So, who will be sent down/released to make room for Lewis?

[tony&rodney]

Just an FYI that will be rejected by many, Farmer is no longer a better second base defender than Julien. We saw it today on a play where Julien ranged to his left and with his herky-jerky style easily made the play byond where Farmer is diving and looking smooth. I always liked Farmer but his skills are visibly diminished.

That said, Julien is a mess at the plate and has let doubt restrict his bat. He had a great chance to just sit on a curve ball today and he took two rather bland curve balls that landed middle/ middle for called strikes one and two. He had the opportunity to hit those out. By contrast Bregman sat on a curve ball and despite a slightly better location by Woods Richardson, Bregman hit it out because he was keyed in on that one pitch. 

[tony&rodney]

The last couple of days Lewis looked weak at the plate. The single today was a routine ground ball that the second baseman kicked out of his glove and should have been rewarded with an error. Also Lewis did take it easy on the bases and failed to score on a long double. I hope Royce is pumped and saving himself for MLB at bats because he has not looked very comfortable playing for the Saints.

[jorgenswest]

Julien has work to do and he might go backwards before moving forward.

No more called third strikes. Let’s hope he starts fouling off that close third strikes in AAA to the tune of some long at bats where he won’t give in to the pitcher. It might take until after the all star break but I believe he will return to make the kind of impact he did in 2023.

[stringer bell]

I’m pretty surprised that it is Julien. I presume we’ll get a lot of Willi at second base and that Miranda will get plate appearances at first, third and DH. 

[tony&rodney]

I will not be surprised if Miranda is at third base and Lewis at DH on Tuesday.

[PseudoSABR]

Why not see Lewis at 2nd? Rotate him in the infield.

[lecroy24fan]

Because he is the starting 3B and has 5 career games at 2B in his professional career.

[USAFChief]

I don't see a single reason to keep Farmer over Julien. 

He's worse on both sides of the ball.

And the other options aren't 2nd basemen.

[Althebum82]

Maybe Julien going down presents an opportunity for Farmer to start a Kepler-like rebound?

I know it's wishful thinking and pretty hard to envision at this point, but we do have Kepler's precedence from this time last year.

The difference, of course, is that the hole from which Farmer would have to climb is deeper than Kepler's, and we have better options at this point which will keep Farmer in strictly a back-up capacity 

[wabene]

I'm glad it's Julien, he needs it. The man focused hard on his glove and it paid off, back to the bat Eddie.

[stringer bell]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

I don't see a single reason to keep Farmer over Julien. 

He's worse on both sides of the ball.

And the other options aren't 2nd basemen.

$6M guaranteed salary, RH bat, and versatility (3B, 2B & SS). I agree that Farmer should have been shown the door and I think he doesn’t stay if the Twins think Lee is ready. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Kudos to everyone who voted Julien. Julien never would have been on my radar, but give them credit for making the right move. There are arguments to be made to keep Farmer over Julien. 

I still can’t see Julien playing second, and I can’t be the only one. In a playoff series, Julien should be PH/DH (and would be a good one) but emergency second baseman only. But sure keep coaching him at second while he’s at AAA. 

[SwainZag]

I think he still has a bright future, but man he's been lost for the last 6ish weeks at the plate.   Getting everyday virtually pressure free ABs to work on whatever he needs to do seems beneficial. 

Farmer hasn't been any better, but his history, versatility, a contact and the fact Lee probably isn't ready is the reason he's here.   

Julien's .202/.311/.236 with a 42% K rate in his last 103 PA is pretty damn ugly, no matter how much you think they younger guys need to be in the lineup. Hopefully a little break can help him turn it around, he's obviously a better hitter than he has been. 

[mnfireman]

4 hours ago, SwainZag said:

I think he still has a bright future, but man he's been lost for the last 6ish weeks at the plate.   Getting everyday virtually pressure free ABs to work on whatever he needs to do seems beneficial. 

Farmer hasn't been any better, but his history, versatility, a contact and the fact Lee probably isn't ready is the reason he's here.   

Julien's .202/.311/.236 with a 42% K rate in his last 103 PA is pretty damn ugly, no matter how much you think they younger guys need to be in the lineup. Hopefully a little break can help him turn it around, he's obviously a better hitter than he has been. 

Farmer's slash line over this same period (since Julien's last HR on 4/25) is .255/.340/.383 (.723 OPS). NOT saying Farmer is the answer, but IF Julien is part of the future, he needs to figure things out now. A AAA reset may be just what he needs.

[USAFChief]

46 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

Farmer's slash line over this same period (since Julien's last HR on 4/25) is .255/.340/.383 (.723 OPS). NOT saying Farmer is the answer, but IF Julien is part of the future, he needs to figure things out now. A AAA reset may be just what he needs.

Huh?

First of all, Farmer has only 106 PAs all season. 

