Twins Minor League Report (7/10): Keaschall and Ross Put the Win in Wind Surge; Julien's Near Cycle

[Seth Stohs]

There were several very close games throughout the Twins organization. There was a walkoff. There was some late-inning run support. The was a no-hit bid. And there was rain. Check out all that happened in the Twins system on Wednesday. 

Image courtesy of Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints

CURRENT W-L Records
Minnesota Twins: 53-40
St. Paul Saints: 44-43
Wichita Wind Surge: 36-47
Cedar Rapids Kernels: 48-32
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels: 42-39
FCL Twins: 23-25
DSL Twins: 15-10

TRANSACTIONS
The Twins played a doubleheader. David Festa was called up as the 27th man. 

The Twins also signed 33-year-old veteran outfielder Wynton Bernard. Earlier this season, he played 41 games for the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the White Sox. He hit .306/.328/.446 (.774) with six doubles, a triple, and three home runs. He also had 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts. 

Bernard was originally the 35th round pick by the San Diego Padres in the 2012 draft out of Niagara University in New York. He has also spent time with the Tigers, Giants, Cubs, Rockies, Blue Jays and White Sox organizations. He has played in 1,051 minor-league games, and he has played in 12 big-league games. In 2022, he got those games with the Rockies and went 12-for-42 (.286) with a double. He had three stolen bases. 

In the past couple of weeks, the Twins have been promoting guys from A-ball to the Saints, and they’ve done just fine, but bringing in a veteran should help the team. 

OF/IF Brandon Winokur was activated by the Mighty Mussels. .  

SAINTS SENTINEL
St. Paul 5, Louisville 6
Box Score
David Festa was scheduled to start this one for the Saints, but he was summoned to Chicago to be the 27th man in Wednesday’s doubleheader. So the Saints went with a bullpen game which went really well, at least through six innings. And frankly, the Saints offense was really good through six innings as well. From there, things got quite interesting. Were the Saints able to hang on?

The bullpen arms started the game with six shutout innings. Scott Blewett got five outs. Nick Wittgren recorded seven outs. Zack Weiss got six outs, four of them on strikeouts. 

The Saints grabbed the early lead when Yunior Severino knocked his 16th home run of the season to make it 1-0. 

The Saints made it 2-0 in the third inning when DaShawn Keirsey grounded out to score Maddux Houghton, who had led off with a single. 

In the sixth inning, Payton Eeles hit a solo, two-out home run to make it 3-0. 

An Edouard Julien solo homer in the 7th inning gave the Saints a 4-0 lead. 

Josh Winder came in for the bottom of the seventh and it went a bit like his recent Twins outing. Lots of soft contact, infield singles and a sacrifice fly. By inning’s end, the Saints were hanging on to a 4-3 lead. 

In the top of the eighth inning, however, Chris Williams knocked his 10th home of the season. 

Matt Bowman came in for the bottom of the eighth inning and gave up one run. The Saints went scoreless in the top of the ninth. Diego Castillo came in to protect a one-run lead… After getting the first two batters out, Castillo issued a walk. On a 1-0 pitch Michael Trautwein crushed a homer to walkoff the Saints.  

Julien went 3-for-4 with a walk, his second double and his fifth home run. Anthony Prato went 2-for-3 with a walk and his 15th double. The Saints certainly had more opportunities to score, but they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.  

WIND SURGE WISDOM
Wichita 4, Springfield 3
Box Score
This was a bit of a game of back-and-forth, but it started out with three innings of shutout baseball. Kyle Jones was back on the mound for the Wind Surge as he continues to ease his way back after missing the first two months. He worked four innings and gave up one run on two hits. He had three strikeouts with no walks. 

Wichita got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning. Tanner Schobel led off with a walk and advanced to second on a Ben Ross single to center. With one out, Jorel Ortega drove in a run with a single between third and shortstop that ended up in left field. Ross scored on a Luke Keaschall single. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Springfield responded with a solo homer to cut the Surge lead in half. Jaylen Nowlin came in for the fifth inning. After a scoreless inning, he gave up single runs in both the sixth and seventh innings. 

In the top of the seventh inning, Keaschall walked and moved up a base on a Jake Rucker single. Both scored on a double by Jeferson Morales. Through seven innings, the Surge were clinging to a 4-3 lead. 

With two outs in the top of the eighth inning, Luke Keaschall singled to drive in both Ross and Ortega and give the Surge a 6-3 lead. 

Nowlin worked the eighth inning. He recorded two outs quickly before back-to-back singles made things a little scary. However, he got another groundball to keep the three-run lead. 

