-
Posts
25,648 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
109
Content Type
Profiles
News
Minnesota Twins Videos
2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking
2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks
Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits
Guides & Resources
2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks
The Minnesota Twins Players Project
2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks
2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker
Forums
Blogs
Events
Store
Downloads
Gallery
Everything posted by Seth Stohs
-
The draft going from 40 rounds to 20 rounds means 10-12 players signed each year. That's part of it.
- 14 replies
-
- caleb mcneely
- blaze o saben
- (and 8 more)
-
I guess if Bader can't play, then it would make sense to IL him. Prielipp was placed on the Development List on 5/21. I assume he'll just miss a start and come back. Darren Bowen was placed on the Dev List today. I'm sure they are limiting Festa some. He was at 66 pitches
- 14 replies
-
- caleb mcneely
- blaze o saben
- (and 8 more)
-
The Twins and all four of their affiliates played on Saturday Lots of good content for you below. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 30-25 (Tied for 2nd in AL Central with Cleveland, six games behind Detroit.) St. Paul Saints: 27-24 (Tied for 5th place in the International League West Division, 4.0 games behind Nashville.) Wichita Wind Surge: 24-24 (4th in Texas League North with Arkansas, 1.5 games behind Springfield.) Cedar Rapids Kernels: 27-20 (2nd place in the Midwest League’s West Division, 2.5 games behind Quad Cities.) Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 21-27 (6th place in the Florida State League’s West Division, 7.0 games behind Lakeland.) FCL Twins: 11-8 (2nd in FCL South, 2.0 games back of the FCL Rays. TRANSACTIONS ICYMI: Carson McCusker was optioned to St. Paul following the Twins loss in Tampa on Wednesday. The Twins will make a corresponding move on Friday. RHP Jacob Bosiokovic is on the temporarily inactive list with the Saints. Khadim Diaw has been placed on the 7-Day Injured List, but he could be out for a while with a fracture of his right thumb. Poncho Ruiz has been promoted from Fort Myers to Cedar Rapids. Catcher Ricardo Pena has been promoted from the FCL to Fort Myers. Of his 81 games started since signing his first games in the DSL in 2022, he has started behind the plate 65 times with a dozen starts at first base. Jay Thomason was activated from the 7-Day IL for Fort Myers. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== A day after we learned that the Twins had signed outfielder Blaze O’ Saben and infielder Caleb McNeely from independent leagues, it appears that the Twins have signed a pitcher from the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League. The Twins have signed RHP Nick Trabacchi. The 26-year-old started his college career at Maryland-Baltimore County in 2018. After two years, he transferred to Division II Shepherd University. Yes, the same school that Bears backup QB Tyson Bagent went to. He spent three seasons there. Since then (2022), he’s played in the Pecos League, the Atlantic League and the Frontier Leagues. This will be his first time playing in affiliated baseball. Where did we hear about this signing? Twitter/X, of course. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== For those of you who have been following the Twins minor leagues as long as I have. The pitching coach for the New Jersey Jackals is former Twins left-handed pitching prospect Joe Testa. He signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He pitched well in the organization until the July 2010 trade deadline in a trade that I wonder if any Twins fans remember. The Twins traded Testa, and a catcher with very little MLB experience at that time named Wilson Ramos, to the Washington Nationals for Matt Capps. (Oh, you do remember? Sorry!) Testa peaked in Double-A, and the Nationals let him go after the 2012 season. Since then, he has pitched in the Canadian-American Association, the American Association, the Atlantic League, and he’s played in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and even in Italy. He apparently didn’t pitch between 2018 and 2019, but returned to the mound in the All-American Baseball Challenge in 2020. He then spent three seasons in the Atlantic League again. In 2024, he joined the Jackals in his home state of New Jersey. He pitched in seven games for them last year, and this season, he has pitched once, a perfect inning to earn a save in a 1-0 game. The 39-year-old lefty might be the story of them all. And RHP Liam Rocha has been released by the Twins organization. He signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after four years at California Baptist. This comes a day after the Twins released knuckleballer Devin Kirby from the Mussels roster. He was pitching in Fort Myers. They both represented the Twins in the Arizona Fall League after the 2024 season. Then later in the day, the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League announced that two of their players have signed with the Twins. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== Teague Conrad is 23. He stands 6-4 and a little over 200 pounds. He pitched at the University of Illinois-Chicago for two years, then spent the 2022 season at Heartland Community College. In 2023, he pitched at Southern Illinois-Edwards. He has spent the past two seasons with Gateway. He went 7-4 with a 3.29 ERA over 18 starts and 101 1/3 innings in 2024. He had 90 strikeouts and 49 walks. This season, he has made four starts and is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. In 21 2/3 innings, he had 24 strikeouts to go with just three walks. The increased K-rate with the huge improvement in command might explain the Twins interest. He is likely to start out with the Mighty Mussels. Sam Coonrod may be a familiar name. The 32-year-old spent time in the big leagues with the Giants, Phillies and Mets between 2019 and 2023. He’s pitched in 115 MLB games and is 7-5 with a 5.54 ERA over 104 innings. He also has five big-league saves. At his best, Coonrad was consistently hitting 98, 99 mph. He is reportedly hitting 97 this year after not pitching in 2024. He is likely best known for making a stand by refusing to kneel in 2020, “I can’t kneel before anything besides God” was his quote. The plan is for him to report to the Saints. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 3, Omaha 1 Box Score Maybe I should have put Matt Wallner 3, Omaha 1. This game was quite the pitchers duel. When the Saints came to the plate in the top of the eighth, they were behind 1-0. They had just two hits and a walk. Anthony Prato led off with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Diego Cartaya followed with a walk. Long-time veteran Sam Long, a southpaw, may wish he would have walked the next guy too. Long started Wallner with a 96 mph slider just below the zone that Wallner swung at, and missed. Long tried to throw the same pitch. Unfortunately, for the pitcher, this second pitch was nearly down the middle of the plate, and, as he seems to enjoy doing, Wallner hit that ball over the fence for a three-run homer. It was the third straight game Wallner homered, and he has five homers in the seven games he’s spent rehabbing with the Saints. Could he be bound for Seattle? The other big story from this game was the start by David Festa. He tossed five shutout innings and gave up just three hits and a walk. He had five strikeouts. He was also efficient, needing just 66 pitches to get through his outing. He used all four of his pitches. His fastball topped out at 96.3 mph and averaged 94.9 mph. Richard Lovelady, Brady Feigl, and Anthony Misiewicz - who earned his sixth save - each tossed a scoreless inning. The lone run came on and unearned run against Ryan Jensen in the seventh inning. The Saints had just four hits, and three of them went for extra bases. Wallner homered, and Mickey Gasper and Anthony Prato each hit a double. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 3, Tulsa 4 Box Score Tulsa jumped ahead to an early lead. The Wind Surge mounded a mid-inning comeback, but fell just short. Darren Bowen made his first start since tossing five no-hit innings last week. He gave up three runs in the first inning and another in the second inning. He worked three innings and gave up four runs on five hits. He had one strikeout and no walks. Minnesotan John Klein was very impressive on Thursday. He had eight strikeouts over 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and one walk. Michael Martinez walked two and struck out three batters over 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings. Jaylen Nowlin gave up a hit and a walk in a scoreless ninth inning. The Surge tried to come back in the fifth inning. With one out, Andrew Cossetti walked. He scored on a triple off the bat of Ben Ross. Tanner Schobel followed with his sixth home run. It cut the team’s deficit to 4-3. Unfortunately, that was about it for the Wind Surge offense in this game. They had just five hits, but they also had five walks and two hit batters. Gabriel Gonzalez hit his first triple since joining Wichita. The team was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base. Schobel and Ricardo Olivar were the two Wind Surge hitters with a hit and a walk. The homer extended Schobel's hitting streak to 16 games. Wichita faced one of the Dodgers top prospects, lefty Jackson Ferris. He worked the first six innings for the Drillers. #OldFriend Noah Miller’s season started late due to meniscus surgery. He played eight rehab games for Great Lakes and rejoined the Drillers on Sunday. With a 2-for-4 game on Thursday, he has two hits in all three games since coming back. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 2 Box Score It was another well-played game for the Kernels, both on offense and defense. Cole Peschl made his second start for the Kernels and put together a Quality Start. He gave up two runs on three hits. He had seven strikeouts without issuing a walk. Gabriel Yanez worked two scoreless innings, and Cole Percival pitched a perfect ninth frame to close it out. Peschl gave up single runs in the second and fifth innings. The Kernels got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Poncho Ruiz recorded his first Kernels hit of 2025, a double. Jose Salas followed with a towering blast that landed well beyond the right-field wall. It marked his third homer of the season. With the game now tied at 2-2, Peschl finished his outing with a scoreless sixth inning. In the bottom of the inning, with one out, Nate Baez turned on a fastball and lined it over the wall in left field for his third homer of the season. Brandon Winokur followed by hitting his fourth homer. It landed outside the ballpark. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== But they didn’t stop there. Danny De Andrade walked. He stole second and when the pitch went past the catcher, he raced all the way to third base. Caden Kendle walked and stole second base. Jaime Ferrer hit a fly ball to center, deep enough to score De Andrade with the fifth run. The bottom of the seventh gave the Kernels another run, but we also saw something we had not seen all season. With one out, Kaelen Culpepper struck out but reached first base on a wild pitch. Kyle DeBarge followed by lining a double over the center fielder’s head that drove in Culpepper from first. And then it happened. DeBarge took off for third base. He dove toward the base as the catcher threw toward the third baseman who caught the ball, and tagged DeBarge. He showed the ball to the umpire who made the call of “Out!” DeBarge looked up at the umpire and looked as if he was thinking, “Out? What do you mean? I haven’t heard that in a long time.” But, there is no replay in the Midwest League, so the call stands. After starting the season with 27 consecutive stolen bases, the streak comes to an end. Now he should start a new streak. The Kernels had eight hits, and five of them went for extra bases. Salas went 2-for-3, and Winokur went 2-for-4. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 4, Bradenton 6 Box Score It may not look it from the box score, but Eli Jones put together a really strong start on Thursday night at Hammond Stadium. He started the game with five scoreless innings. However, in the sixth inning, nothing really went right for Jones and the Mussels. The inning started with a walk, but a ground out gave the team one out. The next batter blooped a ball into shallow center field to drive in a run. The next batter hit a well-placed bunt single. Next was a seeing-eye single to right field to score a second run. A sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third with two outs. Then a well-placed swinging bunt down the third base line drove in another run. Another slow grounder toward third base was perfect for another infield single and a fourth run. Jones threw 82 pitches. His fastballs topped out at 95.6 mph and averaged about 93 mph. He mixed in his six pitches. He got just six swings-and-misses in the game. When that’s the case, you’re going to have an inning like Jones’s sixth inning from time to time. The Mussels got on the scoreboard first in the second inning. Maddux Houghton hit an inside-the-park home run that hit high off of the center field wall. It was his fourth home run of the season. Fort Myers responded to the Marauders’ four-run sixth with two runs of their own to cut the deficit to 4-3. Ricardo Pena and Yohander Martinez started the inning with singles. After a pitching change, Dameury Pena walked to load the bases. Miguel Briceno kept it going with a single to left to drive in a run. After a fly out, Luke Napleton hit a single down the third base line (the third baseman dove and knocked it down but didn’t have a play) to drive in the second run. Lefty Zander Sechrist came on and gave up two runs on three hits over two innings. He struck out four batters. Ivran Romero struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth frame. Napleton singled to start the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out, Caleb McNeely singled Napleton to second. The runners moved up on a wild pitch. When Blaze O’Saben grounded out to shortstop, Napleton scored. But that was as close as the Mussels got. The Mussels had 10 hits in the game. Miguel Briceno, Luke Napleton, Maddux Houghton, and Ricardo Pena each had two hits. Newcomers Caleb McNeely played shortstop and batted sixth while Blaze O’Saben played center field and batted seventh. He made a terrific catch in the right centerfield gap that saved runs. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 3, FCL Orioles 2 Box Score Matt Gabbert continues to work back from injury. On Thursday morning, he made his fourth appearance of the season and worked up to four innings. He gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. He also struck out two batters. Melvin Rodriguez came on and, despite three walks, gave up no runs, and no hits, to drop his season ERA to 1.93. The Orioles scored both of their runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Twins had a great opportunity to put several runs on the board in the top of the first inning. Bryan Acuna led off with a double. Ramiro Domingue and Eduardo Beltre followed with walks to load the bases. However, Daiber De Los Santos popped up to the catcher. Maybe thinking the catcher was too far from home plate or that he could surprise him, Acuna took off from third and was thrown out at home for the second out. Probably painful, but this is how the Twins got on the board in the second inning. Ariel Castro was hit by a pitch. He was moved up a base on a wild pitch and went to third on a ground out. Next, Yandro Hernandez and Carlos Silva were hit by pitches to lead the bases again. After a strikeout, Castro scored on a balk. The fourth inning began with a walk by VIctor Leal. With one out, Carlos Silva hit an infield single. A force-out left runners on first and third. After a pitching change, Ramiro Dominguez hit his fifth double and drove in two runs to give the Twins the lead that Rodriguez was able to hold onto for the Win. Luis Fragoza was 2-for-3. The Twins had just five hits in the game. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Maddux Houghton (Fort Myers): 2-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K Pitcher of the Day David Festa (St. Paul): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, BB, 5 K, 66 pitches, 40 strikes (60.6%) John Klein (Wichita): 3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, BB, 8 K, 60 pitches, 43 strikes (71.7%) Cole Peschl (Cedar Rapids): 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 71 pitches, 47 strikes (66.2%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, R, K (played SS) #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K (DHd) #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, RBI, CS(1) (played 2B) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 1-for-3, 3B, HBP. (DHd) #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-3, BB (played CF) #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, HR(6), R, 2 RBI, BB, K. (played 2B) #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, K (played LF) #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-3, BB (played LF) FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Minnesota @ Seattle (9:10 PM CT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (0-1, 7.71 ERA) St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CT) - RHP Andrew Morris (2-1, 3.80 ERA) Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM CT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.06 ERA) Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-3, 8.28 ERA) Bradenton @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CT) - RHP Jason Doktorczyk (2-1, 4.55 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CT) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!
