Article: Twins Minor League Report (4/20): Poppen Off With a Lot of Strikeouts

[Matt Braun]

Thanks to pitching that has been great all year, the Pensacola Blue Wahoos were able to throw their fourth shutout of the year, this one coming with 18 strikeouts. What else went on in the land of the Twins minor league system? Follow me and I’ll take you through it.TRANSACTIONS

-OF Mark Contreras tranferred from AA Pensacola to A+ Fort Myers

-RHP Jacob Blank transferred from A+ Fort Myers to Rookie ball Elizabethton

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 8, Lehigh Valley 13

Box Score

 

Chase De Jong: 2.0 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 52.1% strikes (38 of 73 pitches)

HR: John Andreoli (2)

Multi-hit games: John Andreoli (2-for-4, R, RBI), LaMonte Wade (2-for-5, 2 R), Luke Raley (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI), Randy César (3-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI)

 

Another Saturday, another day where Chase De Jong started against the IronPigs and I got to write about it.

 

In relief of De Jong after his two innings of work, Jake Reed fired off three excellent innings with only one earned run and six strikeouts. Now it only seems like a matter of if, not when Reed shows up on the Twins sometime this season.

 

The offense was able to put up eight runs thanks in part to a John Andreoli blast and two doubles from Randy César that buffed up his RBI totals.

 

While the eight runs were great, it was just not quite enough to match the IronPigs offense and the Red Wings dropped the game in the end.

 

BLUE WAHOO BITES

Pensacola 5, Mobile 0

Box Score

 

Sean Poppen: 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 11 K, 64.6% strikes (51 of 79 pitches)

HR: None

Multi-hit games: Jaylin Davis (2-for-3, R), Tanner English (2-for-2, 3 R, 2 RBI), Ernie De La Trinidad (3-for-4, RBI)

 

Pensacola yet again got another great start from their starting pitcher, this time from the owner of one of my favorite names in the Twins system, Sean Poppen.

 

Poppen was relieved after five innings by Jovani Moran who was relieved after two innings by Cody Stashak who fired off two innings of his own, with the carnage totaling 18 total strikeouts for Blue Wahoos pitching.

 

The Blue Wahoos scraped together five assorted runs throughout the game from a myriad of singles (both of the infield and outfield variety) in support of the excellent pitching and it was enough to beat the BayBears pretty handily.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 2, Charlotte 7

Box Score

 

Charlie Barnes: 1 2/3 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 5 BB, 0 K, 55.2% strikes (32 of 58 pitches)

HR: None

Multi-hit games: Royce Lewis (2-for-5), Lewin Diaz (2-for-4, RBI), Travis Blankenhorn (2-for-3, R, BB), Michael Helman (2-for-4)

 

Charlie Barnes went 1 2/3 innings and surrendered seven runs with five walks against the Charlotte Stone Crabs.

 

Tom Hackimer came in and did fine work by striking out five over 2 1/3 innings without allowing a hit or a walk.

 

Relievers Alex Phillips and Anthony Vizcaya followed suit with a combined five innings of work that came with six punchouts and only three hits. The Miracle bullpen in total fired off 7 1/3 innings with 11 punchouts and just three hits.

 

The two runs for the Miracle came from a fourth inning Lewin Diaz single and a ninth inning sacrifice fly from Ryan Costello.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 4, Beloit 5

Box Score

 

Josh Winder: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 70.1% strikes (54 of 77 pitches)

HR: Chris Williams (3)

Multi-hit games: Andrew Bechtold (2-for-4, R)

 

The Kernels went for the series sweep against the Beloit Snappers but came up just a bit short and had to settle for taking two of three instead.

 

The scoring started in the bottom of the first when Chris Williams made another deposit into his charity fund that gives home run balls to lucky fans in the outfield stands, his two-run shot was his second homer in as many days.

 

The Snappers responded by scoring the next five runs of the game with the earned runs being split between Kernels starter Josh Winder and reliever Tyler Palm.