The Surge added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Carson McCusker scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-3. 

Nowlin got the win with five strong innings to close the door. He gave up two runs on seven hits. He had two walks and two strikeouts.  

Ross went 3-for-5 and stole his 11th bag. Keaschall was 2-for-4 with a walk. Morales went 2-for-5 with his 17th double. 

KERNELS NUGGETS
Cedar Rapids 1, Beloit 3
Box Score
The Kernels fell behind and couldn’t muster enough offense to catch up. 

Michael Paredes started and worked the first four innings. He gave up one run on five hits. He had three strikeouts but not walks. A.J. Labas came in and gave up two runs in the fifth inning and worked a scoreless sixth frame. Gabriel Yanez struck out three batters over the final two innings. 

The Kernels simply were unable to generate any offense. In fact, Beloit starter Emmett Olson started the game with six no-hit innings. The Kernels  only had two hits in the game. Nate Baez knocked his fifth double. In the seventh inning, Kevin Maitan hit his fifth homer since joining the team. Jay Harry had two of the three walks. 

MUSSEL MATTERS
Fort Myers 4, Daytona Beach 5 
Box Score
The Mussels fell behind early. They attempted a comeback but it fell just short. 

Down 3-0 going to the bottom of the second inning, Nick Lucky hit a one-out triple. A few batters later, he scored on a wild pitch. 

Ricky Castro made the start for Fort Myers. He gave up three runs (2 earned) on four hits over three innings. He walked two and had two strikeouts. Paulshawn Pasqualotto came on and worked the next four innings. He gave up two runs on three hits. He had two walks and five strikeouts. Xander Hamilton struck out three batters over two scoreless, one-hit innings. 

Down 5-1 going to the bottom of the seventh inning, Byron Chourio walked with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. Poncho Ruiz reached on an error that left runners on second and third. Daniel Pena lined a single to left that drove in both Chourio and Ruiz.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, Matthew Clayton was hit by a pitch. He advanced to third base on a Ryan McCarthy double. Angel Del Rosario reached on an error which allowed Clayton to score. 

Daniel Pena went 2-for-4 with a walk. Nick Lucky was 2-for-5 with his second double since joining the team. McCarthy’s double was his sixth, and Del Rosario hit his third double. The team had six hits and six walks, but went just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. They left 11 runners on base. 

DOMINICAN DAILIES
DSL Twins 4, DSL Rangers Red 0 (Suspended in the 4th)
Box Score
The Twins were supposed to play two games on Wednesday afternoon in the Dominican. Unfortunately, after just three complete innings, the rains came and Game 1 was suspended. 

Eudy Garcia started and tossed four scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out. 

The Twins scored four runs in the top of the second inning. Luis Fragoza led off with a single. Ricardo Paez followed with another single. A passed ball pushed runners to second and third. Fragoza scored on a Victor Leal groundout. Alver Medina reached on an error, and Guillermo Sosa was hit by a pitch to lead the bases. Daiber De Los Santos singled to center to drive in two runners and make it 3-0 Twins. A Ramiro Dominguez double drove in Sosa with the fourth run.

This game is scheduled to be completed on July 19th. The second game is set to be made up in mid-August.                                                             

TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY
Pitcher of the Day – Zack Weiss (Saints) - 2.0 IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K; 32 pitches, 23 strikes (71.9%)  

 Hitter of the Day – Edouard Julien (Saints) - 3-for-4, BB, 2B(2), HR(5), R, RBI. 

PROSPECT SUMMARY
Check out the Prospect Tracker for much more on the Twins Top 20 prospects after seeing how they did on Thursday.
#2 – Brooks Lee (Minnesota) – Game 1: 0-for-4, K, Game 2: 1-for-5, HR(2), R, RBI.
#5 – Gabriel Gonzalez (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-4
#9 – Luke Keaschall (Wichita) –  2-for-4, BB, R, 2 RBI
#13 – Tanner Schobel (Wichita) – 0-for-4, BB, R, 2K
#18 – Yunior Severino (St. Paul) – 1-for-5, HR(16), R, RBI.
#20 – Ricardo Olivar (Cedar Rapids) – 0-for-3, BB, K 

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS
St. Paul @ Louisville (5:35 PM CST) – RHP Louie Varland (3-7, 6.57 ERA)
Wichita @ Springfield (7:05 PM CST) – RHP Travis Adams (4-6, 4.80 ERA)
Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (6:35 PM CST) – RHP Ty Langenberg (3-0, 4.79 ERA)
Daytona @ Ft. Myers (6:05 PM CST) – LHP Ross Dunn (1-2, 5.92 ERA)
FCL Twins @ FCL Rays (11:00 AM CT) - TBD
DSL Twins @ DSL Phillies (10:00 AM CST) - TBD 

Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Wednesday’s games!

