Twins Minor League Report (8/31): Pablo Lopez Final Tune Up, Extra Base Hits Power Surge Win, Pitching wins in Cedar Rapids

[Seth Stohs]

Image courtesy of Ed Bailey (photo of Kala'i Rosario)

For the second straight week, the Mussels had games cancelled on Sunday. Their season includes just one more week of games, at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers if you want to go. 

TRANSACTIONS
There were a few moves on Sunday morning. Connor Prielipp was activated from the Development List for St. Paul, and Aaron Rozek was put on the Development List. 

Ricardo Olivar was activated from Wichita’s IL. Michael Martinez was placed on their Development List. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 1, Toledo 2
Box Score
Pablo Lopez is Ready After Strong Rehab Start. Saints Lose Late.  

It was a Triple-A pitching matchup for the ages! Pablo Lopez, making his third rehab start, was on the mound for the Saints. The home team Toledo Mudhens starter was long-time friend Randy Dobnak. 

Dobnak, who went 8-5 with a 3.12 ERA over 75 innings for the Twins in 2019 and 2020, was traded to the Tigers last month with Chris Paddack. On Sunday, he faced several of his literal #OldFriends with the Saints. “Dobber” tossed five scoreless innings. He gave up just two hits. He walked three and had three strikeouts. 

Pablo Lopez was even a little bit better. He tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He gave up four hits, walked just one and had seven strikeouts. 

The pitcher who came in for the Mudhens after Dobnak was another long-time friend, Jordan Balazovic. He tossed a scoreless sixth inning. In the seventh, the Saints were able to get on the scoreboard. Carson McCusker led off with a solid single to left. He advanced to second base on a fielding error by another former Twins friend Akil Baddoo. After a strikeout, Jonah Bride singled to center to drive in McCusker with the unearned run.   

Lopez faced two batters in the sixth inning and got both out. With 82 pitches thrown, his night (and presumably his rehab assignment) is now over (though obviously not officially until he can pitch next and gets added back to the Twins roster. 

Lefty Connor Prielipp came on in relief. He struck out Jace Jung to end that inning. Baddoo led off the seventh with a single which was followed by another single. After a strikeout, Prielipp coaxed Kevin Newman into hitting into an inning-ending double play. 

Prielipp struck out two and got a ground out in a scoreless eighth which was only interrupted by a Parker Meadows walk. 

Prielipp was back out there for the bottom of the ninth inning. Jung led off with a single, and Baddoo moved him to third on another single. After a strikeout, Trei Cruz singled to drive in Jung and tie the game at 1-1. Next, Newman lined a single to center which scored Baddoo with the game-ending run. 

The Saints did very little on offense. Jonah Bride had three of the team’s five hits. Walker Jenkins had two of the Saints’ four walks. He was also hit by a pitch and stole his first Triple-A base. Gabriel Gonzalez had a single and a walk. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 6, Arkansas 3
Box Score
Surge Power Their Way to a Sweep of the Travelers 

On Sunday, Wichita grabbed an early lead, but when the Travelers came back, the Wind Surge put together a three-run inning to reclaim the lead and complete the six-game sweep over Arkansas. 

Wichita got on the board first when Andrew Cossetti drilled a leadoff home run to start the bottom of the second inning. He now has 11 on the season. 

With two outs in the fourth inning, Nate Baez hit his fifth homer to make it 2-0. 

Ricky Castro started for the home team. He tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and struck out two batters. Jacob Wosinski came into the fourth inning with two runners on base, but he kept both from scoring. He gave up one run in the fifth inning. Kade Bragg, who got the final out of the fifth frame, gave up a two-run homer in the top of the sixth inning that put Arkansas on top 3-2.   

But the Surge punched back with power. Kala’i Rosario led off the bottom of the sixth with his 24th home run of the season to tie the game. It also tied him for the franchise record for home runs in a season. What an August for Kala'i! 

With one out, Cossetti walked. He went to third on a Baez double. With two outs, Ben Ross drove in both with a double to give the Surge a 5-3 lead.

The Surge added an insurance run in the seventh when Harry Genth scored on a Baez walk. Baez was the fourth Wichita player to walk that inning. 

John Stankiewicz worked a scoreless seventh inning, and Mike Paredes picked up his fifth save with four strikeouts over his two innings. 