- 14 comments
-
- caleb mcneely
- blaze o saben
- (and 8 more)
-
Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of John Klein) The Twins and all four of their affiliates played on Saturday Lots of good content for you below. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 30-25 (Tied for 2nd in AL Central with Cleveland, six games behind Detroit.) St. Paul Saints: 27-24 (Tied for 5th place in the International League West Division, 4.0 games behind Nashville.) Wichita Wind Surge: 24-24 (4th in Texas League North with Arkansas, 1.5 games behind Springfield.) Cedar Rapids Kernels: 27-20 (2nd place in the Midwest League’s West Division, 2.5 games behind Quad Cities.) Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 21-27 (6th place in the Florida State League’s West Division, 7.0 games behind Lakeland.) FCL Twins: 11-8 (2nd in FCL South, 2.0 games back of the FCL Rays. TRANSACTIONS ICYMI: Carson McCusker was optioned to St. Paul following the Twins loss in Tampa on Wednesday. The Twins will make a corresponding move on Friday. RHP Jacob Bosiokovic is on the temporarily inactive list with the Saints. Khadim Diaw has been placed on the 7-Day Injured List, but he could be out for a while with a fracture of his right thumb. Poncho Ruiz has been promoted from Fort Myers to Cedar Rapids. Catcher Ricardo Pena has been promoted from the FCL to Fort Myers. Of his 81 games started since signing his first games in the DSL in 2022, he has started behind the plate 65 times with a dozen starts at first base. Jay Thomason was activated from the 7-Day IL for Fort Myers. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== A day after we learned that the Twins had signed outfielder Blaze O’ Saben and infielder Caleb McNeely from independent leagues, it appears that the Twins have signed a pitcher from the New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League. The Twins have signed RHP Nick Trabacchi. The 26-year-old started his college career at Maryland-Baltimore County in 2018. After two years, he transferred to Division II Shepherd University. Yes, the same school that Bears backup QB Tyson Bagent went to. He spent three seasons there. Since then (2022), he’s played in the Pecos League, the Atlantic League and the Frontier Leagues. This will be his first time playing in affiliated baseball. Where did we hear about this signing? Twitter/X, of course. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== For those of you who have been following the Twins minor leagues as long as I have. The pitching coach for the New Jersey Jackals is former Twins left-handed pitching prospect Joe Testa. He signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He pitched well in the organization until the July 2010 trade deadline in a trade that I wonder if any Twins fans remember. The Twins traded Testa, and a catcher with very little MLB experience at that time named Wilson Ramos, to the Washington Nationals for Matt Capps. (Oh, you do remember? Sorry!) Testa peaked in Double-A, and the Nationals let him go after the 2012 season. Since then, he has pitched in the Canadian-American Association, the American Association, the Atlantic League, and he’s played in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and even in Italy. He apparently didn’t pitch between 2018 and 2019, but returned to the mound in the All-American Baseball Challenge in 2020. He then spent three seasons in the Atlantic League again. In 2024, he joined the Jackals in his home state of New Jersey. He pitched in seven games for them last year, and this season, he has pitched once, a perfect inning to earn a save in a 1-0 game. The 39-year-old lefty might be the story of them all. And RHP Liam Rocha has been released by the Twins organization. He signed with the Twins as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after four years at California Baptist. This comes a day after the Twins released knuckleballer Devin Kirby from the Mussels roster. He was pitching in Fort Myers. They both represented the Twins in the Arizona Fall League after the 2024 season. Then later in the day, the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League announced that two of their players have signed with the Twins. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== Teague Conrad is 23. He stands 6-4 and a little over 200 pounds. He pitched at the University of Illinois-Chicago for two years, then spent the 2022 season at Heartland Community College. In 2023, he pitched at Southern Illinois-Edwards. He has spent the past two seasons with Gateway. He went 7-4 with a 3.29 ERA over 18 starts and 101 1/3 innings in 2024. He had 90 strikeouts and 49 walks. This season, he has made four starts and is 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. In 21 2/3 innings, he had 24 strikeouts to go with just three walks. The increased K-rate with the huge improvement in command might explain the Twins interest. He is likely to start out with the Mighty Mussels. Sam Coonrod may be a familiar name. The 32-year-old spent time in the big leagues with the Giants, Phillies and Mets between 2019 and 2023. He’s pitched in 115 MLB games and is 7-5 with a 5.54 ERA over 104 innings. He also has five big-league saves. At his best, Coonrad was consistently hitting 98, 99 mph. He is reportedly hitting 97 this year after not pitching in 2024. He is likely best known for making a stand by refusing to kneel in 2020, “I can’t kneel before anything besides God” was his quote. The plan is for him to report to the Saints. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 3, Omaha 1 Box Score Maybe I should have put Matt Wallner 3, Omaha 1. This game was quite the pitchers duel. When the Saints came to the plate in the top of the eighth, they were behind 1-0. They had just two hits and a walk. Anthony Prato led off with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Diego Cartaya followed with a walk. Long-time veteran Sam Long, a southpaw, may wish he would have walked the next guy too. Long started Wallner with a 96 mph slider just below the zone that Wallner swung at, and missed. Long tried to throw the same pitch. Unfortunately, for the pitcher, this second pitch was nearly down the middle of the plate, and, as he seems to enjoy doing, Wallner hit that ball over the fence for a three-run homer. It was the third straight game Wallner homered, and he has five homers in the seven games he’s spent rehabbing with the Saints. Could he be bound for Seattle? The other big story from this game was the start by David Festa. He tossed five shutout innings and gave up just three hits and a walk. He had five strikeouts. He was also efficient, needing just 66 pitches to get through his outing. He used all four of his pitches. His fastball topped out at 96.3 mph and averaged 94.9 mph. Richard Lovelady, Brady Feigl, and Anthony Misiewicz - who earned his sixth save - each tossed a scoreless inning. The lone run came on and unearned run against Ryan Jensen in the seventh inning. The Saints had just four hits, and three of them went for extra bases. Wallner homered, and Mickey Gasper and Anthony Prato each hit a double. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 3, Tulsa 4 Box Score Tulsa jumped ahead to an early lead. The Wind Surge mounded a mid-inning comeback, but fell just short. Darren Bowen made his first start since tossing five no-hit innings last week. He gave up three runs in the first inning and another in the second inning. He worked three innings and gave up four runs on five hits. He had one strikeout and no walks. Minnesotan John Klein was very impressive on Thursday. He had eight strikeouts over 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits and one walk. Michael Martinez walked two and struck out three batters over 1 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings. Jaylen Nowlin gave up a hit and a walk in a scoreless ninth inning. The Surge tried to come back in the fifth inning. With one out, Andrew Cossetti walked. He scored on a triple off the bat of Ben Ross. Tanner Schobel followed with his sixth home run. It cut the team’s deficit to 4-3. Unfortunately, that was about it for the Wind Surge offense in this game. They had just five hits, but they also had five walks and two hit batters. Gabriel Gonzalez hit his first triple since joining Wichita. The team was 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven on base. Schobel and Ricardo Olivar were the two Wind Surge hitters with a hit and a walk. The homer extended Schobel's hitting streak to 16 games. Wichita faced one of the Dodgers top prospects, lefty Jackson Ferris. He worked the first six innings for the Drillers. #OldFriend Noah Miller’s season started late due to meniscus surgery. He played eight rehab games for Great Lakes and rejoined the Drillers on Sunday. With a 2-for-4 game on Thursday, he has two hits in all three games since coming back. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 2 Box Score It was another well-played game for the Kernels, both on offense and defense. Cole Peschl made his second start for the Kernels and put together a Quality Start. He gave up two runs on three hits. He had seven strikeouts without issuing a walk. Gabriel Yanez worked two scoreless innings, and Cole Percival pitched a perfect ninth frame to close it out. Peschl gave up single runs in the second and fifth innings. The Kernels got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth. With two outs, Poncho Ruiz recorded his first Kernels hit of 2025, a double. Jose Salas followed with a towering blast that landed well beyond the right-field wall. It marked his third homer of the season. With the game now tied at 2-2, Peschl finished his outing with a scoreless sixth inning. In the bottom of the inning, with one out, Nate Baez turned on a fastball and lined it over the wall in left field for his third homer of the season. Brandon Winokur followed by hitting his fourth homer. It landed outside the ballpark. data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAPABAP///wAAACH5BAEKAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAICRAEAOw== But they didn’t stop there. Danny De Andrade walked. He stole second and when the pitch went past the catcher, he raced all the way to third base. Caden Kendle walked and stole second base. Jaime Ferrer hit a fly ball to center, deep enough to score De Andrade with the fifth run. The bottom of the seventh gave the Kernels another run, but we also saw something we had not seen all season. With one out, Kaelen Culpepper struck out but reached first base on a wild pitch. Kyle DeBarge followed by lining a double over the center fielder’s head that drove in Culpepper from first. And then it happened. DeBarge took off for third base. He dove toward the base as the catcher threw toward the third baseman who caught the ball, and tagged DeBarge. He showed the ball to the umpire who made the call of “Out!” DeBarge looked up at the umpire and looked as if he was thinking, “Out? What do you mean? I haven’t heard that in a long time.” But, there is no replay in the Midwest League, so the call stands. After starting the season with 27 consecutive stolen bases, the streak comes to an end. Now he should start a new streak. The Kernels had eight hits, and five of them went for extra bases. Salas went 2-for-3, and Winokur went 2-for-4. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 4, Bradenton 6 Box Score It may not look it from the box score, but Eli Jones put together a really strong start on Thursday night at Hammond Stadium. He started the game with five scoreless innings. However, in the sixth inning, nothing really went right for Jones and the Mussels. The inning started with a walk, but a ground out gave the team one out. The next batter blooped a ball into shallow center field to drive in a run. The next batter hit a well-placed bunt single. Next was a seeing-eye single to right field to score a second run. A sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third with two outs. Then a well-placed swinging bunt down the third base line drove in another run. Another slow grounder toward third base was perfect for another infield single and a fourth run. Jones threw 82 pitches. His fastballs topped out at 95.6 mph and averaged about 93 mph. He mixed in his six pitches. He got just six swings-and-misses in the game. When that’s the case, you’re going to have an inning like Jones’s sixth inning from time to time. The Mussels got on the scoreboard first in the second inning. Maddux Houghton hit an inside-the-park home run that hit high off of the center field wall. It was his fourth home run of the season. Fort Myers responded to the Marauders’ four-run sixth with two runs of their own to cut the deficit to 4-3. Ricardo Pena and Yohander Martinez started the inning with singles. After a pitching change, Dameury Pena walked to load the bases. Miguel Briceno kept it going with a single to left to drive in a run. After a fly out, Luke Napleton hit a single down the third base line (the third baseman dove and knocked it down but didn’t have a play) to drive in the second run. Lefty Zander Sechrist came on and gave up two runs on three hits over two innings. He struck out four batters. Ivran Romero struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth frame. Napleton singled to start the bottom of the ninth inning. With one out, Caleb McNeely singled Napleton to second. The runners moved up on a wild pitch. When Blaze O’Saben grounded out to shortstop, Napleton scored. But that was as close as the Mussels got. The Mussels had 10 hits in the game. Miguel Briceno, Luke Napleton, Maddux Houghton, and Ricardo Pena each had two hits. Newcomers Caleb McNeely played shortstop and batted sixth while Blaze O’Saben played center field and batted seventh. He made a terrific catch in the right centerfield gap that saved runs. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 3, FCL Orioles 2 Box Score Matt Gabbert continues to work back from injury. On Thursday morning, he made his fourth appearance of the season and worked up to four innings. He gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. He also struck out two batters. Melvin Rodriguez came on and, despite three walks, gave up no runs, and no hits, to drop his season ERA to 1.93. The Orioles scored both of their runs in the bottom of the first inning. The Twins had a great opportunity to put several runs on the board in the top of the first inning. Bryan Acuna led off with a double. Ramiro Domingue and Eduardo Beltre followed with walks to load the bases. However, Daiber De Los Santos popped up to the catcher. Maybe thinking the catcher was too far from home plate or that he could surprise him, Acuna took off from third and was thrown out at home for the second out. Probably painful, but this is how the Twins got on the board in the second inning. Ariel Castro was hit by a pitch. He was moved up a base on a wild pitch and went to third on a ground out. Next, Yandro Hernandez and Carlos Silva were hit by pitches to lead the bases again. After a strikeout, Castro scored on a balk. The fourth inning began with a walk by VIctor Leal. With one out, Carlos Silva hit an infield single. A force-out left runners on first and third. After a pitching change, Ramiro Dominguez hit his fifth double and drove in two runs to give the Twins the lead that Rodriguez was able to hold onto for the Win. Luis Fragoza was 2-for-3. The Twins had just five hits in the game. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Maddux Houghton (Fort Myers): 2-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K Pitcher of the Day David Festa (St. Paul): 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, BB, 5 K, 66 pitches, 40 strikes (60.6%) John Klein (Wichita): 3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, BB, 8 K, 60 pitches, 43 strikes (71.7%) Cole Peschl (Cedar Rapids): 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 71 pitches, 47 strikes (66.2%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, R, K (played SS) #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, HR(4), R, RBI, K (DHd) #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, RBI, CS(1) (played 2B) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 1-for-3, 3B, HBP. (DHd) #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-3, BB (played CF) #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, HR(6), R, 2 RBI, BB, K. (played 2B) #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - 0-for-4, K (played LF) #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-3, BB (played LF) FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Minnesota @ Seattle (9:10 PM CT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (0-1, 7.71 ERA) St. Paul @ Omaha (6:35 PM CT) - RHP Andrew Morris (2-1, 3.80 ERA) Tulsa @ Wichita (7:05 PM CT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.06 ERA) Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-3, 8.28 ERA) Bradenton @ Fort Myers (6:05 PM CT) - RHP Jason Doktorczyk (2-1, 4.55 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CT) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article
- 14 replies
-
- caleb mcneely
- blaze o saben
- (and 8 more)
-
As long as his hamstring is back to where it needs to be, that's all i care about at this point.
