Twins Minor League Report (4/8): Encarnacion-Strand Leaves No One Stranded

[Seth Stohs]

Sure, the Saints played their fourth game of the season tonight, but for the Wind Surge, the Kernels and the Mighty Mussels, Happy Opening Day!! The Twins played an exciting opener at Target Field, and there were some good games and strong performances in the minor leagues 

The daily Minor League Reports have been back for three days already, but tonight feels a little more special. It is Opening Night for the Wichita Wind Surge, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, and the Ft. Myers Mighty Mussels. There was a big-time Minnesota connection in Wichita. The Kernels had a hitter make a very strong first impression. A couple of first-rounders had big nights in Ft. Myers and they held on for a close win. Oh, and the Saints got another win as a former prospect returned to the organization and pitched well. 

Let’s get to the report. As always, please feel free to discuss and ask questions. 

TRANSACTIONS

• On Friday, Cedar Rapids announced that seven players have been added to their roster, but on the Injured List. Added to the 60-Day IL are right-handed pitchers Jon Olsen (Tommy John), Luis Rijo (Tommy John), and lefty Zarion Sharpe (forearm strain). Placed on the 7-Day IL are right-handed pitchers Owen Griffith (forearm strain), Francis Peguero (low back strain), Ryan Shreve (shoulder impingement), and catcher Pat Winkel (low back strain). 

SAINTS SENTINEL 
St. Paul 7, Louisville1
Box Score

Derek Rodriguez officially made his return to the organization when he made his first start of the season for the St. Paul Saints. The former outfielder-turned-pitcher who spent parts of three seasons pitching for the Giants after leaving the Twins via free agency went the first four innings. He gave up just one hit, walked two and struck out five batters without allowing a run. He threw 58 pitches (32 strikes). 

Drew Strotman came on in his new bullpen role. He provided three innings and gave up just one run on one hit. He walked three and struck out two batters. Wladimir Pinto struck out two batters over the final two innings. 

Jake Cave continues to lead the Saints’ offense. He led off tonight with Jose Miranda getting the game off. Cave went 2-for-3 with two walks and a triple in this game. He is currently hitting .500 with an OPS of 1.397. Royce Lewis had a single in five at bats. Trevor Larnach recorded his first hit of the season, and he also drove in the Saints first run with a sacrifice fly. Mark Contreras provided the big hit in a three-run third inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, he hit a solid single up the middle to drive in two runs. 

The Saints are now 3-1. 

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 4, Tulsa 5
Box Score

Lots of Minnesota connections in this one, but let’s talk about the game first. Matt Canterino made the start for the Wind Surge. He really struggled at the start. His game started rough. He gave up a single, then walked a batter. He gave up a run on a double. Then he walked another batter to load the bases. He got a pop up and a couple of strikeouts to get out of the inning, but he needed to throw 30 pitches. He did get a second inning, and recorded a third strikeout, but that was the end to his night. 

Louie Varland came in  to start the third inning. He got the same strike zone that Canterino and the Drillers starting pitcher got. He went 4 2/3 innings. He gave up four runs on five hits and five walks. He walked four batters. Evan Sisk got the next four outs without any more damage despite two walks. Steven Cruz pitched a scoreless ninth frame. 

That Drillers starter was none other than Louie’s brother Gus Varland. It had to be fun for the 19 or more family members that made the trek to Wichita. He went 4 1/3 scoreless innings and gave up just one hit. He walked four batters and struck out five. In addition, Inver Grove Heights native Michael Busch, a Dodgers top prospect, went 0-for-3 and walked twice. 

The Wind Surge didn’t get much offense and were unable to do much, until very late in the game. Down 5-0, the Wind Surge scored a run in the seventh inning. And in the eighth inning, outfielder Cole Sturgeon hit a three-run homer to cut the deficit to just one run. 

Michael Helman led the offense. He went 0-for-1 but walked three times. Forest Lake’s Matt Wallner walked twice in the game, as did Andrew Bechtold. 

However, in the ninth inning, the Tulsa closer struck out the side to end any walkoff hopes for the Wind Surge. 

Here is the Twins Spotlight episode with Louie and Gus Varland from before spring training if you missed it.  

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 12, Beloit 5
Box Score

Pro ball is Christian Encarnacion-Strand’s world. That is all. Since the Twins selected him with their fourth-round pick last summer out of Oklahoma State, he has hit. In 22 games last year in Ft. Myers, he hit .391/.424/.598 (1.022) with two doubles, two triples, and four home runs.  

Now fast-forward to 2022, he is promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids, and despite freezing, cold temperatures, he went 4-for-5 with a grand slam in the seven-run fourth inning and a three-run homer in the sixth inning. He ended the game with nine RBI. Hey, guess who is going to be the minor-league hitter of the day? 

