Twins Minor League Report (4/12): Dasan Hill, Connor Prielipp Make Second Starts, but Aaron Rozek is Top Lefty on This Day

There was another day of games, and another injury to worry about. 

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 4-11
St. Paul Saints: 5-6
Wichita Wind Surge: 5-3
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 5-3
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 3-4

TRANSACTIONS
The DFA carousel continued on Saturday morning when RHP Scott Blewett was Designated for Assignment. As he has each time he has been called up to the Twins, he pitched well. He pitched 4 2/3 innings over two outings and gave up just one run, four hits, no walks, and he had five strikeouts. 

The Twins then called up lefty Kody Funderburk from St. Paul. He’s pitched 5 2/3 innings over four games and given up one hit, walked two, and had seven strikeouts.

RHP Jarret Whorff was promoted from Wichita to St. Paul.  

LHP Gabriel Yanez was transferred from Cedar Rapids to St. Paul on Friday. On Saturday, he returned to the Kernels. 

And then just before games started on Saturday, one more bit of news was announced. The Kernels announced the infielders Kaelen Culpepper and Rayne Doncon have been placed on the 7-Day IL. Culpepper has a right wrist sprain. He’s been played cautiously to this point in the season due to a hamstring strain he had in spring training. Doncon left Friday night’s game after one at-bat. He has a strained right oblique strain. 

Fort Myers placed RHP Michael Ross on the 7-Day IL with a neck strain.  

Following the Twins Saturday afternoon loss to the Tigers, we learned that infielder Jose Miranda has been optioned to St. Paul. What will the corresponding move before Sunday’s game?

I looked at my grouping of Twins and minor league rosters and found this...  

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 5, Omaha 7
Box Score
Randy Dobnak was on the mound for the Saints on Saturday, and the team really needed him to be able to eat some innings. Consider Friday night’s scheduled Saints starter was David Festa who made the start in Minneapolis instead of St. Paul. Instead, Ryan Jenson started a bullpen game. Then remember that Sunday’s scheduled starter, Zebby Matthews, will be starting for the Twins on Monday. Darren McCaughan will make the start. He is a starter, but can they expect to get more than four innings from him after working in the Twins bullpen for a couple of weeks?

Dobnak did his job. He clearly didn’t have his best stuff. He gave up five runs on seven hits and two walks, and had just two strikeouts, and he completed five innings on 96 pitches. 

Jarret Whorff came in after presumably making the drive from Cedar Rapids to St. Paul on Saturday morning. He gave the Saints three innings. He gave up two runs on two hits. He struck out five batters. Jacob Bosiokovic worked a scoreless ninth inning. 

The bullpen kept the team in the game, and the Saints were down by just two runs heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. Could they come back? Well, I’ll tell you, but first, let's look at how the Saints scored their first five runs. 

The Saints took the first lead in the first inning. Mike Ford doubled to drive in Emmanuel Rodriguez and Yunior Severino and make it 2-0.

In the second inning, Diego Cartaya came to the plate. The backstop was 0-for-13 on the season before the at-bat. After the at-bat, he was 1-for-14 and had his first Saints hit and home run. 

Down 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Ryan Fitzgerald hit a two-run hammer to tie the score at 5-5. 

OK, let’s jump back to the bottom of the ninth inning. A strikeout and a weak ground ball meant no one on base with two outs. Anthony Prato was putting together a good fight before the pitcher was called on a pitch-clock violation. Prato ran down to first. And that brought Emmanuel Rodriguez to the plate as the tying run. 

A pitching change brought #OldFriend Evan Sisk entered the game to create a lefty-lefty matchup. And Sisk won this matchup getting Rodriguez to strikeout on a 2-2 pitch.

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 8, Midland 4
Box Score
The story of the early portion of this game was Connor Prielipp. Then it became Aaron Rozek. And then the Wind Surge scored a combined seven runs in the fifth and sixth innings. And then the bullpen and defense held on to give the Wind Surge a nice win. 

Connor Prielipp made his second start of the season on Saturday. He struck out two in a 1-2-3 first inning. The final pitch of that inning was a 99 mph fastball for a swinging strikeout. In the second inning, Prielipp gave up a pop-up double that the wind pushed perfectly between the second baseman and right fielder, but Prielipp got out of the inning unscathed. In that inning, he showed a slider in the 86-88 mph range. Through two innings, he was at just 28 pitches. 

In the third inning, he got two outs, both on strikeouts, but he did get hit a bit. In the inning, he was charged with three runs (2 earned) on four hits. A couple of hits were solid, and a couple were just in the right spot. A throwing error occurred on the final play of Prielipp’s outing. 

Aaron Rozek came in and quickly got a lazy fly ball to end the inning. We are certainly going to get back to Rozek, but let’s talk offense for a little bit.

In the bottom of the first inning, Tanner Schobel lined a home over the left field wall to give the Surge the lead. It was his second homer of the season. 

Then we need to jump ahead to the fifth inning. The Surge came to the plate down by a score of 3-1. Dalton Shuffield led off with a double. Ricardo Olivar singled him to third base. Schobel grounded out but it allowed Shuffield to score the team’s second run. Rubel Cespedes followed with a double but Olivar was only able to advance to third base. 

Ben Ross came up and grounded to third base. Olivar was off with contact and scored from third on a close play. Close enough that RockHounds manager and former Twins infielder Gregorio Petit. The call stood and the game was tied. Ross stole second, and then Kala’i Rosario drove in Cespedes with a sacrifice fly. Jorel Ortega doubles to drive in Ross and give the Surge a 5-3 lead. 

