Twins Minor League Report 4/19: Eric Wagaman Finds His Footing

[Sam Caulder]

Image courtesy of © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

TRANSACTIONS
Right-handed pitcher Jose Olivares started his rehab assignments with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels.  

Right-handed pitcher Ricky Castro was assigned to St. Paul from Wichita. RHP Cory Lewis was returned to the Saints roster. 

Skor North's Declan Goff tweeted on Sunday night that he's hearing that LHP Kendry Rojas was being called up to the Twins. Presumably, he will be taking the roster spot of Kody Funderburk who Audra Martin reported earlier in the week was going on the paternity list. 

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 12, Lehigh Valley 8
Box Score
The Saints offense showed up in a big way on Sunday.

St. Paul racked up 13 hits and drew six walks, and it felt like the lineup was putting pressure on Lehigh Valley all afternoon. The biggest swing of the game came during a six-run third inning.

Walker Jenkins got it started with a single and came around to score on a Gabriel Gonzalez double in the very next at-bat. After Emmanuel Rodriguez worked one of his three walks, Orlando Arcia and Kyler Fedko followed with back-to-back doubles to make it 5-1. Eric Wagaman capped off the inning with his first home run of the season, a two-run shot that pushed the lead to 7-1.

Wagaman wasn’t done either. He finished with three hits, including a triple later in the game that helped spark another rally.

Lehigh Valley didn’t go away quietly, though. The IronPigs chipped away and eventually tied the game at eight in the top of the eighth inning, setting up a tense finish.

The Saints answered immediately.

Wagaman led off the bottom half with that triple to right-center, and Kaelen Culpepper followed with an RBI single to give St. Paul the lead back. After Tanner Schobel and Jenkins reached, Rodriguez delivered the knockout blow: a bases-clearing double that came off the bat at 110 MPH.

Royce Lewis continued his rehab assignment and stayed hot, launching his second home run in as many days. He also got the start at third base after serving as the DH the day before.

On the mound, it was far from clean. The Saints allowed 16 hits, but didn’t issue a single walk, which helped limit the damage just enough. John Klein started and gave up two runs over 3 1/3 innings while striking out three. Zak Kent picked up the win after working the ninth.

Every starter recorded at least one hit (aside from Noah Cardenas), with Wagaman, Fedko, and Gonzalez all putting together multi-hit performances.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 3, Springfield 1
Box Score
This one was quiet for a while, and then it wasn’t.

The Wind Surge managed just six hits on the day, and for most of the game, it looked like that might not be enough. Wichita held a 1-1 tie heading into the eighth inning before finally breaking through.

Kala’i Rosario provided the big swing, launching his third home run of the season to give Wichita a 2-1 lead. They weren’t done there either. Garrett Spain followed with a two-out double, and Jorel Ortega brought him home with an RBI single to add some insurance.

That was more than enough for the pitching staff.

Sam Armstrong set the tone with 4 2/3 strong innings, and the bullpen took it from there. Jarret Whorff, Darren Bowen, and Luis Quinones combined to finish things off, with the group allowing just seven total baserunners and one run across the entire game.

Not flashy offensively, but clean, efficient, and more than enough.

KERNELS CHRONICLE
Cedar Rapids 0, Quad Cities 8
Box Score
There was a splattering in Cedar Rapids this afternoon.

The Kernels ran into issues pretty much everywhere you don’t want them—defense, strikeouts, and situational hitting. They struck out 13 times as a team and committed three errors, which made for a long afternoon.

Jay Thomason was one of the few bright spots, collecting two of the team’s four hits and adding his second stolen base of the season. Eduardo Tait didn’t record a hit but did draw a pair of walks.

Cedar Rapids had chances but couldn’t capitalize, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

What makes the final score even tougher to swallow is how well parts of the pitching staff actually threw the ball. Of the eight runs allowed, just one was earned.

Starter Nolan Santos was solid, tossing five innings of one-run ball with five strikeouts. The lone run he allowed was unearned.

The staff as a whole struck out 12 and walked four, which is typically a winning formula. But when the defense doesn’t hold up and the offense can’t push anything across, it doesn’t really matter.

MIGHTY MATTERS
Ft. Myers 5, Lakeland 0
Box Score
it was about as clean as it gets for Fort Myers today.

The Mighty Mussels wrapped up their week with a dominant, well-rounded win, led by an outstanding performance on the mound.

Jose Olivares set the tone with three perfect innings to start the game, striking out four. From there, Kolten Smith, Matthew DesMarets, and Eric Hammond combined to finish things off, allowing just four hits and two walks over the final six innings while striking out nine.

Lakeland never really had a chance to get anything going.

Offensively, Fort Myers did most of its damage early. Four of their five runs came in the first three innings.

Dameury Pena got things rolling immediately, doubling to lead off the first and eventually scoring on a balk. In the second inning, three walks loaded the bases, and Pena came through again with a two-run knock to make it 3-0.

