Twins Minor League Report (7/3): Jose Rodriguez Powers the Mussels; Six-Run 10th Inning Gives Wichita a Win

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of William Parmeter, Fort Myers Mighty Mussels (photo of Jose Rodriguez)

I've been out for two weeks, 10 days of a nice vacation, and computer issues since I've been back. So, I apologize for the late posting os today's minor-league report. Fortunately, there were a few position performances on Thursday. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 41-46 (tied for 2nd in AL Central, 12.5 games behind Detroit.)
St. Paul Saints: 37-45 (7th place in the International League West Division, 10.5 games behind Indianapolis)
Wichita Wind Surge: 43-35 (2nd in Texas League North, 5.0 games behind Springfield.)
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 44-34 (2nd place in the Midwest League’s West Division, 3.0 games behind Quad Cities.)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 32-44 (6th place in the Florida State League’s West Division, 15.5 games behind Lakeland.)
FCL Twins: 26-14 (1st in FCL South, 3.0 games ahead of the FCL Orioles.
DSL Twins: 6-16 (7th place in DSL West)  

TRANSACTIONS
Jonah Bride cleared waivers and was outrighted to St. Paul.

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 4, Gwinnett 7
Box Score
The struggles continue for Cory Lewis this season. On Thursday, he gave up three runs on three hits over four innings. He struck out four, but he walked five batters. He has thrown more knuckleballs this season than he had in the past which certainly could be a cause. 

Trent Baker came on in relief and gave up three runs on five hits. In three innings, he walked one and struck out five batters. Kyle Bischoff pitched the eighth inning. He was charged with an unearned run on one hit.   

Down 2-0 after one inning, the Saints scored two in the top of the second inning. Anthony Prato singled and stole second. With two outs, he scored on a Will Holland single. The speedster stole second and went to third on a slow roller down the third base line by Noah Cardenas. Payton Eeles followed with a double to left field, but it only scored Holland and evened the score at two. 

In the third inning, the Saints scored two more to take a 4-2 lead. Carson McCusker led off the inning with a walk. He stole second. With two outs, Aaron Sabato drilled a home run, his third with the Saints. 

That was it for the Saints offense. The Strippers just pecked away, scoring in four of their final five innings on offense. 

Eeles led the offense, recording three hits and an RBI in the game. His double was his second since rejoining the team. Prato had two hits and stole his 12th and 13th bases. Cardenas went 2-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 10, Tulsa 6 (10 innings)
Box Score
A six-run 10th inning helped the Surge to a big win in Oklahoma on Thursday night. 

Wichita took the 1-0 lead in the top of the second innings. Ricardo Olivar walked and stole second base. He advanced to third on a Nate Baez single. With two outs, the Surge went with a double steal. Baez stole second and Olivar stole home.     

The Surge scored a single run in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. In the fifth frame, Kaelen Culpepper singled to drive in Jose Salas, who had walked and stole second. The Drillers scored three in the bottom of the fifth to take a brief lead. In the top of the sixth, Kyler Fedko walked, stole second and third. After Olivar walked and stole second, Ben Ross hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3-3. 

In the top of the 7th, Jorel Ortega led off with a double. He went to third on a ‘productive out, (grounding to second base) by Culpepper. Ortega scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 4-4 which is how things remained until the top of the 10th inning. 

Ortega began as the Manfred Man, standing on second. Culpepper singled to left. Gonzalez walked. Walker singled to drive in Ortega. Fedko walked which drove in Culpepper. Olivar and Ben Ross each walked to drive in runs. Jose Salas was hit by a pitch to drive in a run. The sixth and final run of the inning scored on a ground out. 

Joel Cesar came on for the 10th inning. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on two hits but held the big lead.   

Connor Prielipp started and tossed three scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and had six strikeouts. He also hit a batter. Ricky Castro came in and gave up three runs on four hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings. Jacob Wosinski gave up one run on one hit and one walk in 1 1/3 innings. He struck out… you guessed it, one batter. Tanner Andrews tossed two scoreless innings, and Cole Percival struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth frame. 

Kaelen Culpepper went 2-for-6 and stole a base. Ortega also had two hits including his seventh double. Olivar went 0-for-2, but he walked three times and had three of the team’s nine stolen bases in the game. Kyler Fedko, who walked twice, also had two stolen bases, putting him at 20 for the season.         

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 3, Quad Cities 4 
Box Score
Through three innings (and five innings), the Kernels found themselves down by a score of 4-0. In the top of the sixth, Caden Kendle led off with a double. Kyle DeBarge pushed him to third base with a single to right. DeBarge then stole his 44th base. Both runners scored on a Billy Amick double to cut the deficit in half at 4-2.   

