Twins Minor League Report (4/28): Rodriguez and Saints Host Exit Velocity Extravaganza

[Steve Lein]

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints (photo of Emmanuel Rodriguez)

TRANSACTIONS

• In advance of their series with the Iowa Cubs, there were multiple moves in St. Paul RHP Ryan Gallagher was promoted from Wichita and will make his triple-A debut with the Saints on Wednesday. Gallagher was 1-1 with a 3.50 ERA and 20 K’s in 18 total innings in four starts with the Wind Surge. LHP Aaron Rozek was sent down to Wichita in a one-for-one swap and also started Tuesday’s game for the Wind Surge. The Minnesota Twins also selected the contract of RHP Luis Garcia from the Saints. To make room for Garcia on the 40-man roster, Zak Kent was DFAd. 
• Wichita was also assigned RHP Paulshawn Pasqualotto from the Cedar Rapids Kernels to fill out their pitching staff.
• With the Kernels, RHP Nick McAuliffe was assigned to the FCL Twins and RHP Brent Francisco was sent down to Fort Myers. Taking their places was exciting RHP Riley Quick, who will make his first start in the Midwest League on Wednesday. Quick made three starts with the Mighty Mussels pitching eight total innings, allowing just one hit, no runs, walking three, and striking out 13.
• Not to be left out of the week’s transactions, the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels placed OF Eduardo Beltre on the 7-day injured list with a right knee contusion. RHP Matthew Becker was assigned from the FCL Twins to take Quick’s place, and SS Bruin Agbayani was activated from the injured list.

SAINTS SENTINEL
Iowa 5, St. Paul 9
Box Score
The Saints offense wasted little time getting this one going. After a one-two-three top of the first from starting pitcher John Klein, the offense sent every batter in the lineup to the plate in the bottom half.

Kaelen Culpepper led off with a 106.7 MPH home run to center field. Walker Jenkins followed with a 107.2 MPH double to center. Gabriel Gonzalez drove him in for their second run with a single into center. Ryan Kreidler followed with a single of his own before Emmanuel Rodriguez grounded out for the first out of the inning but moved both runners up. Kyler Fedko then blasted his sixth home run of the season; a 105.4 MPH shot to left center over the bullpen to make it 5-0 Saints. Orlando Arcia joined the 100+ MPH hit parade with a sharp single to left, but the next two batters went down to end the inning.

In the bottom of the second Gonzalez joined the Conga line with a 104 MPH, 402-foot home run to center to make it 6-0.

Klein kept the Cubs off the scoreboard for the first two innings but ran into some trouble in the top of the third. A pair of home runs around a single closed the lead to 6-3, but that’s as close as the Cubs would get. Klein went on to finish four innings and was charged with three earned runs on those three hits while striking out five.

In the bottom of the fourth Culpepper hit his second home run of the game, a 103 MPH blast the other way.

Not to be outdone by all of his teammates, Emmanuel Rodriguez decided to hit the second hardest ball in all of professional baseball in the bottom of the fifth. His 118.3 MPH laser to right was his fifth blast of the season.

His next time up, Rodriguez ho-hummed a 110.2 MPH shot to right-center for his second of the game, making it 9-4 Saints. 

In relief of Klein, Andrew Bash (W, 2 IP, H, ER, BB, 2 K), Christian Roa (1 IP, K), Trent Baker (1 IP, BB, K), and Zak Kent (1 IP, H, ER, 3 K) finished off the final five innings.

Culpepper (3-for-5, 2 HR, 2 RBI), Gonzalez (2-for-5, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI, 2 K), and Rodriguez (2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI) had multiple hits. Fedko led the way with three RBI. Jenkins finished 1-for-3 with a double and two walks.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Arkansas 4, Wichita 3
Box Score
A later power surge from Wichita got them close, but the home team wasn’t able to complete a comeback on Tuesday as baserunners were hard to find all game.

Taking the bump in Wichita was right-hander Jose Olivares, and he was able to complete the first three innings. He was charged with just one earned run on two hits, striking out four, but also issued three free passes. Of his 50 pitches, 31 went for strikes (62%).

Ricky Castro started the fourth inning and recorded five outs, giving up a single run in each of the fourth and fifth for a 3-0 Travelers lead. He gave up four hits, walked one, and struck out one. Jaylen Nowlin went 2 1/3 innings, allowing a single run on a solo homer and striking out one. Sam Ryan went the final two innings, keeping Arkansas off the board by surrendering just one hit and striking out two.

Down 3-0 in the bottom of the sixth the Wind Surge had managed just one hit so far in the game, a single from Billy Amick to lead off the fifth inning. Garrett Spain got them their second, and first run, with his sixth home run of the season to right field.

In the bottom of the seventh Kala’i Rosario led off with a walk, and Amick followed with his sixth home run of the year, an opposite field shot into the bullpen in right.

Rosario got on base as the tying runner in the bottom of the ninth with a single but would be left stranded to end the game.

Amick finished 2-for-4 with the home run and two RBI to lead the way. As a team they finished just 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position and left only three men on base.

KERNELS NUGGETS
West Michigan 2, Cedar Rapids 3
Box Score
Much like their friends in Kansas, the Kernels had trouble producing baserunners at home in Iowa. Would they follow suit and be unable to make anything happen by finishing the game 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position?

Top pitching prospect Dasan Hill made the start and worked around a walk and a single in the first by striking out three. He retired them in order in the second including a strikeout, before escaping another jam in the third by inducing a double play ball and picking up his fifth K of the night. Finally in the fourth a pair of singles and a walk led to the first run of the game for the Visiting team and put an end to Hill’s start after four frames. He allowed one earned run on four hits and three walks but struck out seven. 42 of his 72 pitches went for strikes (58%) and he notched 10 whiffs in the outing.

