Minor League Report 4/16 The Bats Are Sizzling

[Matt Braun]

The hitters across the farm system enjoyed fruitful days at the plate. Read all about that and more in this edition  of the minor league report.

 

TRANSACTIONS
LHP Lewis Thorpe added to AAA St. Paul from Development List

Saints Sentinel
St. Paul 16, Indianapolis 13
Box Score
Lewis Thorpe: 1 ⅔ IP, 6 H, 8 ER, 2 BB, 2 K
HR: Derek Fisher (2), Curtis Terry (3), Jermaine Palacios (1)
Multi-hit games: Jose Miranda (3-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2B), Royce Lewis (3-for-5, 2 R, RBI, 2 2B, 3B), Curtis Terry (2-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR), Jermaine Palacios (4-for-4, 4 R, 2 RBI, HR)

The Saints won a crazy game on Saturday.

Lewis Thorpe took the bump for St. Paul; the recently outrighted left-hander was looking to impress in his first official start of the season. Things did not go well. Thorpe was tagged for a solo shot in the first inning, but the second inning proved to be most damaging as seven runners crossed home plate for Indianapolis. J.C. Ramirez had to be called in to end the madness.

Down eight runs early, the Saints' bats remained unphased. Derek Fisher answered back with a two-run homer to cut the lead to six, while a Jose Miranda single knocked down the deficit to within one-hand-counting distance. 

But the team was not done yet. In the third inning, St. Paul harassed Jerad Eickhoff and southpaw-Frenchman, Cam Vieaux to the tune of five runs—just enough to knot the game at eight.  

The game remained a slugfest until the bell rung in the ninth inning. Indianapolis would take a three-run lead, Curtis Terry would erase it; Indianapolis jumped ahead later, then Miranda and Royce Lewis negated it. Eventually, Jermaine Palacios yelled enough and blasted a two-run homer that cemented the Saints’ lead for good.

Royce Lewis, once again, was the star of the show. He unleashed three crucial extra-base hits from the DH spot that either ignited a rally or stoked the flames of one. It would be difficult to have a better start to the season (although Christian Encarnacion-Strand is making a case). Jermaine Palacios’ 4-for-4 performance should not be ignored either. The 25-year-old started at left field instead of shortstop like usual and showed no discomfort by reaching base all five times he walked up to the plate.

Wind Surge Wisdom
Wichita 6, NW Arkansas 5
Box Score
Chris Vallimont: 2 ⅓ IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 2 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Austin Martin (3-for-4, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB), Spencer Steer (2-for-5), Dennis Ortega (2-for-5, 2 RBI), Michael Helman (2-for-5), Andrew Bechtold (2-for-5, R), Kevin Merrell (3-for-5, RBI)

Wichita won an extra-inning affair on Saturday.

Chris Vallimont was handed the ball to start the game and did not have his best stuff. The righty struggles with command, walking five hitters before his day ended partway through the third inning. Hopefully, he can rebound in his next start.

The offense kept the game within reach, however. Dennis Ortega brought home the first run of the game with a two-run single in the 5th inning, while Wichita drew the game even closer when Austin Martin scored in the 7th inning when the Naturals' defense threw the ball around the field. Martin later knotted the game with a clutch RBI single in the 8th inning.

The game moved into extra innings, where the Wind Surge took advantage of the Manfred runner to plate two runs thanks to an Alex Isola sacrifice fly and a single from Kevin Merrell. Steven Klimek was shaky to close the game. He allowed a runner to score, and ultimately loaded the bases before inducing the final outs to end the game in favor of Wichita.

Kernels Nuggets
Cedar Rapids 10, Quad Cities 2
Box Score
Sawyer Gipson-Long: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K
HR: Aaron Sabato (1), Jair Camargo (2, 3)
Multi-hit games: Anthony Prato (2-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, BB), Christian Encarnacion-Strand (2-for-6, 2 R), Aaron Sabato (2-for-4, 2 R, 5 RBI, BB, 2B, HR), Jair Camargo (4-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR), Will Holland (2-for-5, R, 2B)

The Kernels demolished their opponent on Saturday.