- 27 replies
-
- jose olivares
- gabriel gonzalez
- (and 5 more)
-
My mom's favorite player growing up.
-
Fantastic dude with so many great stories. Not knowing how long he'd be in Minnesota on some of his call-ups, he roomed with Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau at times, on a couch. One of the recent Twins independent ball signings, C/1B Luke Napleton was a freshman on the Quincy team in 2021, Rabe's last year as the head coach there.
-
The Real Deal!!!
-
"Astute" = "excuse making".... There were at least two balls that Larnach maybe should have caught in LF... And yes, the lighting isn't even comparable to MLB lighting, and the fact that the lights are lower in minor league parks is also true because you loose it when it gets above that level. That said... The Tampa Tarpons outfielders have the same conditions and the minor leaguers who play there, so it's not a great excuse. But it was clear that he was not seeing the ball well at all from the replays.
-
TRIVIA ANSWER: #1 - Chris Williams. #2 - Mark Contreras.
- 30 replies
-
- david festa
- travis adams
- (and 8 more)
-
Personal opinion with zero insight... They're "grooming" him for a very much functional role in the big leagues. Teams talk about how nice it would be to have a long reliever, and I can't imagine that any teams are really actively trying to figure out how to develop a long reliever. Yes, a starter can come up and be a long reliever, but that person may not have figured out a plan for how to get ready to come in to the 4th inning but be adaptable enough that if you need to come into the 2nd inning, you can. With guys like Raya and Prielipp (personal opinion, wisely) being limited to 50 pitches (under the more controlled environment of a starter), I can't help but think that teams will need to develop an idea for how they can best utilize those types. Right now I'm thinking Prielipp as Raya is probably further away. Huge upside, and if they can get 4-5 innings in 65-70 pitches, having another guy able to go 3-4 innings might be good. I've actually thought about your very question, and obviously specifically with Travis. He can start. He's thrown a lot of innings in recent years, been very durable. (second reminder: I am mostly just thinking out loud)
- 30 replies
-
- david festa
- travis adams
- (and 8 more)
-
Image courtesy of Ashley Monjaras The Twins earned a walkoff win thanks to France. On Friday night, it was Holland that helped Wallner, Festa, Gardenhire and company to a big win. TRIVIA On Thursday, Matt Wallner hit two home runs in his first rehab game with the Saints. (you'll be happy to see how he did in this second rehab game on Friday) He has hit 38 total home runs in a St. Paul Saints uniform. That ranks third in the Saints Career Home Run Leaders (since 2021, of course). Which two players have more career home runs with the Saints than Matt Wallner? Leave your answers in the comments below. I'll answer the question around noon on Saturday, and if you got it right, I will think "Good job!" CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 28-22 St. Paul Saints: 24-21 Wichita Wind Surge: 23-20 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 24-18 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 19-24 FCL Twins: 9-5 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS What? No transactions the whole day? Well, Carlos Correa was reinstated from the concussion list, but Ryan Fitzgerald was already optioned a day earlier. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 10, Norfolk 2 Box Score If you are looking for offense from your minor-league affiliate, you might only want to read the Saints section today. (I’m kidding. You, of course, want to read it all, thoroughly, and add questions and comments.) While the Tides scored first in the top of the first, a five-run second inning gave the Saints an early lead. The added on late in the game. And, they got strong pitching, and that rehabbing outfielder from Forest Lake played a big role in the win. Let’s start with pitching. David Festa made his first appearance in over two weeks due to an arm issue. He needed to use a lot of pitches, but his pitches looked good. In 3 2/3 innings, gave up one run on two hits and a walk. He had seven strikeouts. One of the two hits was a hard-hit ball to the left-center field gap that Emmanuel Rodriguez clearly lost in the sun and was unable to catch. That runner came around to score. Travis Adams came in and had one of his best performances of the season. He tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and had six strikeouts to earn his third win in his long-relief role. Kyle Bischoff gave up one run on two hits and two walks in the ninth innings. He had two strikeouts. He just wanted to make things entertaining for the crowd at CHS FIeld. Matt Wallner was back in the lineup, one night after he homered twice in Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader. He was leading off and was the DH. He struck out on a questionable check swing in the first inning. The second inning began with a Jose Miranda walk. Mike Ford struck out. Emmanuel Rodriguez was hit by a pitch, and Armando Alvarez walked to load the bases. After Fitzgerald struck out on three pitches (two of which were on the edge and overturned), Will Holland walked to put the Saints on the scoreboard. That brought Wallner to the plate. On a 2-1 pitch, the Tides’ starter tried to throw a four-seamer inside on Wallner, but he turned on it, hit it 103 mph right down the right field line. With Holland’s speed, all three runners scored and the Saints led 4-1. Mickey Gasper was hit by a pitch, and then Edouard Julien lined a single to center to drive in Wallner with the fifth run of the inning. Have we talked about the speed of Holland lately. Well, the Saints scored a run in the fourth inning because of it. With one out, Holland hit a routine ground ball to second base and beat the throw to first. With two outs, Holland stole second base and went to third on a throwing error. Soon after, #OldFriend Matt Bowman unleashed a wild pitch, and Holland scored easily. Holland led off the bottom of the seventh frame with a walk. He went to third on a solid single to center by Wallner. After two strikeouts, Miranda doubled to drive in Holland. Ford singled to drive in Wallner and Miranda and make it 9-1. The Saints added one more run in the bottom of the eighth inning to put them in double digits. Fitzgerald walked. He went to second on a Wallner single. With two outs, Julien walked to lead the bases, and then Miranda walked to score that 10th run. Wallner went 3-for-5 with the double and three RBI. Miranda was 1-for-3 with a double and two key walks. Holland was 1-for-2 with two walks. He scored three runs. Rodriguez was 1-for-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, San Antonio 2 Box Score For the second straight day, there was a pitcher’s duel near the Alamo. Unfortunately, the Wind Surge ended up on the short end, losing 2-1 for the second straight night. They are just 4-9 on games decided by one run. Darren Bowen was very impressive in this game. The right-hander, acquired as part of the Jorge Polanco trade, made the start. He tossed five innings. He gave up one run on three walks and four strikeouts. He gave up no hits through his five innings, but when he left the game, it was tied. Joshua Mears, who earlier this week launched a home run recorded at 504 feet, was credited with a steal of home in the third inning which gave the Mission a 1-0 lead. He was one of two batters to walk in that inning. Bowen has now made seven starts (and one bullpen appearance) for Wichita. He is 2-0 with a 2.73 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP. In 33 innings, he has given up just 17 hits, walked 14 batters and struck out 26 hitters. With one out in the top of the fifth inning, Aaron Sabato singled. He came around to score on Ben Ross’s sixth double of the season to tie the game at 1-1. In the sixth inning, Michael Martinez replaced Bowen on the mound. The inning started with a double. With one out, Martinez fielded a ground ball and threw the ball wildly in the general direction of first base. That gave the Mission a 2-1 lead they held onto for three more innings. Angel Macuare threw two scoreless innings to keep it close. The Wind Surge scored one run on six hits and two walks. Sabato was 2-for-4. He has seven multi-hit games this season. Four of the hits went for extra bases. Ross and Tanner Schobel doubles. Rubel Cespedes and Andrew Cossetti each hit a triple. But the Surge was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. San Antonio is the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Be sure to check it out and tell your friends from San Diego! Of our top 20 Padres prospects, seven of them are on the San Antonio roster. KERNELS NUGGETS Game 1: Cedar Rapids 2, Fort Wayne 6 Box Score The Kernels jumped out to a fast lead in the first inning, but a four-run third inning for the TinCaps gave them an insurmountable lead. Kaelen Culpepper led off with a single to the hole at shortstop. He stole second, and then scored on a single by Kyle DeBarge. He stole his 21st base of the season, and then scored from second when the throw went into center field, and then the center fielder’s throw got past third base. Ty Langenberg made the start. He was charged with six runs on five hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. He had seven strikeouts. Jeremy Lee got the final four outs of Game 1 for the Kernels. He gave up two hits, but no runs. He had three strikeouts. Cedar Rapids had seven hits in the game. Culpepper went 3-for-3 with two doubles and a stolen base. Game 2: Cedar Rapids 3, Fort Wayne 9 Box Score The Kernels fell behind again in Game 2, but through four-and-a-half innings, the game was tied 3-3. However, the TinCaps scored late and often. Cole Peschl made his first start of the season. He worked the first four innings and gave up three runs (just 1 earned) on five hits. He had five strikeouts and no walks. In the top of the fourth inning, Nate Baez led off with a single. He came around to score on Danny De Andrade’s fourth home run of the season. In the top of the fifth, Misael Urbina led off with his second homer of the season which tied the game at 3-3. Wilker Reyes came out for the fifth inning. He gave up two runs on one hit and two walks. He had two strikeouts. Jacob Wosinski came in for the bottom of the sixth inning. He was charged with four runs on two hits and two walks in just one-third of an inning. The big hit was a bases-clearing triple by Brandon Butterworth. Eston Stull came in and quickly got the final two outs. The Kernels had just three hits and five walks in the game. Jaime Ferrer walked twice. Kyle DeBarge walked twice and stole two bases. Culpepper stole his 10th bag of the season. Fort Wayne is the High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Three of our Top 20 Padres prospects play for the TinCaps including arguably the #1 prospect in all of baseball, Leo De Vries. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 3, Lakeland 6 Box Score The Mussels tried to mount a comeback in the ninth inning, but it was too little too late. Eli Jones started and went the first five innings. He was charged with three runs (1 earned) on four hits. He had three walks and four strikeouts. Lefty Brennen Oxford got the sixth inning. He gave up three runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out two batters. Jacob Kisting worked the final two innings without any further damage. He gave up two hits and had one strikeout. The Mussels didn’t score their first run until the sixth inning. They scored two in the top of the ninth but came up well short of the needed runs. The team had six hits, five walks and had three hit batters. Well, Dameury Pena was hit by a pitch twice. Unfortunately, they went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. Jefferson Valladares hit his fifth double. Yohander Martinez hit his first triple of the season. He also walked twice. So did Maddux Houghton. Rehab updates: Rayne Doncon played third base. He went 2-for-5 and stole a base.. Payton Eeles was 1-for-3 with a walk. He also stole a base. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 4, FCL Red Sox 3 Box Score Matt Gabbert made 13 appearances between the FCL Twins and Fort Myers. Unfortunately, arm pain and ultimately surgery meant that he missed the entire 2024 season. On Friday, he made his third rehab appearance in the FCL. He went three innings, and gave up one run on three hits. He had three strikeouts and no walks. Eider Machuca came on and gave up one run on one hit and a walk in the fourth inning. Juan Cota struck out two batters over two scoreless, hitless innings. With a two-run lead heading into the ninth, Xavier Kolhosser entered. He gave up a leadoff triple which he followed with a strikeout. He hit a batter, and the game was turned over to Liam Rocha. The game-tying runner stole second base. Rocha got a ground out that drove in the runner from third base. With the tying run 90 feet away, Rocha got a strikeout to end the game. Down 1-0 going to the third inning, Jayson Bass and Ricardo Paez started the inning with singles. They were then successful on a double steal. Bass scored the tying run on a Yilber Herrera sacrifice fly. With one out in the fourth inning, Ariel Castro and Ricardo Pena walked. Following a groundout, Bass walked. The catcher threw toward third, but the ball went into the outfield and allowed Castro to score. Pena later scored on a wild pitch. Leading 3-2 going to the seventh (and final) inning, Luis Fragoza walked and Bass singled him to third. Fragoza scored on a sacrifice fly by Paez, an insurance run that proved important in the bottom of the inning. The Twins had five hits and six walks. Bass went 2-for-2 with a walk. He also stole two bases. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Matt Wallner (St. Paul): 3-for-5, 2B(1), 2 R, 3 RBI, K Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-6, 2 BB, 2-2B(7), 1 R, 2 K, 2-SB(10). Pitcher of the Day Travis Adams (St. Paul): 4 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 58 pitches, 38 strikes (65.5%) Darren Bowen (Wichita): 5 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 73 pitches, 44 strikes (60.3%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Friday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-2, BB, HBP, R. #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1 (SS): 3-for-3, BB, 2-2B(7), R, SB(9), Game 2(DH): 0-for-3, BB, 2 K, SB(10) #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1(CF): 0-for-3, K; Game 2(SS): 0-for-3, 2 K. #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1(2B): 1-for-4, R, RBI, 3 K, SB(21); Game 2(CF): 0-for-1, 2 BB, K, 2-SB(23) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 0-for-3, BB. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B(11) SATURDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Kansas City @ Minnesota (1:10 PM CT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (0-1, 12.00 ERA) Norfolk @ St. Paul (DH @ 5:07 PM CT) - RHP Marco Raya (0-3, 12.06 ERA), RHP Andrew Morris (1-1, 3.44 ERA) Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 PM CT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.38 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Fort Wayne (5:35 PM CT) - RHP Chase Chaney (1-1, 4.50 ERA) Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CT) - LHP Dasan Hill (0-0, 1.26 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (9:00 AM CT) - RHP Joel Garcia (0-0, 3.38 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Friday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article
- 30 replies
-
- david festa
- travis adams
- (and 8 more)
-