The Kernels took the lead in the bottom of the fifth thanks in part to an error to put a man on base, but it was Jaime Ferrer’s third home run of the season that put them up 2-1.

Reliever Jason Doktorczyk gave that run back in the top of the sixth after a leadoff triple but otherwise held the Whitecaps in check for the next three innings. He allowed two hits, walked one, and struck out three. Jacob Wosinski finished off the final two innings, allowing one hit, walking one, and striking out two.

With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, Danny De Andrade had an eight-pitch battle as the leadoff man.

He won.

De Andrade sent that eighth pitch over the wall in left to walk it off for the Kernels.

Despite just three hits and four walks in the game, both those homers were enough to overcome seven hits and five walks from the Whitecaps. The Kernels struck out just five times, while their opponents racked up 12. I guess it doesn’t matter if your batting-average-on-balls-in-play for the game is .050 compared to .350 if pitches end up over the fence for you instead of into the catcher's mitt.

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 11, Daytona 10
Box Score
The Mighty Mussels blew this one open in the top of the fourth inning, scoring seven runs to take a 8-1 lead at the time.

Bruin Agbayani got the game’s scoring started in the top of the third with an RBI double. The Tortugas matched that in the bottom half before Fort Myers went off in the fourth.

JP Smith led off with a solo homer. Quentin Young added a one-out single. After a strikeout, their next six runs were scored with two outs. Two more singles, four walks, and a two-run double from Yasser Mercedes put the Mighty Mussels out front 8-1.

In the top of the fifth they stretched that lead to 10-1 thanks to a sacrifice fly from Dameury Pena and bases-loaded walk from Smith. They would end up needing all of those runs to maintain their lead.

Right-hander Kolten Smith made the start and was excellent through his three innings. He gave up just one earned run on three hits and a walk, while striking out six. A leadoff single in the fourth put an end to his outing, bringing on Matthew DesMarets from the bullpen. He escaped the fourth with no damage but got bludgeoned by the Tortugas in the fifth.

They scored eight runs to make 10-9 before the inning was over, including a pair of home runs. DesMarets was only charged with two earned runs (out of seven total) thanks to a pair of errors, but he also allowed five total hits and a walk. 

Brian Zeldin did his best to stabilize the game, going the next 2 1/3 innings. He was charged with two unearned runs on five hits but racked up six strikeouts or it could have gone the other way. Michael Hilker (1 IP, 3 BB, 2 K), and Mike McKenna (1 IP, BB, 2 K) also made it a little interesting in the eighth and ninth frames but locked it down when it mattered.

The Mighty Mussels got the final run they needed in the top of the sixth when Young led off with a walk and scored on a double from Jayson Bass.

Smith (2-for-4, R, HR, 3 RBI, BB, K) and Young (2-for-4, 2 R, BB, 2 K) each had multiple hits. Mercedes drove in two and drew a walk. Harry Genth drew three free passes and scored three runs from the nine-spot in the lineup. This was the Mighty Mussels sixth win in a row.

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Dasan Hill, Cedar Rapids Kernels (4 IP, 4 H, ER, 3 BB, 7 K)
Hitter of the Day – Kaelen Culpepper, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Gabriel Gonzalez, and Kyler Fedko; St. Paul Saints (8-for-18, 7 R, 6 HR, 9 RBI, some ridiculous average exit velocity)

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

#1 – Walker Jenkins (St. Paul): 1-for-3, R, 2B (3), 2 BB
#2 – Kaelen Culpepper (St. Paul): 3-for-5, 2 R, 2 HR (5), 2 RBI

WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Iowa @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CDT) - RHP Ryan Gallagher (0-0, -.-- ERA, Triple-A debut)
Arkansas @ Wichita (11:05AM CDT) - LHP Aaron Rozek (2-0, 3.86 ERA)
West Michigan @ Cedar Rapids (12:05 PM CDT) - RHP Riley Quick (0-0, -.-- ERA, High-A debut)
Fort Myers @ Daytona (5:35 PM CDT) - RHP Eric Hammond (0-0, 3.38 ERA)

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Tuesday’s games!

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[Sampson5]

E rod still in St Paul with a ops getting close to 1000 is getting harder to justify when wallner legit playing like the twins worst player currently and striking out like twins joey gallo lmao not sure what he's gotta do to be promoted at this point all he's done is dominate since spring training pretty easy to find him a near everyday role in the outfield. Guess twins rather see wallner go 0-4 with 3 k every night instead since he's #oneofus 

[twinstalker]

It's good to see Quick get promoted to a more competitive level.  Lots of the top pitchers drafted last summer have started at and are dominating A+, so that's the standard for him.

[Bangkok Twins Fan]

Exit velocity seems to the new cool stat in recent years. But I'm still trying to understand the benefit of a hitter having higher exit velocity. Obviously, it indicates he's hitting the ball harder, okay, but what is the end result?  A higher OPS? More home runs? A higher slugging percentage? Help me out here, because I honestly want to know why exit velocity is such a hot topic. 

[FlyingFinn]

Watching low A baseball has to be hard sometimes. I notice all the errors in the boxscore - Mercedes with two fielding errors in the OF and Young making his 11th error of the month. Got some work to do in the field.

[thelanges5]

Good to see AAA bats waking up. Hopefully force Zoll to make a tough decision on the MLB lineup. 

[soyouresayingtheresachance]

Not very inspiring for the future when the "pitcher of the day" only goes 4 innings with 7 base runners. 

John Klein does not seem to be a starter. Has the potential to be an ok reliever. 

Looking like some of those AAA bats are waking up. Maybe the big team should try to take advantage of some of that power?

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Great summary Seth. Thanks.