Sawyer Gipson-Long set the tone on the mound with five masterful innings. The righty scattered three hits across his start while punching out an impressive nine batters in just 60 pitches. Talk about efficiency. Gipson-Long found a groove late last year, and he has continued to melt faces with the Kernels; he’ll certainly be in Wichita sooner than later.

But that’s enough about pitching. Cedar Rapids’ bats were explosive early and often on Saturday. Aaron Sabato smacked a three-run homer in the first inning, Jair Camargo sent a solo shot over the wall in the second, Jeferson Morales tripled home a run in the third, Camargo hit another homer in the fourth, and, well, you get the idea.

In total, the Kernels bopped seven extra-base hits in the game with a fairly even distribution of damage amongst all hitters. 

Derek Molina concluded the game with two shutout innings and four strikeouts.

Mussel Matters
Fort Myers 2, Jupiter 6
Box Score
David Festa: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
HR: None
Multi-hit games: Kyler Fedko (3-for-3, R, RBI, 2B)

The Mighty Mussels lost a rain-shortened game on Saturday.

David Festa took the mound for the second Saturday in a row, and much like the previous week, he flashed dominant ability with eight strikeouts over five efficient innings. Tom Froemming notes that he topped out at 97.2 MPH with his fastball. 

Offensively, the game was a struggle for the Fort Myers bats. Thanks to RBI doubles from Kyler Fedko and Kala’i Rosario, the Mighty Mussels took a quick lead, but those would prove to be the only two runs of the day for the team.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had enough of Fort Myers’ winning streak, and the higher powers convened to snap the team’s seven-game run in the 6th inning.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Sawyer Gipson-Long
Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jermaine Palacios/Jair Camargo

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed:
#1 – Austin Martin (Wichita) - 3-for-4, 2 R, RBI, 2 BB, K
#2 – Royce Lewis (St. Paul) - 3-for-5, 2 R, RBI, 2 2B, 3B, 
#3 – Jose Miranda (St. Paul) - 3-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2B
#9 – Josh Winder (Minnesota) - 5 ⅓ IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
#12 – Matt Wallner (Wichita) - 0-for-5, 2 K
#15 – Emmanuel Rodriguez (Fort Myers) - 0-for-3, 2 K
#18 – Spencer Steer (Wichita) - 2-for-5, K

SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
Indianapolis @ St. Paul (2:07 PM) - RHP Jake Faria
Wichita @ NW Arkansas (2:05 PM) - RHP Brandon Lawson
Cedar Rapids @ Quad Cities (1:00 PM) - LHP Aaron Rozek
Jupiter @ Fort Myers (12:00 PM) - RHP Travis Adams

 

 

 

 

 

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[Dman]

Jermaine Palacios had miself a game.  Brought his OPS .958 level with a 4 for 4 night.  He is right behind Lewis for OPS and he plays good D at short as well.  Looks like he is starting to find his groove.

Lewis Thorpe was Brutal again giving up 8 earned runs along with 2 Homers. I know it is cold in St Paul but he is making a case against himself at this point.

Martin continues to come on strong A 3 for 4 day with 2 walks.  He seems to be waking up to the season.  Steer is still the best hitter with a 935 OPS.

Sabato had more RBI's but Camargo went 4 for 5 with 2 HR's.  Quite the day the young catcher.  CES still went 2 for 6 and keeps his OPS in the .1300 range.

Gipson-Long finally getting that WHIP below 1 with 9 K's in 5 innings and 0.00 ERA.  He is becoming an elite pitcher.  Got a feeling he will make it to AA after the all-star break if not before.

The Twins might have something in Festa.  He gave an inopportune 3 run HR but still managed 8 K's in 5 innings of work.  The Twins might have something here.

Another nice night for the MiLB system.  Guys are going to moving up this year.

 

[Danchat]

Wow, what a night for the bats. Great to see Palacios have a good game, and I've got to wonder if he'll be up at some point to be the Twins' backup SS. Right now Polanco is in that role if Correa is hurt, and I think most of us want him to stay at 2B. Of course, Lewis could make that moot if he continues to hit like he does, but unlike Palacios, he would need to play every day in the majors if called up.

Got to wonder if Vallimont is headed down the Dakota Chalmers route - getting DFA'd after a poor start to the year seems like an inevitability if he doesn't improve. We need more 40 man spots, and he won't be helping the MLB squad for some time.