The Twins earned a walkoff win thanks to France. On Friday night, it was Holland that helped Wallner, Festa, Gardenhire and company to a big win. TRIVIA On Thursday, Matt Wallner hit two home runs in his first rehab game with the Saints. (you'll be happy to see how he did in this second rehab game on Friday) He has hit 38 total home runs in a St. Paul Saints uniform. That ranks third in the Saints Career Home Run Leaders (since 2021, of course). Which two players have more career home runs with the Saints than Matt Wallner? Leave your answers in the comments below. I'll answer the question around noon on Saturday, and if you got it right, I will think "Good job!" CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 28-22 St. Paul Saints: 24-21 Wichita Wind Surge: 23-20 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 24-18 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 19-24 FCL Twins: 9-5 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS What? No transactions the whole day? Well, Carlos Correa was reinstated from the concussion list, but Ryan Fitzgerald was already optioned a day earlier. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 10, Norfolk 2 Box Score If you are looking for offense from your minor-league affiliate, you might only want to read the Saints section today. (I’m kidding. You, of course, want to read it all, thoroughly, and add questions and comments.) While the Tides scored first in the top of the first, a five-run second inning gave the Saints an early lead. The added on late in the game. And, they got strong pitching, and that rehabbing outfielder from Forest Lake played a big role in the win. Let’s start with pitching. David Festa made his first appearance in over two weeks due to an arm issue. He needed to use a lot of pitches, but his pitches looked good. In 3 2/3 innings, gave up one run on two hits and a walk. He had seven strikeouts. One of the two hits was a hard-hit ball to the left-center field gap that Emmanuel Rodriguez clearly lost in the sun and was unable to catch. That runner came around to score. Travis Adams came in and had one of his best performances of the season. He tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and had six strikeouts to earn his third win in his long-relief role. Kyle Bischoff gave up one run on two hits and two walks in the ninth innings. He had two strikeouts. He just wanted to make things entertaining for the crowd at CHS FIeld. Matt Wallner was back in the lineup, one night after he homered twice in Game 1 of Thursday’s doubleheader. He was leading off and was the DH. He struck out on a questionable check swing in the first inning. The second inning began with a Jose Miranda walk. Mike Ford struck out. Emmanuel Rodriguez was hit by a pitch, and Armando Alvarez walked to load the bases. After Fitzgerald struck out on three pitches (two of which were on the edge and overturned), Will Holland walked to put the Saints on the scoreboard. That brought Wallner to the plate. On a 2-1 pitch, the Tides’ starter tried to throw a four-seamer inside on Wallner, but he turned on it, hit it 103 mph right down the right field line. With Holland’s speed, all three runners scored and the Saints led 4-1. Mickey Gasper was hit by a pitch, and then Edouard Julien lined a single to center to drive in Wallner with the fifth run of the inning. Have we talked about the speed of Holland lately. Well, the Saints scored a run in the fourth inning because of it. With one out, Holland hit a routine ground ball to second base and beat the throw to first. With two outs, Holland stole second base and went to third on a throwing error. Soon after, #OldFriend Matt Bowman unleashed a wild pitch, and Holland scored easily. Holland led off the bottom of the seventh frame with a walk. He went to third on a solid single to center by Wallner. After two strikeouts, Miranda doubled to drive in Holland. Ford singled to drive in Wallner and Miranda and make it 9-1. The Saints added one more run in the bottom of the eighth inning to put them in double digits. Fitzgerald walked. He went to second on a Wallner single. With two outs, Julien walked to lead the bases, and then Miranda walked to score that 10th run. Wallner went 3-for-5 with the double and three RBI. Miranda was 1-for-3 with a double and two key walks. Holland was 1-for-2 with two walks. He scored three runs. Rodriguez was 1-for-2 with a walk and was hit by a pitch. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, San Antonio 2 Box Score For the second straight day, there was a pitcher’s duel near the Alamo. Unfortunately, the Wind Surge ended up on the short end, losing 2-1 for the second straight night. They are just 4-9 on games decided by one run. Darren Bowen was very impressive in this game. The right-hander, acquired as part of the Jorge Polanco trade, made the start. He tossed five innings. He gave up one run on three walks and four strikeouts. He gave up no hits through his five innings, but when he left the game, it was tied. Joshua Mears, who earlier this week launched a home run recorded at 504 feet, was credited with a steal of home in the third inning which gave the Mission a 1-0 lead. He was one of two batters to walk in that inning. Bowen has now made seven starts (and one bullpen appearance) for Wichita. He is 2-0 with a 2.73 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP. In 33 innings, he has given up just 17 hits, walked 14 batters and struck out 26 hitters. With one out in the top of the fifth inning, Aaron Sabato singled. He came around to score on Ben Ross’s sixth double of the season to tie the game at 1-1. In the sixth inning, Michael Martinez replaced Bowen on the mound. The inning started with a double. With one out, Martinez fielded a ground ball and threw the ball wildly in the general direction of first base. That gave the Mission a 2-1 lead they held onto for three more innings. Angel Macuare threw two scoreless innings to keep it close. The Wind Surge scored one run on six hits and two walks. Sabato was 2-for-4. He has seven multi-hit games this season. Four of the hits went for extra bases. Ross and Tanner Schobel doubles. Rubel Cespedes and Andrew Cossetti each hit a triple. But the Surge was 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. San Antonio is the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Be sure to check it out and tell your friends from San Diego! Of our top 20 Padres prospects, seven of them are on the San Antonio roster. KERNELS NUGGETS Game 1: Cedar Rapids 2, Fort Wayne 6 Box Score The Kernels jumped out to a fast lead in the first inning, but a four-run third inning for the TinCaps gave them an insurmountable lead. Kaelen Culpepper led off with a single to the hole at shortstop. He stole second, and then scored on a single by Kyle DeBarge. He stole his 21st base of the season, and then scored from second when the throw went into center field, and then the center fielder’s throw got past third base. Ty Langenberg made the start. He was charged with six runs on five hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings. He had seven strikeouts. Jeremy Lee got the final four outs of Game 1 for the Kernels. He gave up two hits, but no runs. He had three strikeouts. Cedar Rapids had seven hits in the game. Culpepper went 3-for-3 with two doubles and a stolen base. Game 2: Cedar Rapids 3, Fort Wayne 9 Box Score The Kernels fell behind again in Game 2, but through four-and-a-half innings, the game was tied 3-3. However, the TinCaps scored late and often. Cole Peschl made his first start of the season. He worked the first four innings and gave up three runs (just 1 earned) on five hits. He had five strikeouts and no walks. In the top of the fourth inning, Nate Baez led off with a single. He came around to score on Danny De Andrade’s fourth home run of the season. In the top of the fifth, Misael Urbina led off with his second homer of the season which tied the game at 3-3. Wilker Reyes came out for the fifth inning. He gave up two runs on one hit and two walks. He had two strikeouts. Jacob Wosinski came in for the bottom of the sixth inning. He was charged with four runs on two hits and two walks in just one-third of an inning. The big hit was a bases-clearing triple by Brandon Butterworth. Eston Stull came in and quickly got the final two outs. The Kernels had just three hits and five walks in the game. Jaime Ferrer walked twice. Kyle DeBarge walked twice and stole two bases. Culpepper stole his 10th bag of the season. Fort Wayne is the High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Three of our Top 20 Padres prospects play for the TinCaps including arguably the #1 prospect in all of baseball, Leo De Vries. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 3, Lakeland 6 Box Score The Mussels tried to mount a comeback in the ninth inning, but it was too little too late. Eli Jones started and went the first five innings. He was charged with three runs (1 earned) on four hits. He had three walks and four strikeouts. Lefty Brennen Oxford got the sixth inning. He gave up three runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out two batters. Jacob Kisting worked the final two innings without any further damage. He gave up two hits and had one strikeout. The Mussels didn’t score their first run until the sixth inning. They scored two in the top of the ninth but came up well short of the needed runs. The team had six hits, five walks and had three hit batters. Well, Dameury Pena was hit by a pitch twice. Unfortunately, they went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 on base. Jefferson Valladares hit his fifth double. Yohander Martinez hit his first triple of the season. He also walked twice. So did Maddux Houghton. Rehab updates: Rayne Doncon played third base. He went 2-for-5 and stole a base.. Payton Eeles was 1-for-3 with a walk. He also stole a base. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 4, FCL Red Sox 3 Box Score Matt Gabbert made 13 appearances between the FCL Twins and Fort Myers. Unfortunately, arm pain and ultimately surgery meant that he missed the entire 2024 season. On Friday, he made his third rehab appearance in the FCL. He went three innings, and gave up one run on three hits. He had three strikeouts and no walks. Eider Machuca came on and gave up one run on one hit and a walk in the fourth inning. Juan Cota struck out two batters over two scoreless, hitless innings. With a two-run lead heading into the ninth, Xavier Kolhosser entered. He gave up a leadoff triple which he followed with a strikeout. He hit a batter, and the game was turned over to Liam Rocha. The game-tying runner stole second base. Rocha got a ground out that drove in the runner from third base. With the tying run 90 feet away, Rocha got a strikeout to end the game. Down 1-0 going to the third inning, Jayson Bass and Ricardo Paez started the inning with singles. They were then successful on a double steal. Bass scored the tying run on a Yilber Herrera sacrifice fly. With one out in the fourth inning, Ariel Castro and Ricardo Pena walked. Following a groundout, Bass walked. The catcher threw toward third, but the ball went into the outfield and allowed Castro to score. Pena later scored on a wild pitch. Leading 3-2 going to the seventh (and final) inning, Luis Fragoza walked and Bass singled him to third. Fragoza scored on a sacrifice fly by Paez, an insurance run that proved important in the bottom of the inning. The Twins had five hits and six walks. Bass went 2-for-2 with a walk. He also stole two bases. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Matt Wallner (St. Paul): 3-for-5, 2B(1), 2 R, 3 RBI, K Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids): 3-for-6, 2 BB, 2-2B(7), 1 R, 2 K, 2-SB(10). Pitcher of the Day Travis Adams (St. Paul): 4 1/3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 K, 58 pitches, 38 strikes (65.5%) Darren Bowen (Wichita): 5 IP, 0 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 73 pitches, 44 strikes (60.3%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Friday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-2, BB, HBP, R. #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1 (SS): 3-for-3, BB, 2-2B(7), R, SB(9), Game 2(DH): 0-for-3, BB, 2 K, SB(10) #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1(CF): 0-for-3, K; Game 2(SS): 0-for-3, 2 K. #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1(2B): 1-for-4, R, RBI, 3 K, SB(21); Game 2(CF): 0-for-1, 2 BB, K, 2-SB(23) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 0-for-3, BB. #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, 2B(11) SATURDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Kansas City @ Minnesota (1:10 PM CT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (0-1, 12.00 ERA) Norfolk @ St. Paul (DH @ 5:07 PM CT) - RHP Marco Raya (0-3, 12.06 ERA), RHP Andrew Morris (1-1, 3.44 ERA) Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 PM CT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.38 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Fort Wayne (5:35 PM CT) - RHP Chase Chaney (1-1, 4.50 ERA) Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CT) - LHP Dasan Hill (0-0, 1.26 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (9:00 AM CT) - RHP Joel Garcia (0-0, 3.38 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Friday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!
- 30 comments
-
- david festa
- travis adams
- (and 8 more)
-
I was thinking this same thing, but they shouldn't rush him back from a hamstring issue. Also, yes, it would be McCusker heading back down. And, since the Royals are throwing two lefties against the Twins this weekend, I'd keep McCusker around and keep things slow with Wallner. Where it will get interesting is when the second of Wallner and Buxton come back. Who will the second player dropped be? Option Keirsey? DFA Bride?
- 42 replies
-
- matt wallner
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 8 more)
-
Why would they release Camargo or Winkel? Camargo has hit and hit for power including at AAA the last two years. Winkel is clearly the top defensive catcher in the organization. They are where they need to be. Cartaya should probably move down to Wichita when he comes off the Development List.
- 42 replies
-
- matt wallner
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 8 more)
-
I would not be surprised to see that happen. It could be multiple things. First, he missed quite a bit of time last year with some arm issues, so it's fair to ask if he's at 100% It's also possible that the injury pushed some mechanical change that's a work in progress. It's also possible that his knuckleball is going through a time of less movement. Sometimes, it's important for a pitcher to work through those struggles and find ways to make something else work when the other piece isn't working. Lewis is a smart person, a smart pitcher, so I'm sure he's spending a lot of time checking out video and release points and spin rates, and it's also possible that he's tipping a pitch or something that Triple-A hitters have found. Could be several things.
- 42 replies
-
- matt wallner
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 8 more)
-
I don't think Olivar is a plus-plus defensive catcher, but he's solid, and this year, he's throwing out more runners. I had to look to see what the actual breakdown of catching has been. Noah Cardenas - 16 starts Andrew Cossetti - 14 starts Ricardo Olivar - 13 starts I think it's fair to say that Noah Cardenas is the best of the three defensively. Olivar is solid defensively. Cossetti can hit for a lot of power. Total games played for these three: Noah Cardenas - 22 games Andrew Cossetti - 22 games Ricardo Olivar - 32 games. (13 games catching, 8 games in left field, 11 games as DH) We know that this front office and player development believes in trying to keep their catchers fresh. It's a long season. Gotta keep their legs strong. Remember, they're working on defensive skills most days before the game (especially if they're not catching in the game), catching bullpens, working with pitchers and more. So Olivar is catching about 30%, and he's near the top of their lineup in 80% of their games.
