help you out a lot when you allow that baserunner with no outs. But the WHIP also tells you some things about where they're at through the number of baserunners they're allowing. You can survive in the minors letting people on base at times, but it gets much much harder in MLB and that weak contact sometimes does turn into hard contact in bad ways. I don't think we know yet how hittable Morris is yet.

It'll be interesting to see where Morris is at after 5-7 starts. He's clearly got talent and is doing fine so far.

[Doctor Gast]

2 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

True I do know that, but when did Martin ever play an entire week of games for the Twins? What is his role going forward? Do you think he has a place?

Social media & Baldelli thinks that the Twins need is a dead slugger that can hit solo HRs when you don't need them & strikeout when you do, yet have decent SLG & WAR. What the Twins desperately need is a true leadoff hitter with fire, an OB machine that raze havoc on the bases, shake up pitchers to make mistakes for following batters, score runs, start rallies & win games.

For most of Martin's pro career, he has been forced into who he is not. You can never play your best game under those conditions, especially at the MLB level. In '23, he was left alone under Gardy, which he played mainly his natural position 2B & had his best season. He could be our best 2Bman on the roster, with good splits he could be the full-time 2Bman. Baldelli loves his platoons, so expect Martin to play a lot of LF (where he's getting more comfortable at) against LHPs.

Bobby Witt Jr. is a superstar; what makes him exciting is his fire. Twins need that fire, Martin could be a spark help get things going once he's comfortable where they put him.

[Seth Stohs]

6 hours ago, FlyingFinn said:

The way Morris and Matthews are pitching, I sure wish one of them would get called up to replace Paddack in the rotation.

On the down side, Jenkins injured again. How bad is it? With over half of the starting rotation injured as well, that's a rough looking roster in Wichita right now. Winokur and Doncon showed flashes of good baseball in spring training. Yikes, they are off to a tough start, both batting below .100 in the middle of the Cedar Rapids lineup.

A veteran deserves more than 2-3 starts to turn things around. Also, if he can be good for a month, maybe they can get an A-ball prospect for him. 

Jenkins injury at this point sounds like it's just a nagging issue as opposed to anything serious or structural. 

And Winokur and Doncon have played 4 or 5 games. Zero reason for concern. 

[nicksaviking]

2 hours ago, DJL44 said:

He's waiting for the inevitable injury, then he'll slot into Bader's current role.

I'm not sure about that. Keirsey has been on the MLB roster since day 1 and got his first start yesterday. If Baldelli doesn't want you to play, you're not going to play, and based on last year, it sure seems he'd prefer Martin not to play.

[tony&rodney]

38 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

A veteran deserves more than 2-3 starts to turn things around. Also, if he can be good for a month, maybe they can get an A-ball prospect for him. 

Jenkins injury at this point sounds like it's just a nagging issue as opposed to anything serious or structural. 

And Winokur and Doncon have played 4 or 5 games. Zero reason for concern. 

I'm not much of a fan of sports other than baseball as far as tuning in often. Sometimes I wonder if those people who are big football fans struggle with the long baseball season. Baseball has plenty of failure where even the superstars go 0-10 and the best pitchers get hit around. Combine the length of the season with the expected inexperience of young players and especially those in the minor leagues and it is easy to see folks looking for change and seeing faults in the prospects. Whatever, I just wonder about that sometimes.