Festa is officially on my watch list. 

[Major League Ready]

How fantastic is it to see Royce Lewis looking so darn good?   I dream of Lewis and Miranda becoming our Rameriz/Lindor.

Will Sawyer Gibson-Long be the pitcher who will climb the prospect charts or will it be Varland?  Hopefully, both!

 

 

[stringer bell]

It's early, but oh my! A lot of great offense and plenty of good pitching. I doubt Vallimont is on the 40-man by May 1 and there are candidates to be promoted to the majors, although they would have to be added to the 40-man roster.

[TopGunn#22]

Wow, where do you start with a day like this in the farm system !  I'm not going to suggest who should be sent out, but it's looking very clear that Miranda has nothing more to prove at St. Paul.  With Kirilloff's season in doubt and Sano just being Sano, the sooner they get Miranda up and into the regular lineup the better.  He could play LF, 3B, 2B and 1B as well as DH once in a while.  I wouldn't send Gordon down.  I like his speed and versatility.  But Miranda needs to be brought up in another couple of weeks at the longest.  It's GREAT to see Royce Lewis off to such a good start.  And Palacios isn't disappointing anyone either.  

[mikelink45]

Wow - prospects went 11 - 24.  Nice.

Lewis Thorpe has lost it and we have so many prospects I expect that unless he has a miraculous comeback he will be gone for good this year.  And Vallimont is struggling. Glad we have a lot of arms - those two are not doing themselves any favors.  

I had to go and look at the 40 man.  I would say that Garlick and Vallimont are the next two off the list.

[roger]

I think one word describes both last night and the Twins minor league teams start to the season.  WOW!

[jmlease1]

I wasn't worried about Austin Martin: I believe in his talent. But it's nice to see him have a good day at the plate like this and start getting it going.

Gipson-Long: wow! Great start by him. But he's 24, so he'd better dominate guys in A-ball? I would hope he would be an early promotion to AA and we can see more about who he really is. Have to be a little careful about getting too excited over the older pitcher running over the A-ball kids, you know?

Palacios is doing great, and made a smart decision for himself in coming back to MN.

[2wins87]

Still early enough that one good game from guys like Martin, Miranda, and Sabato can turn a slow start into a reasonably good looking start.

Since no one else has really commented on Sabato, I will note that his K rate now stands at 26%.  That's not bad for a power bat, and would be a good improvement if he can keep it up.  He'll just need to access his power more consistently like he did last night.

[Alex Schieferdecker]

I think we may be able to finally close the book on Lewis Thorpe. His career progression has been so disappointing.

The same might be said about Chris Vallimont, although he hasn't gotten as far. But he just doesn't seem capable of throwing strikes.

Anyway, great to see Miranda back on track and Lewis picking it up again. Maybe the best result the Twins have gotten so far this season from the minors.

[Ryan_K]

I say let Valimont start through April, if they don't see a change move him to the pen. Give him 5 weeks to try that out and cut him if the adjustments are not there.

[rv78]

And the big league bats are fizzling. It seems the Twins FO is content to win in the minors and lose at the majors. Couldn't some of these guys, like Martin, Lewis and Miranda help the big league club offensively or are we destined to have another full season watching guys like Sano and Kepler ruin the Twins chances.

[bunsen82]

Isolated a few batters may cool off, but as a whole the minor league system depth but also top level prospects are doing very well.  Whatever you may think Falvine and Levine are doing at the mlb level what they have done to improve our pipeline is a massive improvement. 
 

My observation has been they will make moves that can improve the team at the MLB level they will, and they aren’t afraid to make trades but for now it is only for the long play or the future.  That includes the Correa signing especially if they trade him at the deadline which is my baseline.  Correa has time but needs to start playing better defense and his bat needs to wake up for this to come to fruition. 
 

All said it was fun night of baseball in the minor league system.  

[stringer bell]

3 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Wow - prospects went 11 - 24.  Nice.

Lewis Thorpe has lost it and we have so many prospects I expect that unless he has a miraculous comeback he will be gone for good this year.  And Vallimont is struggling. Glad we have a lot of arms - those two are not doing themselves any favors.  