- 42 replies
-
- matt wallner
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 8 more)
-
Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints From yesterday's Twins Minor League Report, one of the big talking points in the comments was Connor Prielipp being placed on the Development List. It's a fair conversation, and because of his injury history, Twins fans will find reasons to be concerned. The general purpose of the Development List is to provide a way for teams to manage some aspect of a players development. If we're being completely honest, a lot of times the "DL" is often used as a spot for carrying an extra player in case there is a midweek injury, like the taxi squad. In the past, the Twins have used it when they have six or seven starters on a roster, they would alternate placing pitchers. The pitcher continues to work, and throw bullpens and go about their routines, just in a controlled environment in the bullpen. As it relates to Prielipp, he has been working three or four innings each of his starts. He's been limited to 40 pitches and then 50 pitches as the season has moved from month one to month two. If there was an injury, he would be put on the injured list. If I had a guess, I would guess that Prielipp, along with a couple of pitching coaches and coordinators and members of the front office, met during spring training to discuss how the season might play out. They get on the same page about pitch counts and ups and downs. They likely agree that after X number of starts, we're going to put you the Development List for a week. We can guess (and maybe assume) that he'll continue on his same schedule, his same between-starts routine. On the day he would have normally started, maybe he throws a simulated game, but just 40 pitches. And that continues until he gets activated in a week to make his next start. It's also possible that they told him not to pick up a ball for four days, and maybe a pitching coordinator and a front office person and an analytics person and a video person will meet for a couple of days and determine how they want to proceed over the next couple of months. The first two months of the season and of their plan has seemingly gone quite well, and everyone (Twins, Twins fans, Prielipp) wants to see continued health for the talented southpaw. Alright, keep the conversation going in the comments below. Let's get to today's minor league report. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 27-22 St. Paul Saints: 23-21 Wichita Wind Surge: 23-19 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 24-16 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 19-23 FCL Twins: 8-5 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS After being the Twins 27th man on Wednesday, Mickey Gasper was optioned to St. Paul. So was infielder Ryan Fitzgerald, the 30-year-old who made his MLB debut last weekend for the Twins. With those two returning to St. Paul, infielder Jake Rucker was returned to Wichita after two days with the Saints. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: St. Paul 3, Norfolk 8 Box Score The purpose of the minor leagues is to prepare players for the big leagues. Due to rain, Matt Wallner’s rehab assignment had to wait a day due to rain, but he started his preparation for his return to the big leagues in Game 1 on Thursday. Leading off the game, he grounded out to first base. In his second at-bat, Wallner crushed the first pitch, a fastball up-and-in, 95.8 mph at 34 degrees and it traveled 362 feet. In his third at-bat, he was called out on strikes. His fourth at-bat came in the bottom of the seventh inning with Patrick Winkel on first base. On a 1-2 pitch, he kept his hands back nicely on a changeup and crushed a 90 mph changeup 112.4 mph at 20 degrees, and it landed 409 feet from home plate in dead center. Now for the rest of the game. Well, Wallner had two of the Saints five hits, the only extra base hits. Wallner had all three of the team’s RBI. Jose Miranda and Eduard Julien each had first-inning singles. Jeferson Morales walked twice. Unfortunately, the pitching wasn’t quite as good in Game 1. Cory Lewis made the start. He gave up five runs (4 earned) on six hits and three walks in just 2 2/3 innings. He had three strikeouts. Ryan Jensen then gave up two runs (1 earned) on one hit (a homer). He had two strikeouts. Randy Dobnak struck out two batters over two perfect innings. Tyler Beede got the final inning and gave up a run on two hits (including a homer). Game 2: St. Paul 3, Norfolk 2 Box Score With a short start and three relievers used in Game 1, the Saints really needed a strong start in Game 2. Enter Simeon Woods Richardson for his first start since his demotion recently. The young right-hander gave up just one run on four hits and a walk over six innings. He had eight strikeouts and was in control the whole game. Anthony Misiewicz gave up a solo homer to Chadwick Tromp in the seventh, but struck out two on the way to his fifth save of the season. The Saints got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning when Emmanuel Rodriguez hit his fourth home run of the season. (104.8 mph, 32 degrees, 388 feet) In the fifth inning, Will Holland led off with a double. He advanced to third on a groundout and then scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1. In the bottom of the sixth, the Saints added an insurance run that they wound up needing. Armando Alvarez singled to lead off and moved up a base on a passed ball. Emmanuel Rodriguez and Jair Camargo walked to lead the bases. Holland then flew out to the warning track in right field to drive in Alvarez and make it 3-1. The Saints had just six hits in game two. Of course, Mickey Gasper had two of them. Rodriguez hit the home run and walked two times. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, San Antonio 1 Box Score It was a pitcher’s duel near the Alamo on Thursday night. Ricky Castro had his best start of the season. He gave up one run, on a first-inning solo homer by Francisco Acuna, over the first five innings. He gave up just four hits and walked none. Pierson Ohl came on and gave up one run on three hits over three innings. He had no walks and struck out three batters. The Wind Surge went scoreless until the top of the seventh inning. Aaron Sabato led off with his third home run of the season. Unfortunately, the Missions scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth and the Surge were unable to counter. Wichita had just seven hits and one walk in the game. Newcomer Gabriel Gonzalez led the way. He went 3-for-4. He is 5-for-11 through his first three Double-A games. San Antonio is the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Be sure to check it out and tell your friends from San Diego! Henry Baez is a Top 15 Padres prospect. He tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings in this game. He gave up just three hits, walked one, hit one and had six strikeouts. Other Top 20 Padres prospects who played on Thursday night include RHP Bradgley Rodriguez, first baseman Romeo Sanabria. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Fort Wayne 1 Box Score This was really a nice, clean win for the Kernels. A lot of times, the Kernels have won by just bashing the baseball, but in this game, they got enough key hits, and they got a really nice pitching performance from the starter and the bullpen. Hard-throwing Jose Olivares got the start. He gave up one run in the bottom of the first inning. He gave up three hits, walked four and had six strikeouts. It was his third start in which he recorded six strikeouts. He reached his pitch count limit and then was replaced by lefty Kade Bragg. He was fanatic, notching five strikeouts in 2 1/3 scoreless, two-hit innings. Cole Percival kept it going. He had four strikeouts over two scoreless innings. He gave up a hit and a walk. Paulshawn Pasqualotto had a walk and a strikeout in a scoreless ninth inning to record his fourth save. The Kernels scored their first run in the top of the third inning to tie the game at 1-1. Jaime Ferrer led off with a single. With one out, Kaelen Culpepper singled, and a throwing error allowed Ferrer to score and Culpepper to get all the way to third base. In the top of the fourth inning, the Kernels grabbed a 2-1 lead. Nate Baez led off with a walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch. Khadim Diaw hit an infield singled Baez moved up to third. Caden Kendle drove a single to left to bring in Baez and give the team a lead. It remained a one-run game until the top of the eighth inning when Brandon Winokur led off with a walk. Nate Baez drilled a double and Winokur raced all the way home to make it 3-1. Nate Baez and Khadim Diaw each hit their fourth doubles of the season. Quietly, Baez is now hitting .337 with a .922 OPS. He was 1-for-3 with a walk. Diaw was the lone Kernel hitter with more than one hit. He was 2-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. He is hitting .306 with a .906 OPS. Fort Wayne is the High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Be sure to check it out and tell your friends from San Diego! Leo De Vries is the consensus top prospect in the Padres system. The 18-year-old shortstop is the youngest player in the Midwest League right now. He had a single and a walk on Thursday night. Third baseman Rosman Verdugo is the third youngest in the league. He ranks just outside of the Padres top 20 but should move up. He had an RBI single in this game. Clark Candiotti had nine strikeouts and one walk over 4 2/3 innings to start in this game. He appears in some Top 30 Padres prospect rankings. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 1, Lakeland 4 Box Score It was a tough night for the young Mussels, taking on the Lakeland Flying (and rehabbing) Tigers. Such is life in Low-A. The top three hitters for the Tigers were Wenceel Perez, Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling. And frankly, the Mussels have done fairly well against that group this week. Dylan Questad started and gave up four runs on four hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had three walks to go with six strikeouts. Tyler Stasiowski came on and allowed an inherited runner to score but then went 2 1/3 innings without allowing another run. He had three strikeouts. Ivran Romero hit a batter in an otherwise clean eighth inning. The Mussels had just one run on three hits and two walks in the game. In the fifth inning, Maddux Houghton scored on a Jefferson Valladares double. Rayne Doncon was 1-for-4 in his rehab appearance. Payton Eeles had a scheduled off day. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 10, FCL Pirates 2 Box Score The Twins scored first in the bottom of the first inning, and then took the lead for good in the third frame. And then they just added on. The FCL Twins got an FCL run in the first inning. Two hit batters, a stolen base, and two walks. In the third inning, Ramiro Dominguez reached on an error. With two outs, Ariel Castro hit his first home run of the season. The fourth inning began with a couple of walks, and an infield single loaded the bases. With two outs, Dominguez hit his fourth double of the season to clear the bases and give the Twins a 6-2 lead. It was another FCL inning for the Twins in the fifth inning. A walk. A hit batter. A double steal. A throwing error. A hit batter. A steal. And then three straight strikeouts. Jump to the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Castro hit his second home run of the game and the season to make it 8-2. The eighth inning began with a walk. Javier Roman followed with his first homer of the season to make it 10-2. To summarize, the Twins scored 10 runs on five hits, seven walks, and five hit batters. Rehabbing Christian Becerra started and struck out five batters over the first two innings. He gave up one run on three hits. Melvin Rodriguez came on and gave up one run over the next four innings to earn his first Win of the season. Mitch Mueller and Ruddy Gomez struck out four batters over the final three scoreless innings. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Ariel Castro (FCL Twins): 2-for-3, 2-HR(2), 2 R, 3 RBI, BB, SB(1) . Pitcher of the Day Simeon Woods Richardson (St. Paul): 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. 88 pitches, 59 strikes (67.0%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - Game 1: 0-for-3, 2 K, Game 2: 1-for-1, 2 BB, HR(4), R, RBI, #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K. #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, BB, R, K #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K. #12 - Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 2 2/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 78 pitches, 41 strikes (52.6%) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 3-for-4. #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-5, 2 K #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 0-for-5, 2 K. FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Kansas City @ Minnesota (6:10 PM CT) - RHP Pablo Lopez (2.40 ERA) Norfolk @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CT) - RHP David Festa (2-1, 3.60 ERA) Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 PM CT) - RHP Darren Bowen (2-0, 2.89 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Fort Wayne (4:35 PM CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-2, 7.52 ERA), TBD Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CT) - RHP Eli Jones (1-3, 4.41 ERA) FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 AM CT) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article
- 42 replies
-
- matt wallner
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 8 more)
-
From yesterday's Twins Minor League Report, one of the big talking points in the comments was Connor Prielipp being placed on the Development List. It's a fair conversation, and because of his injury history, Twins fans will find reasons to be concerned. The general purpose of the Development List is to provide a way for teams to manage some aspect of a players development. If we're being completely honest, a lot of times the "DL" is often used as a spot for carrying an extra player in case there is a midweek injury, like the taxi squad. In the past, the Twins have used it when they have six or seven starters on a roster, they would alternate placing pitchers. The pitcher continues to work, and throw bullpens and go about their routines, just in a controlled environment in the bullpen. As it relates to Prielipp, he has been working three or four innings each of his starts. He's been limited to 40 pitches and then 50 pitches as the season has moved from month one to month two. If there was an injury, he would be put on the injured list. If I had a guess, I would guess that Prielipp, along with a couple of pitching coaches and coordinators and members of the front office, met during spring training to discuss how the season might play out. They get on the same page about pitch counts and ups and downs. They likely agree that after X number of starts, we're going to put you the Development List for a week. We can guess (and maybe assume) that he'll continue on his same schedule, his same between-starts routine. On the day he would have normally started, maybe he throws a simulated game, but just 40 pitches. And that continues until he gets activated in a week to make his next start. It's also possible that they told him not to pick up a ball for four days, and maybe a pitching coordinator and a front office person and an analytics person and a video person will meet for a couple of days and determine how they want to proceed over the next couple of months. The first two months of the season and of their plan has seemingly gone quite well, and everyone (Twins, Twins fans, Prielipp) wants to see continued health for the talented southpaw. Alright, keep the conversation going in the comments below. Let's get to today's minor league report. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 27-22 St. Paul Saints: 23-21 Wichita Wind Surge: 23-19 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 24-16 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 19-23 FCL Twins: 8-5 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS After being the Twins 27th man on Wednesday, Mickey Gasper was optioned to St. Paul. So was infielder Ryan Fitzgerald, the 30-year-old who made his MLB debut last weekend for the Twins. With those two returning to St. Paul, infielder Jake Rucker was returned to Wichita after two days with the Saints. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: St. Paul 3, Norfolk 8 Box Score The purpose of the minor leagues is to prepare players for the big leagues. Due to rain, Matt Wallner’s rehab assignment had to wait a day due to rain, but he started his preparation for his return to the big leagues in Game 1 on Thursday. Leading off the game, he grounded out to first base. In his second at-bat, Wallner crushed the first pitch, a fastball up-and-in, 95.8 mph at 34 degrees and it traveled 362 feet. In his third at-bat, he was called out on strikes. His fourth at-bat came in the bottom of the seventh inning with Patrick Winkel on first base. On a 1-2 pitch, he kept his hands back nicely on a changeup and crushed a 90 mph changeup 112.4 mph at 20 degrees, and it landed 409 feet from home plate in dead center. Now for the rest of the game. Well, Wallner had two of the Saints five hits, the only extra base hits. Wallner had all three of the team’s RBI. Jose Miranda and Eduard Julien each had first-inning singles. Jeferson Morales walked twice. Unfortunately, the pitching wasn’t quite as good in Game 1. Cory Lewis made the start. He gave up five runs (4 earned) on six hits and three walks in just 2 2/3 innings. He had three strikeouts. Ryan Jensen then gave up two runs (1 earned) on one hit (a homer). He had two strikeouts. Randy Dobnak struck out two batters over two perfect innings. Tyler Beede got the final inning and gave up a run on two hits (including a homer). Game 2: St. Paul 3, Norfolk 2 Box Score With a short start and three relievers used in Game 1, the Saints really needed a strong start in Game 2. Enter Simeon Woods Richardson for his first start since his demotion recently. The young right-hander gave up just one run on four hits and a walk over six innings. He had eight strikeouts and was in control the whole game. Anthony Misiewicz gave up a solo homer to Chadwick Tromp in the seventh, but struck out two on the way to his fifth save of the season. The Saints got on the scoreboard first in the bottom of the second inning when Emmanuel Rodriguez hit his fourth home run of the season. (104.8 mph, 32 degrees, 388 feet) In the fifth inning, Will Holland led off with a double. He advanced to third on a groundout and then scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-1. In the bottom of the sixth, the Saints added an insurance run that they wound up needing. Armando Alvarez singled to lead off and moved up a base on a passed ball. Emmanuel Rodriguez and Jair Camargo walked to lead the bases. Holland then flew out to the warning track in right field to drive in Alvarez and make it 3-1. The Saints had just six hits in game two. Of course, Mickey Gasper had two of them. Rodriguez hit the home run and walked two times. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 1, San Antonio 1 Box Score It was a pitcher’s duel near the Alamo on Thursday night. Ricky Castro had his best start of the season. He gave up one run, on a first-inning solo homer by Francisco Acuna, over the first five innings. He gave up just four hits and walked none. Pierson Ohl came on and gave up one run on three hits over three innings. He had no walks and struck out three batters. The Wind Surge went scoreless until the top of the seventh inning. Aaron Sabato led off with his third home run of the season. Unfortunately, the Missions scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth and the Surge were unable to counter. Wichita had just seven hits and one walk in the game. Newcomer Gabriel Gonzalez led the way. He went 3-for-4. He is 5-for-11 through his first three Double-A games. San Antonio is the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Be sure to check it out and tell your friends from San Diego! Henry Baez is a Top 15 Padres prospect. He tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings in this game. He gave up just three hits, walked one, hit one and had six strikeouts. Other Top 20 Padres prospects who played on Thursday night include RHP Bradgley Rodriguez, first baseman Romeo Sanabria. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Fort Wayne 1 Box Score This was really a nice, clean win for the Kernels. A lot of times, the Kernels have won by just bashing the baseball, but in this game, they got enough key hits, and they got a really nice pitching performance from the starter and the bullpen. Hard-throwing Jose Olivares got the start. He gave up one run in the bottom of the first inning. He gave up three hits, walked four and had six strikeouts. It was his third start in which he recorded six strikeouts. He reached his pitch count limit and then was replaced by lefty Kade Bragg. He was fanatic, notching five strikeouts in 2 1/3 scoreless, two-hit innings. Cole Percival kept it going. He had four strikeouts over two scoreless innings. He gave up a hit and a walk. Paulshawn Pasqualotto had a walk and a strikeout in a scoreless ninth inning to record his fourth save. The Kernels scored their first run in the top of the third inning to tie the game at 1-1. Jaime Ferrer led off with a single. With one out, Kaelen Culpepper singled, and a throwing error allowed Ferrer to score and Culpepper to get all the way to third base. In the top of the fourth inning, the Kernels grabbed a 2-1 lead. Nate Baez led off with a walk. He advanced to second on a wild pitch. Khadim Diaw hit an infield singled Baez moved up to third. Caden Kendle drove a single to left to bring in Baez and give the team a lead. It remained a one-run game until the top of the eighth inning when Brandon Winokur led off with a walk. Nate Baez drilled a double and Winokur raced all the way home to make it 3-1. Nate Baez and Khadim Diaw each hit their fourth doubles of the season. Quietly, Baez is now hitting .337 with a .922 OPS. He was 1-for-3 with a walk. Diaw was the lone Kernel hitter with more than one hit. He was 2-for-3 and was hit by a pitch. He is hitting .306 with a .906 OPS. Fort Wayne is the High-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. A month ago, we kicked off another sister site, Padres Mission. Be sure to check it out and tell your friends from San Diego! Leo De Vries is the consensus top prospect in the Padres system. The 18-year-old shortstop is the youngest player in the Midwest League right now. He had a single and a walk on Thursday night. Third baseman Rosman Verdugo is the third youngest in the league. He ranks just outside of the Padres top 20 but should move up. He had an RBI single in this game. Clark Candiotti had nine strikeouts and one walk over 4 2/3 innings to start in this game. He appears in some Top 30 Padres prospect rankings. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 1, Lakeland 4 Box Score It was a tough night for the young Mussels, taking on the Lakeland Flying (and rehabbing) Tigers. Such is life in Low-A. The top three hitters for the Tigers were Wenceel Perez, Parker Meadows and Matt Vierling. And frankly, the Mussels have done fairly well against that group this week. Dylan Questad started and gave up four runs on four hits over 4 2/3 innings. He had three walks to go with six strikeouts. Tyler Stasiowski came on and allowed an inherited runner to score but then went 2 1/3 innings without allowing another run. He had three strikeouts. Ivran Romero hit a batter in an otherwise clean eighth inning. The Mussels had just one run on three hits and two walks in the game. In the fifth inning, Maddux Houghton scored on a Jefferson Valladares double. Rayne Doncon was 1-for-4 in his rehab appearance. Payton Eeles had a scheduled off day. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 10, FCL Pirates 2 Box Score The Twins scored first in the bottom of the first inning, and then took the lead for good in the third frame. And then they just added on. The FCL Twins got an FCL run in the first inning. Two hit batters, a stolen base, and two walks. In the third inning, Ramiro Dominguez reached on an error. With two outs, Ariel Castro hit his first home run of the season. The fourth inning began with a couple of walks, and an infield single loaded the bases. With two outs, Dominguez hit his fourth double of the season to clear the bases and give the Twins a 6-2 lead. It was another FCL inning for the Twins in the fifth inning. A walk. A hit batter. A double steal. A throwing error. A hit batter. A steal. And then three straight strikeouts. Jump to the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Castro hit his second home run of the game and the season to make it 8-2. The eighth inning began with a walk. Javier Roman followed with his first homer of the season to make it 10-2. To summarize, the Twins scored 10 runs on five hits, seven walks, and five hit batters. Rehabbing Christian Becerra started and struck out five batters over the first two innings. He gave up one run on three hits. Melvin Rodriguez came on and gave up one run over the next four innings to earn his first Win of the season. Mitch Mueller and Ruddy Gomez struck out four batters over the final three scoreless innings. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Ariel Castro (FCL Twins): 2-for-3, 2-HR(2), 2 R, 3 RBI, BB, SB(1) . Pitcher of the Day Simeon Woods Richardson (St. Paul): 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K. 88 pitches, 59 strikes (67.0%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - Game 1: 0-for-3, 2 K, Game 2: 1-for-1, 2 BB, HR(4), R, RBI, #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K. #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, BB, R, K #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-5, 2 K. #12 - Cory Lewis (St. Paul) - 2 2/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 78 pitches, 41 strikes (52.6%) #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Wichita) - 3-for-4. #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-5, 2 K #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 0-for-5, 2 K. FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Kansas City @ Minnesota (6:10 PM CT) - RHP Pablo Lopez (2.40 ERA) Norfolk @ St. Paul (6:37 PM CT) - RHP David Festa (2-1, 3.60 ERA) Wichita @ San Antonio (7:05 PM CT) - RHP Darren Bowen (2-0, 2.89 ERA) Cedar Rapids @ Fort Wayne (4:35 PM CT) - RHP Ty Langenberg (0-2, 7.52 ERA), TBD Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:30 PM CT) - RHP Eli Jones (1-3, 4.41 ERA) FCL Twins @ FCL Red Sox (11:00 AM CT) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the rosters, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!
- 42 comments
-
- matt wallner
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 8 more)
-
Normal transaction. Likely part of the plan that he would have worked with Twins pitching coaches and coordinators to get everyone on the same page. Most likely, he may skip a start and then rejoin the rotation. We've seen the Twins and other organizations use this strategy.
- 10 replies
-
- michael carpenter
- matt wallner
- (and 3 more)
-
For me... today... Duran - appears to be just fine. Jax - not back to last year's level and may never be, but still very good. Coulombe-IL Varland - can be dominant. sometimes might throw too many strikes. Sands - struggled early, but he's been great of late again in whatever role. Stewart - Could be higher on this list. Velo isn't fully back, but still doing pretty well. Topa - Unlike most of the rest of the Twins pitchers, he isn't a strikeout guy, so occasionally there will be some rough-looking outings with those BABIP hits we all love, but generally speaking, he's quite reliable. Alcala - I want to put him in the Varland/Sands/Stewart conversation, but his inconsistency can be incredibly frustrating. Fortunately - I think - it may be a good thing that he can't be sent down so they have to stick with him. "We" just need to accept that 3-4 times per season, he's going to go through a stretch where he's almost unusable. Because the rest of the time, he can dominate. Funderburk - I believe in Funderburk. He's lacked consistency at times, but his velo and slider can make him really good.
- 13 replies
-
- jhoan duran
- griffin jax
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
He certainly fits into the Prato, Helman type... can play 3 infield positions and 3 outfield positions. Can absolutely fly.
- 11 replies
-
- joel ortega
- emmanuel rodriguez
- (and 5 more)
-
Twins Daily Minor League Report (5/17): Surge Power Past Travelers
Seth Stohs posted an article in Minor Leagues
Baseball sometimes helps write its own storylines. This week, two such stories have presented themselves to the Twins. Out of bad, comes good. Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton went on the concussion list. Ryan Fitzgerald was called up on Friday. Carson McCusker will be called up on Sunday. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 26-20 St. Paul Saints: 21-20 Wichita Wind Surge: 21-17 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 22-15 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 18-20 FCL Twins: 6-4 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS Late last week, the Minnesota Twins signed 26-year-old right-handed relief pitcher Eston Stull. A native of Indiana, Stull spent four years at NAIA Indiana-Kokomo where 28 of his 68 appearances were starts. In 2022, he was a graduate student player and worked on his masters at Southeastern University, an NAIA school in Lakeland, Florida. He spent the 2022-2024 seasons with Sussex County in the independent Frontier League, though he pitched just two innings in 2023. He returned in 2024 and in 49 1/3 innings, he had 16 walks and 77 strikeouts. This year, he had signed to play for the Sioux Falls Canaries in the American Association. He had four strikeouts in three scoreless innings to start the season. The Twins signed him and sent him straight to Cedar Rapids. As a starter, he was in the 89-91 range. As a reliever, he is more consistently 93 and 94 mph. He also has a curveball, slider and changeup. A day after joining the Saints, Jaylen Nowlin returned to Wichita. Lefty Christian MacLeod was promoted to St. Paul and made the Saturday start. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 9, Iowa 10 Box Score Saints grab huge lead and still get walked off. Down in Des Moines, the Saints started out fast start against new Cubs starter, Kenta Maeda. Edouard Julien led off by being hit by a pitch. He moved to second on a Mickey Gasper single. Julien scored on a Jose Miranda double. Mike Ford walked. A Jeferson Morales sacrifice fly to give the Saints the 2-0 lead. Emmanuel Rodriguez walked to load the bases. Jair Camargo drove in two with a double and gave the Saints a 4-0 lead. In the top of the fourth inning, Armando Alvarez led off with a home run. Will Holland walked and went to second on a wild pitch. He scored on a Julien single. With two outs, Ford singled Julien to third base, and the French Canadian scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-0 Saints. Christian MacLeod started and threw three zeroes on the board. In the fourth inning, he got the first two outs but was charged with an unearned run. He had four walks to go with his five strikeouts. Ryan Jensen came in and after a walk, he got a strikeout. He gave up two runs in the fifth inning largely due to three walks. Brady Feigl got the sixth and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk. Jacob Bosiokovic then gave up two eighth inning runs on two hits and a walk. Through eight, the Saints were now down by a score of 9-7. With one out Rodriguez and Camargo had back-to-back singles and Alvarez walked to load the bases. Will Holland singled to score two and tie the game at 9-9. The I-Cubs walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. Camargo went 3- for-5 with his sixth double and two RBI. Armando Alvarez was 3-for-4 with a walk and his third homer. Holland was 2-for-4 with a walk. Julien went 2-for-5 and stole a base. Jose Miranda hit his second and third doubles. The Iowa Cubs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. This roster is filled with top prospects despite recent promotions of RHP Cade Horton and C/1B Moises Ballesteros to the big leagues. For more on the Cubs, check out our sister site, North Side Baseball. Here are their Top 20 Cubs prospects. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 11, Arkansas 2 Box Score Back-to-back, three-run innings trend this from a 2-2 game to an 8-2 game, and then they kept adding on. Darren Bowen started and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over four innings. He struck out four batters. Mike Paredes struck out five over three scoreless innings to improve to 5-0. Jarret Whorff tossed two more innings with a couple of zeroes going on the board to hold the Saints large lead. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Ricardo Olivar walked and scored on a Kyler Fedko double. After a walk by Kala’i Rosario, Aaron Sabato singled in Fedko. The score was 2-2 going into the bottom of the fifth. Jake Rucker and Tyler Dearden walked, but with two outs hadn’t moved. Fedko came up and drilled his seventh home run to make it 5-2. Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, Sabato led off with a walk and advanced to second on a single by Ben Ross. Andrew Cossetti got an RBI on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Dearden doubled to drive in Cossetti, and then scored on a Tanner Schobel single. Kala’i Rosario led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk. He stole second. With two outs, he scored on Andrew Cossetti’s third homer of the season. The Wind Surge led 10-2 after seven innings. Tanner Schobel led off the bottom of the eighth inning with his fifth home run. Fedko went 2-for-5 with his sixth double and seventh home run of the season. He had four RBI. Schobel was 2-for-5 with his fifth homer. Rucker and Rosario each had two walks. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Peoria 6 Box Score They had a chance, right to the end, but the Kernels were unable to make the full comeback. Ty Langenberg started the game and gave up five runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out three. Wilker Reyes got the next four outs without any further damage. Jack Noble gave up an earned run in his inning. Jacob Wosinski gave up two hits over three shutout innings. He had two strikeouts. Kyle DeBarge had a big game. He went 2-for-3 with two walks. He knocked his seventh double and stole three bases, giving him 20 on the season. Khadim Diaw was 2-for-4 with his first triple of the year. Kaelen Culpepper hit a single and walked twice. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Jupiter 5 (12 innings) Box Score After missing one start, lefty Dasan Hill returned to the mound for the Mussels on Saturday. Hill started and went the first 2 1/3 innings. He gave up no runs and no hits. He walked two and had two strikeouts. He had left his previous start early with some minor, non-arm-related tightness. On this night, he threw 41 total pitches, though just 21 were strikes. More importantly, he made a start and left the start healthy. Fellow starter Eli Jones came into the game out of the bullpen. He gave up three runs on four hits over 5 2/3 innings. He had seven strikeouts and no walks. Brennan Oxford came on for his second outing. He struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth inning. In the 10th inning, he gave up a fly out that advanced the Manfred Man from second to third. He then got another fly out that drove in the run. He then got a ground ball. He faced six batters, got all six outs, and was charged with an unearned run. Ivran Romero pitched the 11th inning and also gave up the unearned run. He came back out for the 12th inning and kept the Manfred Man from scoring and protected the lead for his team. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the sixth innings when Jupiter put a three on the board. Down 3-0 going to the eighth inning, the Mussels responded. Angel Del Rosario started the inning with a bunt single. Rayne Doncon hit an infield single. The next two batters flew out. Trying to make something happen, a double steal put runners on second and third. Jose Rodriguez, hit his fourth home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3. Rodriguez hit .125 in April. He is now hitting .136 in May. However, he has hit in four of his past five games, and is 4-for-18 (.222) with two walks in that stretch. In the top of the 10th, Dameury Pena scored on a Jefferson Valladares sacrifice fly. In the top of the 11th, Yasser Mercedes scored from third when Rodriguez struck out but a throw had to be made to first base to record the out. In the top of the 12th inning, Maddux Houghton started at second base and then stole third base. With one out, Dameury Pena flew out to right field, deep enough to drive in Houghton with the go ahead run. Payton Eeles made another rehab start. He went 0-for-2 and had a walk before his day came to an end. Rayne Doncon was 2-for-4. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 7, FCL Red Sox 2 Box Score A five-run fifth inning pushed the Twins to a win against their cross-town rivals. Joel Garcia made the Saturday morning start. He gave up one run on three hits over three innings. He had three strikeouts and no walks. Hendry Chivilli went the next two innings. He gave up no runs on one hit. He had no walks, struck out two, and improved to 2-0. Andrew Huffman had two strikeouts in a scoreless inning. It was his first outing of the season after pitching in just two games a season ago. Will Armbruester gave up a run on two hits in the seventh inning. The Twins got on the board first in the top of the third. With two outs, Eduardo Beltre walked. He went to third base on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. He then scored on a wild pitch. The fifth inning started with Carlos Silva being hit by a pitch. Then Ricardo Paez was hit by a pitch. Then, Eduardo Beltre walked to load the bases. Daiber De Los Santos flew out to drive in Silva, but Paez was thrown out at third base. After a throwing error, Bryan Acuna walked. Jayson Bass followed with a single to right that drove in Beltre and Acuna. Lis Fragoza doubled to drive in Bass. Following a Ramiro Dominguez walk, Irvin Nunez singled to drive in Fragoza and make it 6-1. In the sixth inning, Acuna singled in Paez (who walked and stole two bases) with the team’s seventh and final run of the game. The Twins scored their seven runs on six hits, seven walks and three hit batters. Luis Fragoza led the offense, going 2-for-4 with his second double of the season. He stole his fourth base. Beltre and Paez each walked twice. Dominguez hit his third double and also walked. Acuna was 1-for-2, was hit by a pitch, and walked. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Kyler Fedko (Wichita): 2-for-5, 2B(6), HR(7), 2 R, 4 RBI. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-3, 2 BB, 2B(7), 3-SB(20), 2 R, Pitcher of the Day Darren Oxford (Fort Myers): 2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, OER, 0 BB, 3 K. Jacob Wosinski (Cedar Rapids): 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K. Mike Paredes (Wichita): 3 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, BB, R, 3 K #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 BB, R, K. #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, BB, 2 RBI, 2 K #10 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 2 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 41 pitches, 21 strikes (51.2%) #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-3, 2 BB, 2B(7), 2 R, K, 3-SB(20). #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, 2 RBI, K #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 R, K #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 2-for-5, HR (5), R, 2 RBI #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 0-for-6, R, 2 K. #19 - Carson McCusker (Minnesota) - Did Not Play. Got The Call! #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB, R, K. SUNDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Minnesota @ Milwaukee (1:10 PM CDT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (FIrst MLB start of 2025) St. Paul @ Iowa (1:08 PM CDT) - RHP Andrew Morris (0-1, 3.71 ERA) Arkansas @ Wichita (1:05 PM CDT) - TBD Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CDT) - Chase Chaney (1-0, 3.18 ERA) Fort Myers @ Jupiter (11:30 AM CDT) - RHP Jason Doktorczyk (2-1, 5.01 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Saturday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!- 8 comments
-
- jair camargo
- armando alvarez
- (and 5 more)
-
Image courtesy of Ed Bailey, Wichita Wind Surge (photo of Andrew Cossetti) Baseball sometimes helps write its own storylines. This week, two such stories have presented themselves to the Twins. Out of bad, comes good. Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton went on the concussion list. Ryan Fitzgerald was called up on Friday. Carson McCusker will be called up on Sunday. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 26-20 St. Paul Saints: 21-20 Wichita Wind Surge: 21-17 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 22-15 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 18-20 FCL Twins: 6-4 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS Late last week, the Minnesota Twins signed 26-year-old right-handed relief pitcher Eston Stull. A native of Indiana, Stull spent four years at NAIA Indiana-Kokomo where 28 of his 68 appearances were starts. In 2022, he was a graduate student player and worked on his masters at Southeastern University, an NAIA school in Lakeland, Florida. He spent the 2022-2024 seasons with Sussex County in the independent Frontier League, though he pitched just two innings in 2023. He returned in 2024 and in 49 1/3 innings, he had 16 walks and 77 strikeouts. This year, he had signed to play for the Sioux Falls Canaries in the American Association. He had four strikeouts in three scoreless innings to start the season. The Twins signed him and sent him straight to Cedar Rapids. As a starter, he was in the 89-91 range. As a reliever, he is more consistently 93 and 94 mph. He also has a curveball, slider and changeup. A day after joining the Saints, Jaylen Nowlin returned to Wichita. Lefty Christian MacLeod was promoted to St. Paul and made the Saturday start. SAINTS SENTINEL St. Paul 9, Iowa 10 Box Score Saints grab huge lead and still get walked off. Down in Des Moines, the Saints started out fast start against new Cubs starter, Kenta Maeda. Edouard Julien led off by being hit by a pitch. He moved to second on a Mickey Gasper single. Julien scored on a Jose Miranda double. Mike Ford walked. A Jeferson Morales sacrifice fly to give the Saints the 2-0 lead. Emmanuel Rodriguez walked to load the bases. Jair Camargo drove in two with a double and gave the Saints a 4-0 lead. In the top of the fourth inning, Armando Alvarez led off with a home run. Will Holland walked and went to second on a wild pitch. He scored on a Julien single. With two outs, Ford singled Julien to third base, and the French Canadian scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-0 Saints. Christian MacLeod started and threw three zeroes on the board. In the fourth inning, he got the first two outs but was charged with an unearned run. He had four walks to go with his five strikeouts. Ryan Jensen came in and after a walk, he got a strikeout. He gave up two runs in the fifth inning largely due to three walks. Brady Feigl got the sixth and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk. Jacob Bosiokovic then gave up two eighth inning runs on two hits and a walk. Through eight, the Saints were now down by a score of 9-7. With one out Rodriguez and Camargo had back-to-back singles and Alvarez walked to load the bases. Will Holland singled to score two and tie the game at 9-9. The I-Cubs walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. Camargo went 3- for-5 with his sixth double and two RBI. Armando Alvarez was 3-for-4 with a walk and his third homer. Holland was 2-for-4 with a walk. Julien went 2-for-5 and stole a base. Jose Miranda hit his second and third doubles. The Iowa Cubs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. This roster is filled with top prospects despite recent promotions of RHP Cade Horton and C/1B Moises Ballesteros to the big leagues. For more on the Cubs, check out our sister site, North Side Baseball. Here are their Top 20 Cubs prospects. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 11, Arkansas 2 Box Score Back-to-back, three-run innings trend this from a 2-2 game to an 8-2 game, and then they kept adding on. Darren Bowen started and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over four innings. He struck out four batters. Mike Paredes struck out five over three scoreless innings to improve to 5-0. Jarret Whorff tossed two more innings with a couple of zeroes going on the board to hold the Saints large lead. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Ricardo Olivar walked and scored on a Kyler Fedko double. After a walk by Kala’i Rosario, Aaron Sabato singled in Fedko. The score was 2-2 going into the bottom of the fifth. Jake Rucker and Tyler Dearden walked, but with two outs hadn’t moved. Fedko came up and drilled his seventh home run to make it 5-2. Then in the bottom of the sixth inning, Sabato led off with a walk and advanced to second on a single by Ben Ross. Andrew Cossetti got an RBI on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Dearden doubled to drive in Cossetti, and then scored on a Tanner Schobel single. Kala’i Rosario led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a walk. He stole second. With two outs, he scored on Andrew Cossetti’s third homer of the season. The Wind Surge led 10-2 after seven innings. Tanner Schobel led off the bottom of the eighth inning with his fifth home run. Fedko went 2-for-5 with his sixth double and seventh home run of the season. He had four RBI. Schobel was 2-for-5 with his fifth homer. Rucker and Rosario each had two walks. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Peoria 6 Box Score They had a chance, right to the end, but the Kernels were unable to make the full comeback. Ty Langenberg started the game and gave up five runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out three. Wilker Reyes got the next four outs without any further damage. Jack Noble gave up an earned run in his inning. Jacob Wosinski gave up two hits over three shutout innings. He had two strikeouts. Kyle DeBarge had a big game. He went 2-for-3 with two walks. He knocked his seventh double and stole three bases, giving him 20 on the season. Khadim Diaw was 2-for-4 with his first triple of the year. Kaelen Culpepper hit a single and walked twice. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Jupiter 5 (12 innings) Box Score After missing one start, lefty Dasan Hill returned to the mound for the Mussels on Saturday. Hill started and went the first 2 1/3 innings. He gave up no runs and no hits. He walked two and had two strikeouts. He had left his previous start early with some minor, non-arm-related tightness. On this night, he threw 41 total pitches, though just 21 were strikes. More importantly, he made a start and left the start healthy. Fellow starter Eli Jones came into the game out of the bullpen. He gave up three runs on four hits over 5 2/3 innings. He had seven strikeouts and no walks. Brennan Oxford came on for his second outing. He struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth inning. In the 10th inning, he gave up a fly out that advanced the Manfred Man from second to third. He then got another fly out that drove in the run. He then got a ground ball. He faced six batters, got all six outs, and was charged with an unearned run. Ivran Romero pitched the 11th inning and also gave up the unearned run. He came back out for the 12th inning and kept the Manfred Man from scoring and protected the lead for his team. The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the sixth innings when Jupiter put a three on the board. Down 3-0 going to the eighth inning, the Mussels responded. Angel Del Rosario started the inning with a bunt single. Rayne Doncon hit an infield single. The next two batters flew out. Trying to make something happen, a double steal put runners on second and third. Jose Rodriguez, hit his fourth home run of the season to tie the game at 3-3. Rodriguez hit .125 in April. He is now hitting .136 in May. However, he has hit in four of his past five games, and is 4-for-18 (.222) with two walks in that stretch. In the top of the 10th, Dameury Pena scored on a Jefferson Valladares sacrifice fly. In the top of the 11th, Yasser Mercedes scored from third when Rodriguez struck out but a throw had to be made to first base to record the out. In the top of the 12th inning, Maddux Houghton started at second base and then stole third base. With one out, Dameury Pena flew out to right field, deep enough to drive in Houghton with the go ahead run. Payton Eeles made another rehab start. He went 0-for-2 and had a walk before his day came to an end. Rayne Doncon was 2-for-4. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 7, FCL Red Sox 2 Box Score A five-run fifth inning pushed the Twins to a win against their cross-town rivals. Joel Garcia made the Saturday morning start. He gave up one run on three hits over three innings. He had three strikeouts and no walks. Hendry Chivilli went the next two innings. He gave up no runs on one hit. He had no walks, struck out two, and improved to 2-0. Andrew Huffman had two strikeouts in a scoreless inning. It was his first outing of the season after pitching in just two games a season ago. Will Armbruester gave up a run on two hits in the seventh inning. The Twins got on the board first in the top of the third. With two outs, Eduardo Beltre walked. He went to third base on a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. He then scored on a wild pitch. The fifth inning started with Carlos Silva being hit by a pitch. Then Ricardo Paez was hit by a pitch. Then, Eduardo Beltre walked to load the bases. Daiber De Los Santos flew out to drive in Silva, but Paez was thrown out at third base. After a throwing error, Bryan Acuna walked. Jayson Bass followed with a single to right that drove in Beltre and Acuna. Lis Fragoza doubled to drive in Bass. Following a Ramiro Dominguez walk, Irvin Nunez singled to drive in Fragoza and make it 6-1. In the sixth inning, Acuna singled in Paez (who walked and stole two bases) with the team’s seventh and final run of the game. The Twins scored their seven runs on six hits, seven walks and three hit batters. Luis Fragoza led the offense, going 2-for-4 with his second double of the season. He stole his fourth base. Beltre and Paez each walked twice. Dominguez hit his third double and also walked. Acuna was 1-for-2, was hit by a pitch, and walked. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Kyler Fedko (Wichita): 2-for-5, 2B(6), HR(7), 2 R, 4 RBI. Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids): 2-for-3, 2 BB, 2B(7), 3-SB(20), 2 R, Pitcher of the Day Darren Oxford (Fort Myers): 2 IP, 0 H, 1 R, OER, 0 BB, 3 K. Jacob Wosinski (Cedar Rapids): 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K. Mike Paredes (Wichita): 3 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 K. PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Saturday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - 1-for-4, BB, R, 3 K #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 BB, R, K. #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-4, BB, 2 RBI, 2 K #10 - Dasan Hill (Fort Myers) - 2 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 41 pitches, 21 strikes (51.2%) #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-3, 2 BB, 2B(7), 2 R, K, 3-SB(20). #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-3, 2 RBI, K #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 0-for-2, 2 BB, 2 R, K #17 - Tanner Schobel (Wichita) - 2-for-5, HR (5), R, 2 RBI #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 0-for-6, R, 2 K. #19 - Carson McCusker (Minnesota) - Did Not Play. Got The Call! #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 1-for-4, BB, R, K. SUNDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Minnesota @ Milwaukee (1:10 PM CDT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (FIrst MLB start of 2025) St. Paul @ Iowa (1:08 PM CDT) - RHP Andrew Morris (0-1, 3.71 ERA) Arkansas @ Wichita (1:05 PM CDT) - TBD Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 PM CDT) - Chase Chaney (1-0, 3.18 ERA) Fort Myers @ Jupiter (11:30 AM CDT) - RHP Jason Doktorczyk (2-1, 5.01 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Saturday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related! View full article