And how about the Kernels LED lights that they installed last season! 

Anthony Prato led off for the Kernels. He went 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored. He also stole a base. Batting ninth was Kennie Taylor went 2-for-4 with an RBI. 

Lefty Aaron Rozek started and went the first five innings to earn the Win in this game. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on five hits. He walked none and struck out six batters. Bradley Hanner came on and walked two over two scoreless, hitless innings. He struck out two batters. Tyler Palm worked the final two innings. He gave up two runs on four hits while striking out four batters. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 6, Clearwater 5
Box Score

The Mighty Mussels got their season going with a nice win. They jumped out to a 6-2 lead through five innings and then held on for a one-run win. 

John Stankiewicz was the starter of the Mussels. The Fordham alum gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over five innings. He struck out eight batters and earned his first win of the season. Hunter McMahon came on and gave up three runs on three hits and a walk in two innings. He struck out two batters. Matthew Swain came on and tossed two perfect innings to record the save. The hard-throwing right-hander struck out three batters. 

Ft. Myers got on the board in the top of the third inning. With the bases loaded, Keoni Cavaco drilled a bases-clearing double. He went 3-for-5 in the game. In the fifth inning, Kala’i Rosario tripled in a run and then scored on a Kyler Fedko sacrifice to give the Mussels their sixth run. 

Noah Miller went 3-for-5 in the game as the team’s leadoff hitter. He also stole a base. Kyle Schmidt went 2-4 with the other RBI. 

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Every day, we will select one hitter of the day and one pitcher of the day, and you can discuss who it should have been. Hopefully many days we will have many good options! 

Pitcher of the Day – John Stankiewicz (Ft. Myers) - 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 8 K
Hitter of the Day – Christian Encarnacion-Strand (Cedar Rapids) - 4-5, 2 R, 9 RBI 2 HR

PROSPECT SUMMARY

We will again keep tabs on the Twins top prospects. You’ll probably read about them in the team sections, but if they aren’t there, you’ll see how they did here. 

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

#1 - Austin Martin (Wichita) - 0-5, 2 K, 2 Es
#2 - Royce Lewis (St. Paul) - 1-5, R, K, SB (3) 
#5 - Joe Ryan (Minnesota) - 4 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 HBP (70 pitches, 42 strikes)
#6 - Matt Canterino (Wichita) - 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 3 K (45 pitches, 26 strikes)
#7 - Jhoan Duran (Minnesota) - 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K (31 pitches, 22 strikes) 
#10 - Noah Miller (Ft. Myers) - 3-5, R, SB (1) 
#12 - Matt Wallner (Wichita) - 0-2, 2 BB, 2 K 
#14 - Louie Varland (Wichita) - 4.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 5 BB, 4 K, (86 pitches, 49 strikes)
#15 - Emmanuel Rodriguez (Ft. Myers) - 0-3, 2 BB, R, K 
#18 - Spencer Steer (Wichita) - 1-3, BB, K
#19 - Edouard Julien (Wichita) - 1-4

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

St. Paul @ Louisville (12:05PM CST) - LHP Devin Smeltzer
Tulsa @ Wichita (6:05PM CST) - RHP Simeon Woods Richardson 
Beloit @ Cedar Rapids (2:05 PM CST) - LHP Brent Headrick 
Fort Myers @ Clearwater (5:05 PM CST) - RHP David Festa 

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Friday’s games! It sure is exciting to have all four Twins full-season affiliates back and playing.

 

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[ashbury]

Greatest article so far in 2022!   Even better than Steve Lein's masterpiece last Tuesday!

[darwin22]

Seth:  Excellent analysis on games tonight.  For the understatement of the night-------nice game by Christian Encarnacion-Strand!  9 RBI...wow!!  Do you know if that's a Twins minor league record?  Reminds me of the afternoon back in June 1977 that Glenn Adams set the Twins record with 8 RBI in their 19-12 slugfest win over the White Sox at Met Stadium.  Bummer to see Canterino struggle mightily tonight in his start for Wind Surge.  4 wins tonight, which is a good thing.  Too bad our boys at Target Field couldn't muster more offense.  

[ashbury]

20 minutes ago, darwin22 said:

4 wins tonight, which is a good thing.

Wichita was on the losing end, misfortunately.

[MplsFan]

A lot to like!

Opening Day for a number of teams.  A well-written article (thanks Seth).  Royce Lewis 3-3 on steals in 3 games- I guess I didn’t realize he had THAT kind of speed.  Those LEDs in Cedar Rapids were wild- makes me want to take in a game there even more!

ENCARNACION-STRAND!  Wow.  What an opener for him.  Will be fun to follow him on these pages this season.   Can’t wait!

[jmlease1]

Tough beats for most of the Wichita twins prospects! Looking forward to that crew getting on track, because there's some fun players there.