And Farmer for May: .242/.306/.333

[mnfireman]

17 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Huh?

First of all, Farmer has only 106 PAs all season. 

And Farmer for May: .242/.306/.333

The poster originally stated Julien's last 103 PA's - this covered the time period since his last HR on 4/25. I compared Farmer's performance over the same TIME period, not PA's. Farmer is the short side of the platoon and has roughly half as many PA's as Julien over this same period.

   

[stringer bell]

59 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

Farmer's slash line over this same period (since Julien's last HR on 4/25) is .255/.340/.383 (.723 OPS). NOT saying Farmer is the answer, but IF Julien is part of the future, he needs to figure things out now. A AAA reset may be just what he needs.

The hitting numbers are awful in total and finding a slice where they're acceptable doesn't change the fact that he has an OPS of .513 about 38% of the way through the entire season. Farmer has made the most of his limited tools in his career, but a loss of even a little bat speed and losing half a step in the field could be the difference between acceptable and unacceptable. I think Father Time is winning the battle with Kyle's skill set.

[mnfireman]

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

The hitting numbers are awful in total and finding a slice where they're acceptable doesn't change the fact that he has an OPS of .513 about 38% of the way through the entire season. Farmer has made the most of his limited tools in his career, but a loss of even a little bat speed and losing half a step in the field could be the difference between acceptable and unacceptable. I think Father Time is winning the battle with Kyle's skill set.

Isn't that what we do on this site, pick and choose stats that fit our arguments 😉

I am in no way saying that Farmer is the answer at 2B, rather Julien is struggling as bad as Farmer is. A move had to be made and given the teams history, it wasn't going to be a DFA. Miranda, Castro and Julien are the infielders with options, two are playing well, one isn't. We'll see what happens over the next 3 weeks or so.

The next decision will be what to do with Wallner if he keeps hitting. Larnach and Kirilloff both have options remaining, but both are hitting well right now. All 3 are LH and primarily play corner OF

[stringer bell]

9 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

 

The next decision will be what to do with Wallner if he keeps hitting. Larnach and Kirilloff both have options remaining, but both are hitting well right now. All 3 are LH and primarily play corner OF

I really doubt it will come to that. The Twins have had a run of good health and it never lasts. Injuries are on the horizon and probably multiple injuries at similar positions. That is just the way it goes. 

The Twins have Martin, Lee (soon), Wallner and now Julien at St. Paul. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

[Squirrel]

9 hours ago, stringer bell said:

$6M guaranteed salary, RH bat, and versatility (3B, 2B & SS). I agree that Farmer should have been shown the door and I think he doesn’t stay if the Twins think Lee is ready. 

When Julien finds it again and Lee is ready, I agree Farmer goes … but who else goes then? Lotta ifs and whens but I’m sure someone is thinking about it

[Squirrel]

13 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

The Twins have Martin, Lee (soon), Wallner and now Julien at St. Paul. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

There will need to be some cutting of bait here … Farmer, Margot, Santana … 

[DJL44]

27 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

The next decision will be what to do with Wallner if he keeps hitting. Larnach and Kirilloff both have options remaining, but both are hitting well right now. All 3 are LH and primarily play corner OF

Wallner had a hot week but the Saints had little trouble scoring against Rochester (48 runs in 7 games). That's bad pitching. In the past month Wallner is only hitting .180 against AAA pitching. He needs to take his production this week and extend it for a whole month before I would think about bringing him back.

[nicksaviking]

So my question is, if the front office deems Julien is the guy to get sent down, how do they deem that Baldelli was justified in batting him leadoff up until a week ago?

[LA Vikes Fan]

1 hour ago, DJL44 said:

Wallner had a hot week but the Saints had little trouble scoring against Rochester (48 runs in 7 games). That's bad pitching. In the past month Wallner is only hitting .180 against AAA pitching. He needs to take his production this week and extend it for a whole month before I would think about bringing him back.

Agreed. Wallner has not hit well at all in AAA or MLB this year. Let's not forget how bad he was for the Twins earlier this season. He needs to hit consistently well for 6 weeks or so in AAA before he should be a consideration for the Twins. I don't think he is even on the radar before August 1 or so and then only if he's hitting well. 

[RpR]

7 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

So my question is, if the front office deems Julien is the guy to get sent down, how do they deem that Baldelli was justified in batting him leadoff up until a week ago?

Thet rolled the bones.

[RpR]

7 hours ago, Squirrel said:

There will need to be some cutting of bait here … Farmer, Margot, Santana … 

Santana is going nowhere , neither are the other two as much as so many here fantasize over that.

[cmoss84]

7 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

So my question is, if the front office deems Julien is the guy to get sent down, how do they deem that Baldelli was justified in batting him leadoff up until a week ago?

OBP? Leadoff power? Where they want him eventually?