- 8 replies
-
- jair camargo
- armando alvarez
- (and 5 more)
-
The Twins streak now stands at 11 consecutive wins, and they have had contributions from more than just the current 26-man roster. St. Paul played two games in Des Moines. You'll want to see how #McCrusher did. You may not want to see how Marco Raya did? Wichita got some solid pitching, but very little offense. Speaking of offense, you will definitely want to see how things went in Cedar Rapids on Thursday night. An "electric" prospect began his rehab assignment with a couple of hits for the Mighty Mussels. And, a rough streak came to an end in the FCL. It was a busy day in the Twins organization on Thursday. CURRENT W-L Records Minnesota Twins: 24-20 St. Paul Saints: 21-18 Wichita Wind Surge: 20-16 Cedar Rapids Kernels: 21-14 Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 16-20 FCL Twins: 5-3 DSL Twins: Scheduled to start on June 2. TRANSACTIONS On Thursday morning, the Twins optioned RHP Simeon Woods Richardson to St. Paul. LHP Kody Funderburk, who was the Twins 27th man for Wednesday’s double header, will remain with the team on the 26-man roster. Infielder Armando Alvarez was activated by the Saints before their Thursday afternoon doubleheader. Infielder Payton Eeles begins his rehab assignment following offseason knee surgery with the Mighty Mussels. Unfortunately, Fort Myers put their top hitter, Jay Thomason, on the 7-Day Injured List with a right ankle sprain. SAINTS SENTINEL Game 1: St. Paul 3, Iowa 8 Box Score Marco Raya needed 35 pitches to get through the first inning in his previous outing. Was Thursday’s start any better? Matt Shaw singled to lead off but was erased on a fielder’s choice. He walked Jonathan Long, but Carlos Perez struck out. A walk to Christian Franklin filled the bases. James Triantos came to the plate. With a 2-2 count, on Raya’s 28th pitch, Triantos doubled to empty the bases. One pitch later, Raya was out of the inning. In the bottom of the second inning, Raya got a groundout to start things. A walk to Shaw was followed by a strikeout and a pop out. Raya started the third inning. He gave up a leadoff double but then got the next two batters to ground out. He walked a batter, and that was it for his day. Travis Adams came on and got the final out without any further damage. Raya was charged with three runs on three hits and five walks in 2 2/3 innings. He had two strikeouts. He reached 67 pitches, but just 32 of them were strikes. Adams had a rough fourth inning in which he gave up four runs, but with the doubleheader, he had to work through it and, to some degree, had to eat some for the team. He went the final 3 1/3 innings and gave up five runs on five hits and a walk. Down 7-0 going into the fifth inning, the Saints tried to mount a comeback. Emmanuel Rodriguez led off with his fifth double. Jair Camargo followed with his second home run of the season to cut the deficit to 7-2. Those two hits accounted for two of the Saints six hits in the game. Carson McCusker went 3-for-3 in the game. Game 2: St. Paul 7, Iowa 8 Box Score The Saints got out to an early lead in the second game, but the late-inning bullpen struggled to close the door in the bottom of the seventh and then again in the bottom of the eighth. Let’s start with the positive, at least from the pitching standpoint. Darren McCaughan started and gave up one run on six hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out five batters. The lone run he gave up was on a Matt Shaw home run in the bottom of the first inning. The Saints took the lead in the second frame. With two outs, Will Holland doubled to drive in Jeferson Morales. Holland scored on a wild pitch. St. Paul added two more in the third inning. Carson McCusker led off with a double. He scored on a Mike Ford single. It was a bit station-to-station with Ford leading the way. Armando Alvarez singled Ford to second. Jair Camargo singled Ford to third. Next, Morales hit a sacrifice fly to left field, deep enough to score Ford from third. Fast-forward to the top of the seventh inning. The Saints were ahead 4-1 and added one more for insurance. Mike Ford doubled and scored on an Emmanuel Rodriguez triple to make it 5-1. A good lead with just three outs to go. Jacob Bosiokovic came in to replace Ryan Jensen who pitched a scoreless sixth inning despite giving up two hits and two walks. The I-Cubs came out attacking the zone. Just eight pitches into the bottom of the seventh, it was a one-run game at 5-4. Owen Caissie doubled. Jonathan Long switched places with him. Reese McGuire hit a two-run homer. But Bosiokovic settled a bit. He got a fly out and a ground out. The Cubs called upon Carlos Perez to pinch hit, and he hit the third pitch he saw 413 feet to tie the game at 5-5. To extra innings, we go, err, they went! In the top of the eighth, Jair Camargo was the Manfred Man on second base. Morales was hit by a pitch. Two outs later, there were still runners on first and third. However, Mickey Gasper came up big again for the Saints and drilled a two-run double. With a two-run lead, the Saints turned to lefty Brady Feigl. With a runner on second base, Royce Lewis’s high school teammate Chase Strumpf hit Feigl’s seventh pitch out of the park for his seventh home run of the season. Game tied. One pitch later, Matt Shaw must have been guessing first-pitch changeup because that’s what he got and he stayed back and drilled it over the wall in right-center field for the walkoff I-Cubs win. The Iowa Cubs are the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. This roster is filled with top prospects despite recent promotions of RHP Cade Horton and C/1B Moises Ballesteros to the big leagues. For more on the Cubs, check out our sister site, North Side Baseball. Here are their Top 20 Cubs prospects. WIND SURGE WISDOM Wichita 3, Arkansas 5 Box Score The Wind Surge have been a bit streaky early this season. In this game, they got some solid pitching but just couldn’t push enough runs across the plate. Lefty Aaron Rozek started and was charged with two runs on six hits and two walks over five innings. He had six strikeouts. John Klein came on and gave up an unearned run on one hit and one walk over his three innings. He had four strikeouts. Michael Martinez came in for the ninth inning and gave up two runs on two hits. The big blow was a two-run homer off the bat of Hunter Fitz-Gerald. The battery did help itself a few times. Ricardo Olivar picked a runner off of third base. Rozek and Klein each picked a runner off of second base. In fact, in the top of the fifth, the second out came on Olivar’s pick off and was immediately followed by Rozek picking off a runner at second. That could be a momentum changer. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Ben Ross led off with a walk and stole second base. He scored on a Noah Cardenas double. Aaron Sabato lined a single to left, pushing Cardenas to third base. Tyler Dearden flew out, but it was deep enough to score Cardenas and tie the game at 2-2. In the top of the sixth, Klein entered. With one out, an infield single with a throwing error put a runner on second base. The next batter grounded back to the mound, but a throwing error pushed the unearned run across the plate. Klein might have been Minnesota Upset, because he got the last two batters that inning to strike out. In the bottom of the sixth, Kala’i Rosario doubled with one out and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Kyler Fedko drove him in with a sacrifice fly that tied things at 3-3. Offensively, the Kernels managed just six hits and a walk. Rosario’s double was his fifth, and Cardenas’s was his fourth. Ross was the only Surge hitter to reach twice, on a single and a walk. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 15, Peoria 7 Box Score This Cedar Rapids lineup is capable of this kind of offensive outburst on any given day or night. They have immense, and very young, talent and enjoy hitting. On Thursday night in Iowa, one of their key instigators returned to the lineup after missing a week, and things clicked throughout the lineup. A week ago, Kyle DeBarge was hit by a pitch and hasn’t played since. He returned to the lineup and immediately had an impression. In addition, on Wednesday night, Kaelen Culpepper took off from third base on The Contact Play ® and slid arms-first into the catcher. It appeared that he may have had a stinger, but it could have been much worse. It was good to see him atop the lineup again on Thursday. With one out in the bottom of the first inning, DeBarge walked. Brandon Winkour followed with a double, but a perfect relay got DeBarge at the plate. Fortunately, Gabriel Gonzalez crushed a home run to center field to give the Kernels a 2-0 lead. High-ceiling Jose Olivares started for the Kernels. He put two zeroes on the board before giving up four runs in the top of the third inning. So down 4-2 going to the bottom of the third, but Kernels batters went back to work. Jaime Ferrer led off with a single. Kaelen Culpepper was hit by a pitch. Kyle DeBarge singled to load the bases. Brandon Winokur drove in two runs with his 10th double of the season. Gabriel Gonzalez drove in two more when he switched spots with Winokur after hitting his 10th double. With one out, Khadim Diaw hit a long, two-run homer, his second of the season, to give the Kernels a six-run inning, and an 8-4 lead. Culpepper led off the fourth with a single, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. He was still standing there with two outs, but Gonzalez came through again, driving in the Twins 2024 top pick with his 11th double. The fifth inning began with Khadim Diaw’s second home run of the game and third of the season, but they didn’t stop there, at 10 runs. Nate Baez singled. Caden Kendle singled. Baez scored on Jaime Ferrer’s double. It marked his fourth straight multi-hit game. Culpepper was hit by a pitch for the second time which loaded the bases again. DeBarge lined a double down the left field line and all three runners scored to stretch the lead to 14-4. With one out, Gonzalez lined his fourth hit of the game. This time it was a single to drive in DeBarge for the Kernels 15th run. All four of Gonzalez’s hits produced at least one run. Samuel Perez tossed two scoreless innings to improve to 2-0. Paulshawn Pasqualotto gave up a solo homer but got three strikeouts in his inning. Gabriel Yanez gave up two runs on five hits over two innings. Juan Mercedes gave up a hit and a walk but no runs in the ninth. Kaelen Culpepper - single, twice hit by pitch, stole base, three runs Kyle DeBarge - single, double, two walks, two runs, 3 RBI Brandon Winokur - two doubles, two runs, two RBI Gabriel Gonzalez - single, two doubles, home run, two runs, six RBI Danny De Andrade - single Khadim Diaw - two home runs, two runs, three RBI Nate Baez - two singles, two walks. Caden Kendle - single Jaime Ferrer - single, double, walk, two runs, one RBI. MUSSEL MATTERS Fort Myers 6, Jupiter 12 Box Score Payton Eeles was in a lineup for the first time in 2025. He returned after having offseason knee surgery. In his first rehab game, he batted second and played second base. He went 2-for-3 and scored a run. Following the game, Eeles told Twins Daily, “(It) felt really good tonight, excited to be out there again. Was out for way too long.” Based on my DMs and messages, I think that Twins Daily readers are thrilled that Eeles is working his way back and we get to see his name in box scores again. Maddux Houghton went 2-for-3 with two walks. He hit his first triple and scored three runs. He also stole two bases. Miguel Briceno went 2-for-4 with a walk. Peyton Carr walked three times. Overall, the Mussels were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base. Michael Carpenter gave up four runs on six hits over a career-high three innings. He had three strikeouts with no walks. Jakob Hall came on. He gave up seven runs on nine hits and a walk. He had five strikeouts. Ivran Romero gave up a run on two hits in his inning. He struck out two batters. Devin Kirby had a strikeout in a perfect inning. COMPLEX CHRONICLES FCL Twins 1, FCL Rays 2 Box Score In the FCL Twins first game of the season, Eduardo Beltre hit a grand slam in his second at-bat. Since then, in these Twins Daily minor-league reports, his name hasn’t been mentioned with another hit. However, on Thursday, Beltre led off the game with a solid single, ending an 0-for-19 streak. With one out, he stole second base, and one batter later scored on a single by Bryan Acuna to give the Twins a 1-0 lead after a half-inning. Unfortunately, that was it for runs for the Twins. In fact, the only other hit was a double by Acuna. Melvin Rodriguez got the start for the Twins. He gave up two runs on two hits and two walks. He had one strikeout. Ruddy Gomez got the next two innings. He gave up three hits, but no runs and no walks. He struck out three batters. Santiago Rojas pitched a perfect sixth inning. Not a lot of highlights in this one Beltre’s streak ended, and Bryan Acuna had a single and his second double. PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids): 4-for-6, 2-2B(11), HR(5), 2 R, 6 RBI, 2 K. Carson McCusker (St. Paul): 5-for-7, BB, 2-2B(11), R, K. Pitcher of the Day Darren McCaughan (St. Paul): 5 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 5 K. 85 pitches, 55 strikes (64.7%) PROSPECT SUMMARY Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on our updated Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday. #3 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (St. Paul) - Game 1: 1-for-3, 2B(5), R; Game 2: 2-for-4, 2B(6), 3B(1), RBI, K #6 - Kaelen Culpepper (Cedar Rapids) - 1-for-4, 2 HBP, 3 R, 2 K, SB(7). #9 - Brandon Winokur (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, 2-2B(10), 2 R, 2 RBI, K. #11 - Kyle DeBarge (Cedar Rapids) - 2-for-4, 2 BB, 2B(6), 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 K. #14 - Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) - 4-for-6, 2-2B(11), HR(5), 2 R, 6 RBI, 2 K #16 - Eduardo Beltre (FCL Twins) - 1-for-2, BB, R, K, SB(4) #18 - Yasser Mercedes (Fort Myers) - 1-for-5, 2 K. OF Assist. #19 - Carson McCusker (St. Paul) - Game 1: 3-for-3, Game 2: 2-for-4, BB, 2-2B(11), R, K #20 - Ricardo Olivar (Wichita) - 0-for-4. FRIDAY PITCHING PROBABLES Minnesota @ Milwaukee (7:10 PM CDT) - Joe Ryan (3-2, 2.74 ERA) St. Paul @ Iowa (7:08 PM CDT) - RHP Zebby Matthews (2-1, 1.93 ERA)? Arkansas @ Wichita (6:35 PM CDT) - LHP Christian MacLeod (0-1, 1.38 ERA) Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 PM CDT) - Jeremy Lee (2-2, 8.20 ERA) Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:30 PM CDT) - RHP Dylan Questad (1-1, 3.86 ERA) FCL Red Sox @ FCL Twins (11:00 AM CDT) - TBD Please feel free to ask questions about the teams, the roster, and discuss Thursday’s games, or anything else Twins minor-league related!
- 11 comments
-
- bryan acuna
- carson mccusker
- (and 8 more)

