Twins Minor League Report (4/8): Several HRs, But No Ws

Trey Cabbage was a 4th round pick out of high school, and still only 21, has made clear strides offensively every year in the minors between different levels of rookie and A level ball. He's off to a blazing start this year, 6-13 with 2 HRs in 3 games, and with this being the third year he's spent time in Cedar Rapids, any idea when he might get the call to Fort Myers? 

It's  been 3 games... Unless there is some sort of injury at Ft. Myers, I can't imagine calling him (or anyone) up within the first month. Of course, the Wander Javier situation could be a factor in that... and there always seems to  be an injury or something. But making anything out of 3-5 games is too quick. That said, Cabbage likely wanted and needed to get off to a fast start, and he has. 

Third year in Cedar Rapids just feels a little deceptive... He spent maybe 6 weeks in Cedar Rapids in 2017 and all of 2018... So I don't think there needs to be a rush. 

The bats have been a bit slow coming out of the gate, to say the least. Gordon, Javier, and Kirilloff being out makes it seem worse, I suppose. Rooker now with 9 K’s in 16 PA at Rochester (after posting 12 K’s in 23 PA in spring training). But there’s no question the results are fantastic when he happens to swing where the ball is.

Well, and worrying about his spring training MLB numbers is just part of the story. He didn't play a ton for the Twins and sometimes it was just one late at bat. And also, he played in a whole bunch of minor league games in spring training too. I don't know what his stat line was or his K% but we all know he's a strikeout guy. 

A little defense from Brent Rooker last night as well. 

And here's John Andreoli's opposite field homer. 

The most surprising point to me this morning, Seth, was your comment that Arraez turns 22 today.  It seems that he has been having multi-hit games forever and even after missing most of two years ago still is that young.  May be more of a prospect than we think, and I think he is a future major leaguer.  Interesting to see how Mobile kept him from having another multi-hit game...walk him 3 times.

 

But perhaps even more surprising is what the heck is Guerro doing playing A ball?  Is it merely a holding period until his 17 games or over?  Or is he on some type of rehab from a spring injury?

 

Looking forward to see how Stewart and Rijo throw the ball tonight.

Guerrero injured his oblique about 3 weeks before the season was to start. Last night was his first rehab game, and he's expected to play all four games in Ft. Myers. 

I agree with most of this. I was hoping he'd break out a while ago but he's really struggling. The one potential thing to remember is that he is a switch hitter and it might take a switch hitter longer to develop, esp since Cabbage didn't come from a baseball hot-bed and didn't play it all year round.

 

He might be like Nico Goodrum who just needed 2000+ minor league at-bats before we know who he is. Cabbage has less than 800 so far.

Agree with the Goodrum comment. Might just take a little longer. Also agree that the swing-and-miss is what he needs to work on. But there's a fine line... don't' want him to be a slap hitter either. Just have to find that right middle ground.

Also, Cabbage is solely a left-handed hitter, not a switch-hitter.

We attended the Miracles vs Dunedin game last nite and here are a couple of take-aways from the game.

 

1.Royce Lewis is going to be fun to watch.

2. Vladamir Guererro Jr. is huge and slow but the man can HIT! Watching him play 3B will be interesting.

3. Johan Quezada is in his sixth season of pro ball but is only 24. The man is 6'9" tall and last night he was consistently between 95-97 and topped out at 99. He deserves to be in a higher league.

1.) Yes.

2.) Yes.

3.) I mean, with his 1 1/3 innings pitched last night, he now has thrown 12 total innings above rookie ball. Pitched just 9 2/3 innings last year for Cedar Rapids. Has had so many shoulder issues, but he's a very intriguing prospect. They need to be patient with him and let him get some innings, but he should end the year in AA. (and then they should protect him on the 40-man roster). 

Why is Raley playing CF and DH? Is Wade not a better CF candidate than Raley? And is Andreoli really going to be the primary CF? Because I'd like to see all of Wade, Raley, Rooker and Weil starting and playing the field most days.

 

Also, Cody Stashak = future Twins multi inning bullpen ace who too many people slept on. A year from now 29 other teams are going to look at each other and say "I can't believe we didn't grab him in the Rule V!"

Rooker, Raley, Wade and Weil are all going to play most days, probably 4 out of 5 or more. 

But AAA is about having guys who can contribute in MLB. So they have to keep playing Andreoli too. If Cave were to get hurt or struggle, I would assume they would call up Andreoli because they want those other guys to play most every day. Same with a guy like Rosales. That''s what AAA is. Having guys ready to call up. Those veterans are guys that they can call up when needed, then DFA when they aren't and possibly they come back. If Rosario or Buxton or Kepler got hurt, you call up Wade because he'll presumably play almost every day. Rooker and Raley aren't on the 40, so also no reason to call them up unless they aren't going to play.

That's the difference between AAA and all of the other minor leagues. 

Sure but if Andreoli is called up to the majors to be the 4th/5th OF, I think I'd still prefer he was the 4th OF in Rochester so the prospects could get most of the defensive reps. It's only been four games so we'll have to see how it plays out, but I'd worry that if Raley is stuck DH'ing half of the time, he's going to be pigeon-holed similarly at the majors.

 

I'd also hope that if the Twins needed another defensively competent OF for a short term replacement, even if it's the 4th OF, that it would be Wade, not Andreoli. There are too many of these guys in Rochester right now. Even if it's sporadic, I hope they start giving them some MLB looks when they can because there will never be a scenario where there's room on the MLB roster for all of them. The clock is already ticking on figuring out the growing logjam of corner bats, they need to use any kind of injury replacement for MLB evaluations.

Of note, it probably would be Wade since he's on the 40-man roster...