Baez led the way. He went 2-for-3 with a walk, his eighth double and his fifth home run. Ben Ross was 3-for-4 with his 14th and 15th doubles; the latter gave his team a lead that they never gave up. 

With the sweep, the Wind Surge are 12 games over .500, their best mark of the season. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 2, Beloit 1
Box Score
Win the 2nd Inning, Win the Game

There were 17 half-innings played in Cedar Rapids on Sunday afternoon. Zero runs were scored in 15 of them. Nine innings were played in Cedar Rapids on Sunday afternoon. Zero runs were scored in eight of them. 

Sometimes the game can be won or lost in the second inning. 

Ty Langenberg has been pitching quite well of late. He gave up just one run on three hits and two walks over six innings. He had four strikeouts. Chase Chaney tossed three scoreless innings to close out the game and record his first save of the season. He gave up two hits and struck out three batters. 

Both teams went 1-2-3 in the first inning, so let’s take a look at the second frame. Langenberg walked the leadoff batter, but then he struck out the next two batters. After a stolen base, Jay Beshears doubled to drive in Beloit’s run. 

The bottom of the second began with a strikeout. Misael Urbina followed with his fourth triple of the season. He scored on a Poncho Ruiz single to center. After a second out, Jaime Ferrer singled Ruiz to second. Jefferson Valladares followed with his fourth double which drove in Ruiz and gave the Kernels the 2-1 lead. 

Frankly after that, there were very few scoring chances. Very few base runners. In the fifth inning, Kyle DeBarge singled and stole his 63rd base. He went to third on a wild pitch but was unable to score. The Kernels got two runners on (walk, hit batter) in the sixth. The Sky Carp had two singles in the top of the eighth inning but didn’t get a runner past second. 

Pitching was the story of the game, and Ty Langenberg and Chase Chaney were terrific. But so was the defense. Yes, there were strikeouts, but also a lot of ground ball outs, forced outs, double plays and a couple of caught steals.

Six Kernels had one hit. There were three players who had a walk. Ruiz was the only Kernel with one hit and one walk. Valladares had the lone double, and Misael Urbina had the lone triple.  

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers/Dunedin (cancelled)
Box Score 

As per usual, baseball in August is always a question mark down in Florida. Sunday’s series finale in Dunedin was cancelled due to rain. 

So, the Mussels season road record was 25-39. They return to Hammond Stadium on Tuesday to host the St. Lucie Mets for, hopefully, six more games. And that will make the end of the Mussels 2025 season. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Nate Baez (Wichita): 2-for-3, BB, 2B(8), HR(5), 2 R, 2 RBI,

Pitcher of the Day 
Ty Langenberg (Cedar Rapids): 6 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 81 pitches, 55 strikes (61.6%)
Chase Chaney (Cedar Rapids): 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 51 pitches, 32 strikes (62.7%)

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

#1– Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 0-for-1, 2 BB, HBP, (DHd)
#2 - Luke Keaschall (Minnesota) - 1-for-2, BB, HBP, 2 R, RBI (played 2B)
#5 - Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 2 K (DHd)
#6 - Connor Prielipp (St.Paul ) - 2 2/3 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 53 pitches, 34 strikes (64.2%)
#7 - Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Sunday reports from multiple people tell me that Hill is fine and will make his next start. 
#11 - Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB (played LF)
#13 - Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, K (played SS)
#17 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, K, SB(63) (played CF)
#20 - Hendry Mendez (Wichita) - 0-for-4, BB, SB(2) (played LF)

WHAT’S NEXT?
MONDAY
White Sox @ Minnesota (1:10 PM CT) - TBD (4 game home series)
TUESDAY
St. Paul @ Louisville (5:35 PM CT) - LHP Kendry Rojas (1-1, 5.40 ERA) vs RHP Chase Petty (4-11, 5.77 ERA) 
Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM CT) - TBD
Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (6:30 PM CT) - TBD
St. Lucie @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CT) - TBD 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 62-74
St. Paul Saints: 58-72 (25-32 second half)
Wichita Wind Surge: 69-57 (32-25 second half)
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 69-57 (29-31 second half)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 49-71 (22-34 second half)
FCL Twins: 39-20 (finished 2nd in FCL playoffs)
DSL Twins: 24-32 (season complete)

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

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[FlyingFinn]

Langenberg has really pitched great lately.