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[FlyingFinn]

The Saints look different without Lee and Wallner in there and they are winning less now. Then, that affects all the teams as they have to call up Eeles from Cedar Rapids, Houghton from Fort Myers, etc.

[SF Twins Fan]

At what point does Luke Keaschall get promoted to AAA?  After the futures game?

[tony&rodney]

Nowlin has a ways to go with his command and control but he is grinding this season and slowly improving.

Emmanuel Rodriguez has been down quite a while for what was initially a simple hand injury. I never saw anything specific but it seemed like a jammed digit was aggravated from the slide in the game where he came out.

Keaschall consistently has good at bats. 

Carson McCullers is a big athletic guy, one  hits the ball really hard.

[tony&rodney]

Is Julien back with the Twins in August? The improvement has been slow but steady.

[Doctor Gast]

Because of Eeles, I've been following AAA a little more. Eeles is holding his own, Julien is closing in on returning to MLB, why aren't they focusing him at 1B? We have Lee, Lewis, Castro & Martin who are naturally better than Julien at 2B, not to mention Farmer. It's frustrating having all these roadblocks holding back our young players. The BP game for the Saints went well until Winder, it's taking him a bit to get his stuff back. 

[DJL44]

5 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

 Julien is closing in on returning to MLB, why aren't they focusing him at 1B?

They want Julien to be the starting 2B. They have Miranda and Santana for 1B.

Julien's last 4 weeks in AAA => .291/.467/.468. His last 5 games .353/.476/.941. He's heating up.

[SF Twins Fan]

14 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

They want Julien to be the starting 2B. They have Miranda and Santana for 1B.

Julien's last 4 weeks in AAA => .291/.467/.468. His last 5 games .353/.476/.941. He's heating up.

I wonder if he gets traded.  There just doesn't seem to be room for him going forward on the Twins roster.  Lewis, Correa, Lee, Santana and Miranda all play the infield.  Castro, Buxton, Wallner, Kepler and Larnach all play the outfield.

 

Plus, Severino has had a strong year and he's either a 1B or DH and Keaschall keeps improving every day and could be promoted to AAA at any point.  Julien is running out of spots and could be a good trade piece to bring back a quality pitcher.

[FlyingFinn]

9 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

I wonder if he gets traded.  There just doesn't seem to be room for him going forward on the Twins roster. 

Julien fits the Farmer spot well on the Twins. Farmer is the 4th string SS at this point and only plays 2B and 3B (and he's 4th string there as well). Lee, Castro and Miranda have 3B covered at this point.

[LambchoP]

I also think either Julien or Severino could be a good trade piece. Both seem blocked in our infield. Maybe we can package them with a few others to gain some pitching help? If they do trade these young guys, I hope it's for a starter, and one with at least another year of control. Fedde looked pretty good against us yesterday....Crochet and Luzardo will be too expensive but Fedde? Kikuchi? Tyler Anderson?

[DJL44]

33 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

I wonder if he gets traded.  There just doesn't seem to be room for him going forward on the Twins roster.  Lewis, Correa, Lee, Santana and Miranda all play the infield.  Castro, Buxton, Wallner, Kepler and Larnach all play the outfield.

Someone's getting traded. Castro also plays the infield pretty well. Martin plays OF/2B. Kirilloff and Keirsey are also in the org in addition to Severino. Some of that will thin out next season when Kepler, Margot, Farmer and Santana are gone but there's still enough MLB ready position player talent to trade someone for pitching. 

[Doctor Gast]

54 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

They want Julien to be the starting 2B. They have Miranda and Santana for 1B.

Julien's last 4 weeks in AAA => .291/.467/.468. His last 5 games .353/.476/.941. He's heating up.

It was more of a rhetorical question. They have been wanting him to play 2B all his career & he has been lousy most of his time there. Thinking that his bat would make up for his inadequacy there. Possibly focusing on his fielding with smoke & mirrors maybe they have passed him off as adequate. I'd still want someone who is naturally better at 2B so they wouldn't be deterred from their hitting trying to be passable at 2B.

Julien would be the LHH platoon at 2B. (SHH) Lee is our present & future full-time 2Bman with Castro, Martin & Lewis all better 2Bman & better contact hitters as backups. While we have RHH Miranda & Santana who can't hit RHPs we have nobody designated to bat against LHPs at 1B. 