I had to go and look at the 40 man.  I would say that Garlick and Vallimont are the next two off the list.

Agree about Vallimont, but the Twins went to the trouble of adding Garlick to the active roster and I doubt they will both demote him and take him off the 40-man roster. I think the next guy would be Stashak, perhaps as soon when he completes his rehab.

[stringer bell]

Well, I might be wrong about Stashak. He was recalled to replace Sonny Gray. 

[jmlease1]

4 hours ago, rv78 said:

And the big league bats are fizzling. It seems the Twins FO is content to win in the minors and lose at the majors. Couldn't some of these guys, like Martin, Lewis and Miranda help the big league club offensively or are we destined to have another full season watching guys like Sano and Kepler ruin the Twins chances.

Neither Kepler nor Sano are injured, so what exactly are you suggesting here? They're not going to send either down to the minors (assuming they had options left that could be exercised) and the roster is full of pitchers. So unless they deal them or cut them, there's really no room right now. And cutting bait on either right now, means eating a lot of salary for no return based on the hope that these guys are ready to step in immediately. Hells bells, Martin is still in AA and just started hitting this weekend.

[stringer bell]

If one thing concerns me, I just don’t see who’ll get key outs out of the bullpen. I wonder if Thielbar’s pixie dust has run out and whether Stashak can regain his 2019 form. Romero really didn’t impress either. Maybe the plan is to try a lot of options and see which ones pan out, but in the meantime watching the struggles is pretty painful. 

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Well, I might be wrong about Stashak. He was recalled to replace Sonny Gray. 

Maybe not so wrong. If he’s healthy and can’t get people out, maybe it’s time to cut bait on Stashak. 

[rv78]

5 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Neither Kepler nor Sano are injured, so what exactly are you suggesting here? They're not going to send either down to the minors (assuming they had options left that could be exercised) and the roster is full of pitchers. So unless they deal them or cut them, there's really no room right now. And cutting bait on either right now, means eating a lot of salary for no return based on the hope that these guys are ready to step in immediately. Hells bells, Martin is still in AA and just started hitting this weekend.

If you keep em and play em and lose, verses you cut em and pay em and win with other players which is more productive?

Just because you are paying them millions does that mean they play no matter how bad they are? How many games you lose because they can't hit and be productive pieces of your lineup? Evidently if you are Twins management that is what you do. There comes a time when you must cut bait and run and when it comes to Sano and Kepler they missed the boat. 

[jmlease1]

10 hours ago, rv78 said:

If you keep em and play em and lose, verses you cut em and pay em and win with other players which is more productive?

Just because you are paying them millions does that mean they play no matter how bad they are? How many games you lose because they can't hit and be productive pieces of your lineup? Evidently if you are Twins management that is what you do. There comes a time when you must cut bait and run and when it comes to Sano and Kepler they missed the boat. 

declaring Kepler and Sano sunk costs after 8 games in April strikes me as a massive overreaction. If you felt this way about them as players, then they should have been dealt in the offseason. Obviously, the Twins don't feel this way about them as players.

[rv78]

28 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

declaring Kepler and Sano sunk costs after 8 games in April strikes me as a massive overreaction. If you felt this way about them as players, then they should have been dealt in the offseason. Obviously, the Twins don't feel this way about them as players.

I was calling for their removal last season. Ther are marginally better than Jake Cave who was also kept in the organization for no reason

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, rv78 said:

I was calling for their removal last season. Ther are marginally better than Jake Cave who was also kept in the organization for no reason

I'm just saying: It's a waste of time to call for them to be cut in April. It's not going to happen, not in this organization or frankly in any other organization either. 

You may hate Kepler, but he added starter-level value to the team last year even in a down year where he missed more games than any year since becoming a full-time starter.

Sano is a poor defender with a history of slumps. but when he's locked in he can carry a team for a month. 

Neither player is a "sunk cost fallacy" candidate, especially after 8 games. If you're going to spend the season crusading against players you've decided aren't any good but the team has shown they disagree with your evaluation...I think you're going to have a miserable year. I suppose you can spend all your time calling for falvey & levine to be fired? because that's where you're at: you're saying your opinion of these two players is right and they have no value.