The RockHounds got a solo homer in the top of the sixth inning, but the Surge responded again. With one out, Shuffield singled. With two outs, Schobel singled him to third. Cespedes followed with his second homer of the season and gave the Surge an 8-4 lead. 

And now let’s get back to Aaron Rozek, the left-hander from Burnsville who pitched at Minnesota State, Mankato, and then was eventually signed by the Twins out of independent ball. He just continues to find success. He came in and got the final out of the third inning and then worked five more innings, giving up only the sixth-inning solo homer. He gave up four hits, walked none and had five strikeouts. 

John Stankiewicz struck out two batters in a perfect ninth inning. 

Rubel Cespedes went 2-for-4 with his third doubles, second home run and three RBI. Tanner Schobel went 2-for-4 with a walk and his second home run. Jorel Ortega, Tyler Dearden, and Dalton Shuffield each went 2-for-4 with a double. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 7, Beloit 4
Box Score                                      
Alejandro Hidalgo made another start and was quite good other than a three-run homer in the second inning to Minnesota-born Eric Rataczak. The Kernels were slow and steady. They scored single runs in each of the first four innings, and then they had a three-run inning of their own and held on. 

Hidalgo looked good through his four innings. He gave up the three runs on two hits and three walks, but he also struck out eight batters.  

Then The Vulture entered. Spencer Bengard has been working in long relief in all three of his outings. Each time, he has come into a game his team was leading but the starter was unable to complete five innings (due to early-season pitch limitations). Bengard gave up one run on two hits over his four innings to earn his third win in as many outings. He had five strikeouts without issuing a walk. Paulshawn Pasqualotto earned his second save with a perfect ninth inning. 

The Kernels got contributions from most of their lineup in this game. In the first, Danny De Andrade lined a single off of the tip of the shortstop’s glove to drive in Kyle DeBarge. Misael Urbina is in his third season with the Kernels. He reached base on a single in the second inning and scored on a Caden Kendle double. In the third inning, the Kernels tied the game at three. Gabriel Gonzalez led off with a double. With two outs, he scored on a fielding error. 

The Kernels took the lead in the fourth inning. With one out, DeBarge singled and stole second. He scored on a line-drive single by Billy Amick. 

After one scoreless inning, Cedar Rapids put up three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, Kendle doubled again and scored when DeBarge tripled. He scored on a wild pitch. Brandon Winokur walked and went to third on a fielding error and then scored on a ground out.   

Kyle DeBarge went 3-for-5 with his first triple. He also had two stolen bases. Kendle hit his third and fourth doubles of the season over four at-bats. Gonzalez’s double was his fifth of the young season. 

With the announcement of Culpepper and Doncon going on the IL before this game, things got a little bit scary when Brandon Winokur took a riding fastball off of the wrist/hand. It looked painful, but he remained in the game and made some very nice defensive plays at shortstop later in the game. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 2, Tampa 1
Box Score
The Mussels got the scoring going in the bottom of the first inning. With two outs, Jose Rodriguez doubles and Kevin Maitan followed with an infield single. Rodriguez scored on a wild pitch.   

Lefty Dasan Hill was on the mound to start for the Mussels. In total, he gave up one run on three hits. In 3 1/3 innings, he had two walks and six strikeouts. He primarily threw his sinker (45%) and slider (37%). His sinker averaged 95.4 mph with a max of 97.2 mph. His slider averaged 80.5 mph with a max of 83.3 mph. He also threw six curveballs and five changeups. 

Fellow 2024 draft pick Jason Doktorczyk came in and tossed 3 2/3 scoreless, two-hit innings. He had one walk and finished with four strikeouts. Kyle Bragg and Jason Stasiowski each worked a scoreless inning a piece. 

Six of the nine Mussels starters had at least one hit. Angel Del Rosario was the only one with two hits. That said Poncho Ruiz, Kevin Maitan, and Jay Thomasson each had a single and a walk. 

PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Hitter of the Day  
Tanner Schobel (Wichita): 2-for-4, BB, HR(2), 2 R, 2 RBI
Rubel Cespedes (Wichita): 2-for-4, 2B(3), HR(2), 2 R, 3 RBI
Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-5, 3B(1), 3 R, RBI, 2-SB (5) 

Pitcher of the Day 
Aaron Rozek (Wichita): 5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 K, 73 pitches, 52 strikes (71.2%)

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

#2 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 0-for-5, R, 3 K
#3 - Luke Keaschall (St. Paul) - 1-for-3, BB, K
#8 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, BB, HBP, R, SB
#10 - Connor Prielipp (Wichita) - 2 2/3 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 55 pitches, 37 strikes (67.3%)
#11 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 3 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 60 pitches, 36 strikes (60%)
#13 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 3-for-5, 3 R, RBI, 3B(1), 2-SB (5),
#15 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 0-for-4
#17 - Billy Amick (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, RBI, K
#18 - Kala’i Rosario (Wichita) - 0-for-3, RBI, SF, 2 K
#19 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2B(5), R, RBI
#20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-5, R       

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS     
Detroit @ Minnesota (12:10 PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson (0-1, 5.59 ERA)
Omaha @ St. Paul (2:07 PM CST) - RHP Darren McCaughan (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Midland @ Wichita (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Darren Bowen (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Beloit @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CST) - RHP Tanner Hall (0-0, 9.00 ERA)
Tampa @ Fort Myers (11:05 AM CST) - TBD (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

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

Interested in learning more about the Minnesota Twins' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!