[Seth Stohs]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Greatest article so far in 2022!   Even better than Steve Lein's masterpiece last Tuesday!

[nclahammer]

It feels so good to have the full Minnesota Twins minor league report back, like extra French vanilla creamer in my coffee...so sweeeeet.

[mikelink45]

Excellent coverage - fun to follow the minor leaguers!  I imagine it was fun for the Varland brothers.  Too early to form any opinions other than it is great to have baseball again. 

[The Mad King]

Cavaco moved to 3rd base a permanent thing? 

Hope for a speedy recovery to Zarion Sharpe. How can you not want a guy with that name on your roster some day?

[RJA]

The Minor League Report is one of my favorite features on TD site.  I enjoy the summaries and insights even for games I watch or attend.  17 walks in the Wichita game.  The plate umpire must of had a strike zone the size of a pea.  Actually when you attend a lot of minor league games, it becomes easy to spot the umpires that are on the way up.  They just stand out compared to their compatriots.  Great job, Seth--as usual.

[PatPfund]

Great article! 

Since I lost my avenue for watching Twins games live (my old ISP's server was in Chicago, so MLB.tv blacked out the ChiSox/Cubs, and treated Twins as out-of-market; an unintended bonus for me until they disconnected this area), I plunked my MLB.tv money into Twins Daily, The Athletic, and an annual subscription to MiLB.tv. ($50). I'll be "watching" the Twins on radio (which is fine; I'm old so I'm used to the medium), but I'm getting way more bang for my buck!

Had a gas scrolling between the Saints and Kernels last night with an added benefit being there were often no commercials between innings, and no black screen announcing a commercial was in progress. Instead you get to watch (soundless, alas) some of the 'tween innings hijinx put on in the minors. So much fun; a great chance to see the Twins up-and-comers (including that monster Cave!!! who is that guy?!?!?!?!), and visual to add context to these excellent Minor League reports.

Edited April 9, 2022 by PatPfund
removed extra word edit

[PatPfund]

1 hour ago, RJA said:

The Minor League Report is one of my favorite features on TD site.  I enjoy the summaries and insights even for games I watch or attend.  17 walks in the Wichita game.  The plate umpire must of had a strike zone the size of a pea.  Actually when you attend a lot of minor league games, it becomes easy to spot the umpires that are on the way up.  They just stand out compared to their compatriots.  Great job, Seth--as usual.

Opposite going on in Louisville. A borderline pitch was called a strike, and the Louisville broadcast crew (on a bitterly cold night) openly speculated that anything close was going to get called to move the game, and the batters should be ready to swing. (And they were probably right. Looked like about 10 fans left at the park around the 6th inning.)

[RJA]

1 hour ago, PatPfund said:

Opposite going on in Louisville. A borderline pitch was called a strike, and the Louisville broadcast crew (on a bitterly cold night) openly speculated that anything close was going to get called to move the game, and the batters should be ready to swing. (And they were probably right. Looked like about 10 fans left at the park around the 6th inning.)

Minor league umpiring is nothing if not inconsistent!  But, at least in that case there was some justification given the weather.  I don't know how you feel, but I actually like an umpire who has a bit of a large zone as it moves the game along as batters adjust and are more aggressive.  This assumes that they are consistent for both sides and throughout the game of course.  

[Dman]

It was nice to see Miller and Cavaco get off to good starts going 3 for 5.  They are both elite defenders that just need their bats to come around to make it.  Last night was a good start.

Encarnation-Strand was his usual aggressive self at the plate.  I don't know if you can trust the MiLB gameday app for where pitches are thrown but both the HR pitches were right down the middle of the plate.  They had no choice but to challenge him with the bases loaded but why they didn't nibble more and test his eye at the plate I do not know.  Guessing team will be more careful from now on as he already did a weeks worth of damage in one game.  

I was not huge fan of that pick in the Twins draft as he looked like another slow footed bat first player but for a 4th round pick he is a huge find.  He looks much better than our 1st rounder Sabato.  Not sure how he does it but he has been amazing so far.

[2wins87]

Cavavo, Rodriguez, and Kalai Rosario could potentially do a lot of damage in the middle of the mussel's lineup, with Miller hopefully setting the table

[PatPfund]

28 minutes ago, RJA said:

Minor league umpiring is nothing if not inconsistent!  But, at least in that case there was some justification given the weather.  I don't know how you feel, but I actually like an umpire who has a bit of a large zone as it moves the game along as batters adjust and are more aggressive.  This assumes that they are consistent for both sides and throughout the game of course.  

Amen, brother! Another MiLB bonus is the effort to pick up the pace of the game. Not sure about all of them, but the pace is definitely faster (which helps the spectating as much as it notoriously helps keep the defenders in the game).