 

The Kernels were able to answer back in the seventh with runs coming from a Michael Davis double and a Gabriel Maciel single but the inning ended with the Kernels trailing by a run and the game would end in the same fashion.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Sean Poppen

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Randy César

 

PROSPECT SUMMARY

Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:

 

#1 - Royce Lewis (Ft. Myers) - 2-for-5, K

#2 - Alex Kirilloff (Pensacola) - Injured list

#3 - Brusdar Graterol (Pensacola) - Did not pitch

#4 - Trevor Larnach (Ft. Myers) - 1-for-4, R, K

#5 - Wander Javier (EST) - Season has not started

#6 - Brent Rooker (Rochester) - Did not play

#7 - Jhoan Duran (Ft. Myers) - Did not pitch

#8 - Lewis Thorpe (Rochester) - Did not pitch

#9 - Blayne Enlow (Cedar Rapids) - Did not pitch

#10 - Akil Baddoo (Ft. Myers) - 1-for-5, K

#11 - Nick Gordon (Rochester) - Injured list

#12 - Stephen Gonsalves (Rochester) - Injured list

#13 - Ryan Jeffers (Ft. Myers) - 1-for-4, 2 K

#14 - Ben Rortvedt (Ft. Myers) - 0-for-3, BB

#15 - Yunior Severino (Cedar Rapids) - Injured list

#16 - Gilberto Celestino (Cedar Rapids) - 0-for-2, K

#17 - Zack Littell (Rochester) - Did not pitch

#18 - LaMonte Wade (Rochester) - 2-for-5,

#19 - Jorge Alcala (Pensacola) - Did not pitch

#20 - Jose Miranda (Ft. Myers) - Did not play

 

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Mobile @ Pensacola (5:05 P.M.) - RHP Jorge Alcala

 

(Most other leagues are off for Easter Sunday)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday’s games.

 

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[Matt Braun]

My only good title

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

Hail Cesar! I see this guy is only 24, and came over from the Astros organization as a minor league free agent. He put up good numbers with the Astros too. Any more information on him? I searched the Twins Daily archives and noticed that Seth didn't project him as a starter. Looks like the Astros loss is our gain.

[AlwaysinModeration]

Nice job, Matt. I particularly liked how you wrote about de Jong’s performance by skipping over it entirely.

 

I also hope you mean it is only a matter of when, not if, Jake Reed gets the call to the Twins’ bullpen.

[clutterheart]

Looking forward for Kirilloff, Gonsalves & Gordon to get healthy and Javier to get to cedar rapids.

[ashbury]

My only good title

You resisted to summarize the AAA game as "Lehigh Valley Hitters Chase De Starter".

[jmlease1]

well, outings like this will do wonders to put Poppen on people's radar. Hard to tell what kind of prospect he really is: he seems to be moving his way up through the minors at a pretty steady pace, but he's not been particularly dominant?

 

Really want to see Kirilloff, Javier, Gonsalves, and Gordon playing soon.

[Yossarian]

Cesar had a Texas League record 42-game hitting streak last year.

[bird]

What's up with Royce Lewis?

[ashbury]

What's up with Royce Lewis?

His batting average. He went 2-for-5.

[rdehring]

The Twins really need to see Gonasalves, Gordon and Javier get onto the field. 

 

At the end of this year, there are going to be lots of decisions that they will need to make.  Do they try to bring Schoop back?  The type of year Gordon has will be part of that decision.  There are lots of holes in their starting rotation next year.  Before bringing any of the current guys back, would be nice to know if Gonsalves is a potential replacement.  And finally, Javier needs to be added to the 40-man this November as he was signed on July 2, 2015.  I assume he will be, but he is now in his 5th year in the organization and has played in only 50 games with most two years ago at Elizabethton.  Hopefully, all will be in these reports beginning this coming week!

[gil4]

 

Nice job, Matt. I particularly liked how you wrote about de Jong’s performance by skipping over it entirely.

I assume he applied the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" principle. (We normally ignore that around here.)

[Seth Stohs]

 

Hail Cesar! I see this guy is only 24, and came over from the Astros organization as a minor league free agent. He put up good numbers with the Astros too. Any more information on him? I searched the Twins Daily archives and noticed that Seth didn't project him as a starter. Looks like the Astros loss is our gain.

 

He had a big, long hitting streak last year. But signed young, he because a free agent young. Nice pickup by the Twins... though might be the worst defensive player that I have seen (admittedly early-season small sample).