Twins Minor League Report (6/30): Wallner Wallops and Varland Victimizes

Wallner looks like he is taking batting practice. Low and outside, homer to left. High and inside, homer to right. He is carrying the Wind Surge as the pitchers often need it. Not sure Varland was the best pitcher of the night, giving up 5 hits and 2 walks and 3 runs in 5 or so innings. Julien doing well again tonight but Martin, not so much.

Raya and the Fort Myers pitchers were great. One Cavaco homer and the rest of the night the hitting and the fielding (4 errors, both runs unearned) stunk. That league is death to most hitters except for E. Rodriguez.

Povich also had better numbers than Varland but the CES-less Kernels batted like Fort Myers.

I mentioned Schulfer as an interesting bullpen arm yesterday and he got his first work in a week last night for the Saints, so here's a little broadcast scouting.

I think it was a bit of an off night compared to what I saw in his AA appearances.  He seemed to be struggling to control both his pitches compared to the previous outings that I watched.  He managed to avoid giving up any free passes though, including coming back from 3-0 to throw a fastball by the #8 hitter for a strikeout.

He threw mostly fastballs this time as his sliders were missing the zone, including a couple non-competitive pitches outside and in the dirt.  His fastballs seemed to all be getting clocked at either 97 or 99 mph.  The radar gun in St. Paul has been known to be a little hot, so maybe call it sitting 95-97, possibly touching 98.

It ended up being a short outing as he induced an inning ending GIDP to erase an opposite field lead-off single.

I don't think he looked great yesterday, but he still flashed stuff that seems like it could work in a major league bullpen, and his 5% walk rate across two levels is indicative of a guy who usually has very good control out of the pen.

44 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

I mentioned Schulfer as an interesting bullpen arm yesterday and he got his first work in a week last night for the Saints, so here's a little broadcast scouting.

I think it was a bit of an off night compared to what I saw in his AA appearances.  He seemed to be struggling to control both his pitches compared to the previous outings that I watched.  He managed to avoid giving up any free passes though, including coming back from 3-0 to throw a fastball by the #8 hitter for a strikeout.

He threw mostly fastballs this time as his sliders were missing the zone, including a couple non-competitive pitches outside and in the dirt.  His fastballs seemed to all be getting clocked at either 97 or 99 mph.  The radar gun in St. Paul has been known to be a little hot, so maybe call it sitting 95-97, possibly touching 98.

It ended up being a short outing as he induced an inning ending GIDP to erase an opposite field lead-off single.

I don't think he looked great yesterday, but he still flashed stuff that seems like it could work in a major league bullpen, and his 5% walk rate across two levels is indicative of a guy who usually has very good control out of the pen.

I was at the Saints game last night. I was surprised to see Schulfer hitting 99.

With that said, I really hope the radar gun there isn't hot. If that's true then Balazovic was sitting 90-92 with his fastball. He looked terrible last night to put it nicely.

After continually seeing Wallner's name in these write-ups, one has to wonder what his future holds.  I know there is some question about his strikeout rate, but the kid looks like the real deal.  But who is ahead of him on the Twins and where will he fit in?

All indications are that when healthy, Larnach is the Twins left fielder for the foreseeable future.  And Keps has right field for at least the next couple.  Granted, Kepler continues to disappoint a bit with his average below .250 every year.  But his defense is among the best of all right fielders and he runs well.  So he is someone you want on this team, at least I do.

Yes, Wallner's arrival could coincide with the end of Kep's contract.  So is that his future?  Or is he an ideal candidate to move in a meaningful trade?  With Kirilloff penciled into first base, the question remains who else is coming up to fill one of those corner outfield spots?  Lots of maybes, but no one who seems as likely as Wallner.  Will be an interesting dilemma the Twins will have to answer sometime between now and the end of next year. 

It continues to baffle me that they're letting Balazovic pitch through his knee issues. It can't be good for his confidence, and I'm always skeptical that playing through something like that isn't making the injury worse. 

1 hour ago, Tibs said:

I was at the Saints game last night. I was surprised to see Schulfer hitting 99.

With that said, I really hope the radar gun there isn't hot. If that's true then Balazovic was sitting 90-92 with his fastball. He looked terrible last night to put it nicely.

The hardest fastball I had previously seen out of Schulfer was 97 in Wichita.  99 isn't out of the question.  He may have dialed it up a bit more since then, and he was overly well rested for his appearance last night.

I think Balazovic was typically sitting 93-95 last year, so it's not good either way.  I don't know if he is a guy who typically builds velocity throughout his outings, but his velocity is definitely a part of his struggles this year.

I'm sorry but, while important, pitching is NOT ALL ABOUT STRIKEOUTS. 

Thus while promising and encouraging, I would not classify Varland's outing as great (as stated in the recap) nor do I feel it worthy of being pitcher of the day (Povich and Nunez were better IMO).

2 hours ago, Tibs said:

I was at the Saints game last night. I was surprised to see Schulfer hitting 99.

With that said, I really hope the radar gun there isn't hot. If that's true then Balazovic was sitting 90-92 with his fastball. He looked terrible last night to put it nicely.

I think it's like Raindog just said, Blazer just doesn't "look" healthy.  Something isn't right with that guy, and I have to wonder what's going on "under the hood" so to speak.  He's got to much talent to be struggling like this.

On 7/1/2022 at 9:53 AM, roger said:

After continually seeing Wallner's name in these write-ups, one has to wonder what his future holds.  I know there is some question about his strikeout rate, but the kid looks like the real deal.  But who is ahead of him on the Twins and where will he fit in?

All indications are that when healthy, Larnach is the Twins left fielder for the foreseeable future.  And Keps has right field for at least the next couple.  Granted, Kepler continues to disappoint a bit with his average below .250 every year.  But his defense is among the best of all right fielders and he runs well.  So he is someone you want on this team, at least I do.

Yes, Wallner's arrival could coincide with the end of Kep's contract.  So is that his future?  Or is he an ideal candidate to move in a meaningful trade?  With Kirilloff penciled into first base, the question remains who else is coming up to fill one of those corner outfield spots?  Lots of maybes, but no one who seems as likely as Wallner.  Will be an interesting dilemma the Twins will have to answer sometime between now and the end of next year. 

Wallner (a24) will be ready for the big show opening day next year at this rate. It would surprise me to not see him moved to AAA soon. By pretty much every measure, Wallner has made significant improvements this year, at a much higher level of play. There's nothing for him left to prove in AA.