[PatPfund]

10 minutes ago, Dman said:

It was nice to see Miller and Cavaco get off to good starts going 3 for 5.  They are both elite defenders that just need their bats to come around to make it.  Last night was a good start.

Encarnation-Strand was his usual aggressive self at the plate.  I don't know if you can trust the MiLB gameday app for where pitches are thrown but both the HR pitches were right down the middle of the plate.  They had no choice but to challenge him with the bases loaded but why they didn't nibble more and test his eye at the plate I do not know.  Guessing team will be more careful from now on as he already did a weeks worth of damage in one game.  

I was not huge fan of that pick in the Twins draft as he looked like another slow footed bat first player but for a 4th round pick he is a huge find.  He looks much better than our 1st rounder Sabato.  Not sure how he does it but he has been amazing so far.

You can see both of E-S's HRs on video in the article above; 1st was center at the knees, the second more center-center. As I remember from the first HR, the pitchers for the Sky Carp were struggling  with control to an extent that had already cost them the lead, and filled the bases, so I'm guessing there wasn't the confidence/ability/instructions needed to tempt E-S at the edges. The second might have been a mistake, or a 'it's cold and we're down 5; throw strikes and let your defense play and move the game along.'

[Seth Stohs]

3 hours ago, The Mad King said:

Cavaco moved to 3rd base a permanent thing? 

Hope for a speedy recovery to Zarion Sharpe. How can you not want a guy with that name on your roster some day?

I'm sure Cavaco will get some time at shortstop too still, but moving to third base might be best for him. That's where he played in high school because Marcelo Mayer was the shortstop at his high school. 

 

[Seth Stohs]

47 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

Cavavo, Rodriguez, and Kalai Rosario could potentially do a lot of damage in the middle of the mussel's lineup, with Miller hopefully setting the table

Those three are all really good prospects, but hitting in the FSL is hard. I wouldn't expect huge numbers from them at that level. The hope is that they'll just keep adjusting and getting better and hitting the ball hard and all those things. 

[Unwinder]

Love all the shameless base-stealing from the Saints, Royce is looking like a real pest. I hope he keeps it up.

.

[ashbury]

23 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

I'm sure Cavaco will get some time at shortstop too still, but moving to third base might be best for him. That's where he played in high school because Marcelo Mayer was the shortstop at his high school.

Uffda.  I do NOT remember this from when Cavaco was drafted.  Second Best Shortstop On Your High School Team (to a guy younger than you, on top of that) does not equal Major League Shortstop, 99 times out of 100 - even if that "other guy" is legit.  Seems to make Cavaco's draft slot even more of a reach than I understood.

[bunsen82]

45 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Uffda.  I do NOT remember this from when Cavaco was drafted.  Second Best Shortstop On Your High School Team (to a guy younger than you, on top of that) does not equal Major League Shortstop, 99 times out of 100 - even if that "other guy" is legit.  Seems to make Cavaco's draft slot even more of a reach than I understood.

Ashbury,  this has been the storyline since he was drafted.  A five tool player that had played 3rd base but that the Twins would try at SS.  Most pundits still thought he was a 3rd base candidate.  The other thing is go look at him now,  he is really starting to fill out.  If you can find an elite player at 3rd for the 13th pick you do it.   However,  the twins were taking a chance on him,  he has a really low floor if his hit tool doesn't come around.  Your other choice for SS at the time was Bryson Stott - who is now up for the Phillies as a 3rd baseman.  Now Cavaco can still be a SS but even on his team you now have Noah Miller at shortstop.  I do think there will always be someone a little better than Cavaco for defense at SS.  Stott is 3 years olders and would have Miranda competing him with him for the next couple years if he was with the twins.   

Now lets see where he it becomes interesting even with a lost year.  He is known for being a professional.   He works extremely hard and his body shows it.  He had some rough spots last year but really improved.  This year he has come in and to me looks like a different player from where he was before.  His swing is much better,  and he still has all the athleticism- his ceiling is ultimately higher than a player like Stott even though the odds he reaches it is much less,  but based on what I have seen and read about him this year makes him a very intriguing player down the road.  

SS is still going to be where we will continue to hope to develop.  You hope Lewis can be the man,  and then we are building up the depth.  You have Lewis, Palacios (probably the most ready player) in AAA, You have Martin in AA with not much else, Javier and Holland at High A and then Miller in A ball.  Holland unless the hit tool suddenly improves drastically is not likely going to be able to progress.  Good defense and speed will only get you so far.   

[bunsen82]

As an aside Palacios if he makes it to the big leagues is a very interesting case for the Twins,  You trade him for Odorizzi and then he struggles in the Rays system he comes back to the twins and it is as if he never left and he really played well last year.  If Correa gets injured or traded this year,  Palacios will likely be the fill in unless we are willing to pass on the mantle to Lewis.