Twins Minor League Report (5/23): Flirting With Perfection and Some Key Big Flies

5 hours ago, ashbury said:

If only we could have this much good news in every report.

Yeah, I hesitate to say this was TOO MUCH good news, and wouldn't mind such an overflow of good stats every game, but wow, a great report from the farm! Terrific pitching, timely hits, and the top prospects back in action again. Spoil us some more! At some point there may be too many cooks in the kitchen, but great to see so many of these youngsters playing well. 

6 hours ago, Dman said:

This is only High A, but if he brings that up to AA man the Twins have some interesting options there right now.

Culpepper should be promoted when he is fully ramped up BUT that Wichita rotation doesn't have room (not sure Raya or anyone is ready for AAA quite yet). Nowlin might have been the guy but look what he did last night. And the guys in Wichita, mostly the same guys who were in Cedar Rapids last year, are doing the same thing - start the year slow but really starting to play great now.

And Brian Dinkleman and Cedar Rapids keeps sending players to Wichita and yet they keep winning.

Great night on the farm! Hats off to Culpepper for 6 perfect innings. I think there's some deserving  promotions out there. Let's see them.

Really hoping for this pitching to continue.  We could have great SP depth next year with Varland / Festa / Matthews and Culpepper although I think chances are pretty good Varland ends up in the BP.  That would be just fine, especially if these other guys continue to thrive.

Seven walks in one day for Austin Martin. That will keep his OBP high for a while.

Great to see Jenkins and Lee playing and producing again. Now let's see how Lee looks in AAA. I think E-Rod deserves a promotion there too. 

Fantastic game for Lee and Jenkins.  Jenkins going 2-3 with a double, triple, walk and 3 RBI sure seems like he is ready to move across the parking lot.  

What I found interesting is that Lee was at third base.  Expect both will be at their expected spots in ten days or so, ie, Lee at St. Paul and Jenkins at Cedar Rapids.

25 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

Beautiful left-on-left swing by E-Rod.  Too bad he'll never get to show it in the big leagues.  The Twins play statistical baseball, so E-Rod would be on the bench.

Emmanuel hits left-handed pitchers just fine so it is unlikely he would be platooned unless lefties give him any trouble  at AAA, which is also unlikely. Hopefully EmRod pushes his way to AAA soon. Physically he is ready.

Worth noting that Robby Snelling is the top rated left-handed pitcher in all of the minor leagues. He has really good stuff and EmRod handled him easily.

Had fun switching between Wichita and Cedar Rapids games. Nowlin has a good arm. I think he is possibly a sleeper in the system. Hitters have a really tough time squaring him up when he has control. Culpepper was dealing last night. Lastly, I agree that Keaschall looks to be in need of facing better pitching and AA should happen in a couple of weeks.

43 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

Beautiful left-on-left swing by E-Rod.  Too bad he'll never get to show it in the big leagues.  The Twins play statistical baseball, so E-Rod would be on the bench.

Assumes facts not in evidence. Emma has neutral splits so far in his professional career and demonstrated that he has the ability to hit LHP even as a LH batter. The Twins sit LH in MLB that have shown they are less effective against LHP. I'd say it's pretty likely they'll give E-Rod a shot to hit lefties consistently until he shows he can't. I really don't understand why people oppose platooning when a hitter is clearly worse against same-sided pitching. Did we learn nothing from watching Jacque Jones struggle mightily against LHP?

7 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I mean move Emma up already...  I'd even be good if he skipped AAA. 

I'd consider Ohl to AAA at this point also. 

The best news was the health of Lee and Jenkins.

I noted already that Double-A starts repeating itself in mid-June. He'll run out of new pitchers to face then and he's already beat up on the ones he has seen. He needs to be promoted by June 15 at the latest.

Ohl to AAA could make some sense. There's plenty of room in the Saints rotation and promoting Ohl would allow them to promote Culpepper. 

18 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I mean move Emma up already...  I'd even be good if he skipped AAA. 

I'd consider Ohl to AAA at this point also. 

The best news was the health of Lee and Jenkins.

I think they'll be making more of the promotion decisions in June; while I wouldn't mind advancing the calendar a bit I'm not going to get super upset if they stay on a June timeline.

Culpepper and Nowlin were both very good, and they're intriguing prospects. It'd be nice to have a LH starter in the mix, but Nowlin still has things to work on. I think either him or Ohl would make sense to move to AAA, which opens space for Culpepper in Wichita (and Cory Lewis on his return). I like the wave that's coming through in AA with the pitchers, going to be interesting to see how that winnows out. You have to assume that not all of them are going to keep doing this well, but it sure would be an awesome problem to have.

Walker Jenkins is too good to play in rookie ball...which is awesome. Hammy looks fine, hopefully it doesn't give him any more trouble. No objections to the Twins being cautious in working him back, though: he's a special player. get him right, and let him wreak havoc upon his enemies!

Lee will bear watching. Back injuries can be tricky and everything can be going great and then it flares again. Hopefully he's feeling good, feeling strong and can put it past him. I'm looking forward to having him in Saint Paul ASAP.

4 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

Nowlin still has things to work on.

Yes, consistency. Lights out last night but other nights he walks guys and other nights they hit him (I'm assuming he's trying not to walk guys and ends up with too many pitches down the middle). I think Wichita is a great place for him to continue to work on this for now. I have him in my top 20 as he has a high ceiling.

Sometime in June .... Lares to Cedar Rapids, Culpepper to Wichita, Ohl to St. Paul.  Wichita is going to have one heck of a rotation.  Let's hope that translates to STP having one heck of a rotation next year.

Eeles to Cedar Rapids, Keaschall / Cespedes and Olivar all look ready for Wichita, and last but not least E-Rod to STP.