That’s how the score remained until the top of the ninth. With one out, Andy Lugo tripled. Kyle Hess struck out but the catcher had to make the throw to first base which allowed Lugo to score from third base and again cut the deficit in half, this time to 4-3. But that was as close as the Kernels got. 

The Kernels had seven hits and three walks. DeBarge went 2-for-3 with a walk. Amick went 1-for-3 with a walk. His double was his eighth. Kendle’s double was his 13th. 

Jose Olivares started and gave up four runs (3 earned) on five hits and two walks in just three innings. Jacob Kisting tossed two scoreless relief innings, and Kade Bragg had three strikeouts over three perfect innings.  

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 9, Bradenton 2   
Box Score
The Mussels scored nine runs on 10 hits, but they were also helped by eight walks, a hit batter, and three Bradenton errors. That said, this was a 2-2 game until the sixth inning.

Jose Rodriguez put the Mussels on the board in the second on an RBI double scoring Blaze O’Saben. Rodriguez late scored on an error. 

Jump to the sixth inning. Recently-released Jack Noble is pitching for the Marauders. He gave up a solo home run to Yasser Mercedes to give Fort Myers a 3-2 lead. They broke things open with a three-run seventh inning. With one out, Dameury Pena walked and stole second. Bryan Acuna walked. Then Daniel Pena walked to load the bases. Mercedes drove in one run with a sacrifice fly. Caleb McNeely followed with a two-run double that made it 6-2. 

The Mussels added a single run in the eighth inning on Jose Rodriguez’s seventh home run of the season. In the ninth, they added a run on an Angel Del Rosario single. Later in the inning, Dameury Pena was the third consecutive Mussel batter to walk which drove in the ninth run. 

Dylan Questad was the beneficiary of the offensive support. He gave up two runs on three hits over five innings. He had five walks and five strikeouts. Ivran Romero and Brennen Oxford each threw two scoreless innings. Romero had four strikeouts and Oxford struck out three batters. 

Dameury Pena went 2-for-4 with two walks. He also had four stolen bases to give him 13 on the season. Mercedes went 2-for-4 with his fifth homer. Rodriguez was also 2-for-4 with his eighth double, seventh homer, and he had an outfield assist in the game. Del Rosario went 2-for-5.  

COMPLEX CHRONICLES
FCL Twins, FCL Orioles (DH)
Box Score
Rains caused the FCL games to be postponed. They hope to make up the games in mid-July. 

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Twins 7, DSL Cardinals 12 
Box Score 
After five innings, the Twins found themselves trailing by a score of 12-1. They didn’t giver up, but they weren’t able to get with tying the game with two swings either. 

Elie Urena started and gave up two runs on zero hits in 2/3 of an inning. He had five walks and threw three wild pitches. Marlon Mirabal came on with the bases loaded and kept it from going beyond two runs. He went 2 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on four hits and two walks. Brandy Ceballos gave up six runs (5 earned) on four hits and three walks. He struck out four batters. Greidi Pina and Jensi Infante each threw a scoreless inning. Pina had three strikeouts. 

The Twins scored four runs in the seventh inning and two more in the eighth, but the efforts came up well short. 

Yovanny Duran led the offense. He went 4-for-5 with his second double. Teilon Serrano was 2-for-4 with a walk, his fourth double, and three runs scored. Haritzon Castillo’s fourth double of the season scored two of the three runs he drove in.

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Jose Rodriguez (Fort Myers):  2-for-4, 2B(8), HR (7), R, 4 RBI

Pitcher of the Day 
Kade Bragg (Cedar Rapids): 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K.

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

#1– Walker Jenkins (Wichita) - 1-for-5, R, RBI (DHd)
#4 - Kaelen Culpepper (Wichita) - 2-for-6, R, RBI, SB(3) (played SS)
#5 - Connor Prielipp (Wichita) - 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, HBP, 6 K, 62 pitches, 39 strikes (62.9%) 
#9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 K (started SS)
#10 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-3, BB, R, K, SB(44) (played 2B)
#12 - Billy Amick (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-3, BB, 2B(8), 2 RBI, K
#13 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 0-for-4, BB, R (played RF)
#17 - Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 4 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 80 pitches, 42 strikes (52.5%)
#18 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 0-for-2, 3 BB, 2 R, 1 RBI, 3-SB(8)
#19 - Danny De Andrade (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 K
#20 - Payton Eeles (St. Paul) - 3-for-5, 2B(2), RBI.

FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES
Tampa Bay @ Minnesota (3:10 PM CT) - RHP Chris Paddack (3-7, 4.70 ERA)
St. Paul @ Gwinnett (6:05 PM CT) - Marco Raya (0-4, 7.15 ERA)
Tulsa @ Wichita (6:35 PM CT) - RHP C.J. Culpepper (0-0, 0.84 ERA)   
Quad Cities @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM) - Cole Peschl (2-1, 3.86 ERA)
Bradenton @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM) - Eli Jones (2-7, 5.65 ERA)
FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 AM) - TBD
DSL Yankees @ DSL Twins (DH at 9:00 AM) - TBD, TBD 

Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!

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[D.C Twins]

I think Jenkins is going to go on a nice heater early in the 2nd half of the season....

[rdehring]

See Eeles had three hits again yesterday.  Also noted that he played center field.  Really hope this young man gets a shot with the Twins later this summer.  Maybe after they ship out a few guys later this month.  And when/if he does get called up, I hope like heck our Manager gives him some playing time.

Also saw that Culpepper had a nice two hit game.  Speaking of Wichita, see that Prielipp threw 62 pitches in 3.0 shutout innings with very nice results.  Two walks was maybe one too many, but gotta like 6 K's.

Don't know anything about most of the guys playing for the Mussels.  But Acuna is the only hitter in yesterday's lineup batting over .212.  And he was only .250 something.  I know most of these guys are young, but are there any real prospects that play in the field on that team?

[Dman]

Nice to see Prielipp with a good game.  He didn't put too many runners on this outing and his K rate was elite.  The only knock I would have is he got involved in some long at bats and eventually ended up walking guys.  He went right after guys though and pitched well.  Hopefully more of this moving forward.

 

[LambchoP]

Good start for Prelipp. Seems to be our only SP doing well. Lewis got rocked again. Might be time to go back to not using the knuckler so much as a primary offering. I don't know who this Fedko kid is at AA but hitting .270 with 17 homers and 20 steals at the halfway point! Hopefully this is his true breakout and not just a one year heater. Twins need offense. Badly. I'd like to see Eeles get a true chance. Maybe if Castro is traded st the deadline they can use Eeles as our new utility guy.

[jmlease1]

I'm confused. GG didn't have a hit today. :P

Would like to see DeBarge move up; I'm really wondering how his running plays against better catching and pitchers that might have learned more about holding runners on. Sure looks like this is going to be a weapon for him, and it's fun to see someone pile up this many steals in the minors.

Preilipp did ok; I'm mostly happy with him being healthy this year. Would like to see him be more efficient in getting through innings, but health is the biggest thing for him this year. If he can finish the season without any injury issues then this season will be a huge victory.

[twinstalker]

1 hour ago, rdehring said:

Don't know anything about most of the guys playing for the Mussels.  But Acuna is the only hitter in yesterday's lineup batting over .212.  And he was only .250 something.  I know most of these guys are young, but are there any real prospects that play in the field on that team?

I'm not sure what you mean by young.  Everybody's young in low A.  Actual low A prospects you can dream on are even younger.  Fort Myers, unfortunately, has zero real prospects, other than perhaps a rehabber here and there.

Dameury Pena was the one possible bright star, and he's fallen off a cliff.  The ballpark and league as a whole are generally detrimental to hitting statistics,   But still, this is probably another indication of how the system both has no clue how to identify hitters or develop them.  They now have a team in low A that doesn't have a single hitting prospect you can have any hope for in the future.  That is so rare it's glaring.

I've always adjusted for the park and league when doing rankings, but there's nothing to adjust from if, as you say (and I've verified), no one is batting over .212 except a guy batting .250 without an extra-base hit.  Rumors are the Twins have changed up their Latin scouting.  Hopefully the current crop in the DSL are not like the recent ones.  That's something we probably won't know until they see the states.

[Danchat]

27 minutes ago, twinstalker said:

Rumors are the Twins have changed up their Latin scouting.  Hopefully the current crop in the DSL are not like the recent ones.  That's something we probably won't know until they see the states.

I hope that is true, this organization has been bereft of international prospects making any impact whatsoever since the Falvey regime took over. 

[DJL44]

No Twins last night so I watched the Saints game.

Eeles is still fun to watch. He puts the ball in play well and runs well. He clearly doesn't have the arm to play CF in the big leagues. He's 2B/LF and emergency SS if he's in the majors.

Lewis is very over the top, which makes his fastball kind of flat. He had a few good knucklers that the catcher couldn't even handle. I wonder if his knuckler would be more effective if it was a little slower. It has action more like a palm-ball.

Baker had a totally different arm angle - he throws more sidearm than 3/4 - but not much better results.

Julien is the same passive batter, watching a not-very-close pitch for strike three with a full count and runners on second and third with two out.

Sabato has continued his good season at AAA. That HR was a no-doubter.

Gwinnett has an odd ballpark - surrounded by apartment buildings. It feels like you're in the commons in the university dorms.