In the third, Irvin Nunez reached on an error, and Eduardo Beltre followed with an RBI hit to extend the lead.

The final run came in the sixth inning, when Byron Chourio delivered a two-out RBI double.

Pena finished 2-for-4 with a double, a run, and two RBI, and he’s now slashing an impressive .429/.529/.476 to start his season.

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Eric Wagaman (St. Paul): 3-4, HR(1), 3B(1), 2B(1), 2 R, 2 RBI

Pitcher of the Day 
Jose Olivares (Fort Myers): 3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 40 pitches, 25 strikes (62.5% strikes)

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our Twins Top 20 prospects after today's results.

#1 - OF Walker Jenkins (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, 1 BB, 2 R, K (batted third, played CF)
#2 - IF Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, 2 BB, 2 R, RBI (batted first, played SS)
#3 - OF Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-2, 3 BB, 2B(3), R, 3 RBI (batted fifth, DHd)
#4 - C Eduardo Tait (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-2, 2 BB (batted second, DHd) 
#5 - LHP Connor Prielipp (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#6 - LHP Dasan Hill (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch
#7 - OF Gabriel Gonzalez (St. Paul) - 2-for-5, 2B(4), R (batted fourth, played LF)
#8 - LHP Kendry Rojas (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#9 - SS Marek Houston (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4 (batted first, played SS)
#10 - RHP Charlee Soto (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List
#11 - RHP Riley Quick (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch
#12 - RHP Andrew Morris (Minnesota) - 1 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 47 pitches, 27 strikes (57.4%)
#13 - 3B/CF Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, 4 K (batted fourth, played 3B)
#14 - 3B/SS Quentin Young (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Play
#15 - RHP Marco Raya (St. Paul) - Did Not Pitch
#16 - OF Hendry Mendez (Wichita) - 0-for-4, 3 K (batted third, played LF)
#17 - 2B/OF Kyle DeBarge (Wichita) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 K (batted first, played SS)
#18 - RHP C.J. Culpepper (Wichita) - Did Not Pitch
#19 - C/OF Khadim Diaw (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, BB, K (batted third, played C)
#20 - RHP James Ellwanger (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch

UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Tuesday:
St. Paul @ Indianapolis (5:35 pm CT)
Wichita @ NW Arkansas (7:05 pm CT)
Cedar Rapids @ Peoria (6:05 pm CT)
Dunedin @ Ft. Myers (6:05 CT) 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 11-11
St. Paul Saints: 9-11
Wichita Wind Surge: 9-6
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 7-8
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 9-6
FCL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, May 4)
DSL Twins: 0-0 (season begins Monday, June 1)

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[Bangkok Twins Fan]

Rojas being called up, or is it Prielipp? Or both? I'm confused by those tweets, or whatever that stuff is being called these days.

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

The Mighty Mussels wrapped up their week with a dominant, well-rounded win, led by an outstanding performance on the mound. Jose Olivares set the tone with three perfect innings to start the game, striking out four. From there, Kolten Smith, Matthew DesMarets, and Eric Hammond combined to finish things off, allowing just four hits and two walks over the final six innings while striking out nine.

Nice to see Olivares look very good in his rehab start. That's the way to shut down the opposing team!

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

40 minutes ago, Bangkok Twins Fan said:

Rojas being called up, or is it Prielipp? Or both? I'm confused by those tweets, or whatever that stuff is being called these days.

Okay, I just read the other articles that have since been posted. Seems like both pitchers are coming up. I just they actually get to pitch!

[rdehring]

Interesting start to the season.  Cedar Rapids and the Saints were the two teams that were thought to be loaded.  The two had all of the TD top 10 prospects.  Approaching the end of April, they are the two that are under .500.  Go figure?

Don't know where Ft. Myers would be without Pena?  The kid has to be in the discussion for hitter of the day, every day.

[Dman]

Nice to see Oliveros on his way back.  Feels like the entire system is short on start on starting arms except maybe A ball.  Hoping more arms come off that seven IL.

[jmlease1]

Happy to see the prospect bats in Saint Paul generally all have good days. Hopefully they really get rolling and force the MLB club to make some hard choices.

Kala'i Rosario seems to have gotten himself together after an icy start; first 7 games: 2-27 with no xbhs and only 2 BBs. next 7 games: 8-24 with 3 xbh (all homers) and 5 BBs. Hopefully the cold start is over and he's settled in. I still don't know if he has enough to make it, but I still find him intriguing, especially now that's he's consistently swiping bases and trying to add things to his game. I mean, we need more RH bats and all and his power is real. He's correctly dropped out of the top 20 prospect lists, but I'm still keeping an eye on him.

[jkcarew]

2 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Happy to see the prospect bats in Saint Paul generally all have good days

Both Jenkins and ERod had 4 PA each against lefties, as well. So, not bad.