[jmlease1]

Remember when people were losing their minds around here that Akil Baddoo got picked in the Rule 5? 

Rosario having an epic August. Good for him, hope he keeping raking until the season ends. Still think he'll slip through the Rule 5, because he can't defend like Baddoo did and will be hard to stash on a MLB roster, but you never know.

Like seeing Jenkins stay patient, but I get nervous when our star players get plunked. Just want all the top prospects to stay healthy for once.

[mrguy]

The last time anyone brought up Mike Paredes, we had mentioned how he needs to work on some sort of out pitch that can generate a higher strikeout rate, and someone on the Wind Surge coaching staff must've seen it. Watching today's game he was pulling some strong breaking pitches out a lot and every strikeout he got today came on a whiff on that breaking pitch. Over his last few games, he's currently carrying a 5 consecutive hitless inning streak with 7 strikeouts in that time. Seems like he's found something that's definitely clicking right now, and it's a great time to find it too if you're trying to make a case to sample AAA in September.

[roger]

Are 63 steals the most ever for any team in the Twins organization?

[jorgenswest]

53 minutes ago, roger said:

Are 63 steals the most ever for any team in the Twins organization?

I saw Alex Marte play for the Visalia Oaks in the 80s. He stole 82 bases for them in 1984. That team stole a lot of bases.

I looked up Jarvis Brown. He was a pinch runner on the 1991 World Series team. Prior to that he had a season where he stole 72 bases in Kenosha,

I also recall and looked up Herman Hill. He was a pinch runner/defensive substitution on the 1969/1970 Twins. In 1967 he stole 58 bases for Orlando and another 6 in a Florida Instructional League. 

The last player I looked up is Pat Kelly. He stole 250 bases in his major league career but had a few cups of coffee with the Twins before the Royals took him in the expansion draft. In 1966 he stole 52 bases for AA Charlotte and another 15 up in the instructional league.

This is not an exhaustive list. In looking up Visalia for Alex Marte I saw Jim Weaver stole 60 bases on the 1982 team. The Twins lost Weaver to the Tigers in the rule 5 draft. He had a handful of at bats in the majors.

Going by my recall it is 82 bases from Alex Marte. For some reason my recall is better for teams 40-50 years ago than the last 25 in the minors. Someone might come up with someone more recent that surpassed 82.

[HrbieFan]

Who gets the bump to the big club today? Hoping they free Fedko and let him rake in the bigs for 30 days

[FlyingFinn]

10 minutes ago, HrbieFan said:

Who gets the bump to the big club today?

Don't get too excited - Kiersey, Davis and Adams up. Abel sent down.

[jorgenswest]

4 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Don't get too excited - Kiersey, Davis and Adams up. Abel sent down.

Disappointed but not surprised. The Twins didn’t need to wait until today. They only had three open spots today. On August first they had about 10 and filled some of them with waiver wire claims.

I don't think bringing them would have better for a player’s development or given us any true insight about their readiness for next year. The sample is too small. It just would have been more entertaining to me. I like seeing a player’s first game in the majors. It is fun when they can offer a glimmer of a hope for the future. This is an entertainment business.

 

 

[darwin22]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Don't get too excited - Kiersey, Davis and Adams up. Abel sent down.

Agreed.  An absolute joke Davis is being recalled.  Has been brutal as has Cabrera.  Both should've been dfa'ed weeks ago.  Fedko deserves a promotion--plain and simple.  Saying that, Falvey and company have zero accountability.  Just the puppets of the miserly Pohlad family.  

[DJL44]

1 hour ago, FlyingFinn said:

Don't get too excited - Kiersey, Davis and Adams up. Abel sent down.

That sucks. Lopez will be up in a few days and Davis returned to AAA, but I was hoping to see Emmanuel Rodriguez instead of Keirsey and I'd much rather give Abel innings than Adams.

[DocBauer]

Langenberg continues to be on a roll! Definitely looks ready for AA next season. Probably not worth it to send him there now. All but AAA almost done with their regular seasons.

Good news on Hill. That was scary!

I've really fallen asleep on LH Kade Bragg. Selected late in 2023 and only got about 8 IP in 2024 before going to the AFL where he didn't exactly shine. But while his BB this year are a little high at 4.3 per 9, his K rate is 11.4 per 9. And only 41 hits in 60 IP is very impressive. Gotta make sure I keep an eye on him going forward.