I wasn't a fan of the Cave decision, because there was too much misery associated with him recently. But from a purely baseball move, there's nothing wrong with stashing a decent backup OF in the minors that the team thinks could fill in multiple spots in case of a long-term injury or major struggled from younger players. So there's a reason for it, just one that ignores how badly he's performed the last two seasons (and of course his significant injury last season had a lot to do with it) and how much that upset parts of the fanbase. YMMV on whether they should care about fanbase PTSD...

[ashbury]

3 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Sano is a poor defender with a history of slumps. but when he's locked in he can carry a team for a month.

Do you have a particular month in mind?  Last year some folks were heartened by a second half with an OPS in the .800 range, but just now I tried to cherry-pick an especially strong 31-day period, and the best I came up with was Aug 18 to Sept 17 where his OPS was .942, but that was buoyed by 10 HR, with only 21 RBI, meaning that half of those were solo homers, and only 16 runs, which of course counts as a good month, but nothing that "carries" a team - I believe the Twins went 12-16 in that span.

Once he vacated third base, the bar was necessarily raised for his offensive performance.  You can hit like he does, and maybe keep a major league job, but at first base you need to hit really, really well to be an actual asset.  And no team is likely to pay the $14M for his 2023 option unless he steps it up considerably from last year, to say nothing of his slow start this year.

[rv78]

To continue to trot out players that don't perform and contribute to a teams success is stupidity. Good teams don't do that. Playing Sano an entire season to hopefully get 1 good month out of him is stupidity. To play Kepler for defensive purposes even though he hits an occasional homerun that might win 3 or 4 games for you in an entire season when he plays one of the easiest positions to fill, outfield, is stupidity. No one is asking for a $35M Correa type player to replace these 2. Finding 2 guys that hit better than both shouldn't be and quite frankly isn't that difficult. The team already has options particularly in Lewis and Miranda, which I pointed out but they will keep them in AAA solely because of the money they are paying Sano and Kepler. I'd much rather see 2 new youngsters struggling at the plate than 2 veterans who've already proven they can't hit on a regular basis. Continuing to play them and having them block playing time for new, possibly better players and have them cost you wins at the same time is stupidity. 

[goulik]

The full story on players can be seen when looking at their years and careers in review (Larger Sample Sizes) instead of focusing on the prolonged slumps and amazing streaks.

In 7 years, Sano has averaged a 1.2 WAR which includes his 2 injury shortened seasons which were a -0.5 combined. These were offset by his two years of greater than 2.0 WAR. Last year was an even 1.0 WAR. So he isn't as BAD as some would say, he just is merely an average MLB player which is disappointing for someone with so much potential as shown by the hot streaks. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sanomi01.shtml

Also in 7 years, Kepler is a 2.1 WAR player and that includes his only negative war season when he was called up for 3 games and 7 plate appearances. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/keplema01.shtml

I have no problem waiting for Prospects to be fully ready before pushing decent (I didn't say great or even good... I said decent) players out the door. I don't just want to flush the season down the toilet because I'm impatient and I have this nice shiny new toy that may struggle at first when called up because that's what MOST rookies do even when they end up great. (See Buxton's 138 PA rookie year/0.4 WAR https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/buxtoby01.shtml) 

By the way, if you wonder what these numbers mean, this page would suggest Sano is a "Role Player" and Kepler falls into the "Solid Starter" range. See the Context part of the article with the Chart defining what the numbers mean. https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/#:~:text=League-average WAR rates vary,if they crack %2B1 WAR.

And if you're going to try to blast my response, please use logic and stats. Thank you.

[rv78]

I don't see a post by you 'goulik" before my response to jmlease1, which is who I was responding too. Are you both the same person? Anywho, if you would bring up Lewis and Miranda and they would out-perform both Sano and Kepler and Sano and Kepler would then ride the bench filling spots now being taken by Celestino and Garlick, would that cost the Twins more money? No. Would it possibly give them a chance to improve their lineup? Yes. Will they do it? No, And I already explained why. 

If you have no problem waiting for prospects then it explains why you have no problem watching 2 veterans help flush another season down the toilet because that is what happened last year. The time to try new toys is when the old toys don't work. That time is now.