1B is a production position, Santana isn't close to producing the way he needs to at 1B. He is one of the roadblocks I insinuated to earlier. As I wrote earlier Julien is very close to MLB the only thing that is stopping him is Santana. Why isn't Julien playing 1B? Is rhetorical because it doesn't make sense to have him at 2B, his future & present is 1B. The only sense is they intend to trade Julien but if they wanted to trade Julien, last off-season was the best time.

 

[OptimisticTwinsFan]

2 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

It was more of a rhetorical question. They have been wanting him to play 2B all his career & he has been lousy most of his time there. Thinking that his bat would make up for his inadequacy there. Possibly focusing on his fielding with smoke & mirrors maybe they have passed him off as adequate. I'd still want someone who is naturally better at 2B so they wouldn't be deterred from their hitting trying to be passable at 2B.

Julien would be the LHH platoon at 2B. (SHH) Lee is our present & future full-time 2Bman with Castro, Martin & Lewis all better 2Bman & better contact hitters as backups. While we have RHH Miranda & Santana who can't hit RHPs we have nobody designated to bat against LHPs at 1B. 

1B is a production position, Santana isn't close to producing the way he needs to at 1B. He is one of the roadblocks I insinuated to earlier. As I wrote earlier Julien is very close to MLB the only thing that is stopping him is Santana. Why isn't Julien playing 1B? Is rhetorical because it doesn't make sense to have him at 2B, his future & present is 1B. The only sense is they intend to trade Julien but if they wanted to trade Julien, last off-season was the best time.

 

Agreed -- I have no idea why we are prioritizing Santana in anyway other than insurance if guys like Kirilloff and Julien don't develop. Every intention should be to try to maximize the value of the young players, even if that leads to a trade.

[RpR]

2 hours ago, DJL44 said:

They want Julien to be the starting 2B. They have Miranda and Santana for 1B.

Julien's last 4 weeks in AAA => .291/.467/.468. His last 5 games .353/.476/.941. He's heating up.

With 9 fielding errors since he got sent down.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Because of Eeles, I've been following AAA a little more. Eeles is holding his own, Julien is closing in on returning to MLB, why aren't they focusing him at 1B? We have Lee, Lewis, Castro & Martin who are naturally better than Julien at 2B, not to mention Farmer. It's frustrating having all these roadblocks holding back our young players. The BP game for the Saints went well until Winder, it's taking him a bit to get his stuff back. 

Martin has not been very impressive at 2B and there's probably very little chance they move Royce there this year. 

Besides, Julien has made huge strides forward defensively and was actually quite good to start the year. Defensive flexibility never hurts, not to mention that he'd never start at 1B over Santana anyway. 

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

2 hours ago, SF Twins Fan said:

I wonder if he gets traded.  There just doesn't seem to be room for him going forward on the Twins roster.  Lewis, Correa, Lee, Santana and Miranda all play the infield.  Castro, Buxton, Wallner, Kepler and Larnach all play the outfield.

Plus, Severino has had a strong year and he's either a 1B or DH and Keaschall keeps improving every day and could be promoted to AAA at any point.  Julien is running out of spots and could be a good trade piece to bring back a quality pitcher.

Would be selling very low to trade Julien this year. He can be a very valuable piece of the infield for the next 5 years with Lee/Lewis/Correa/Miranda, and brings some more left-handedness to that group. He's done more to prove he can hack it in the majors than any other prospect at or below AAA, which shouldn't be underrated. 

[chpettit19]

12 minutes ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Would be selling very low to trade Julien this year. He can be a very valuable piece of the infield for the next 5 years with Lee/Lewis/Correa/Miranda, and brings some more left-handedness to that group. He's done more to prove he can hack it in the majors than any other prospect at or below AAA, which shouldn't be underrated. 

I agree there's room for Julien on the infield because the Twins rotate guys a ton to start with, and injuries are always going to happen. Lewis shouldn't be a reason to trade anyone. His talent should be, but he's played less than 100 games in what should be his 4th season. 

But if they could spin Julien into one of the young Marlin arms I'd be into that. They have their own concerns that have lowered their value in the same way Julien has. Julien enough to start a conversation with Miami about Meyer or Luzardo?

I think the "there's no room" or "we have a log jam" ideas are crazy. Kyle Farmer is still on this team. There's no such thing as too much talent. But if they could get a Miami arm for a package based around Julien I'd be all for it.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

3 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

I agree there's room for Julien on the infield because the Twins rotate guys a ton to start with, and injuries are always going to happen. Lewis shouldn't be a reason to trade anyone. His talent should be, but he's played less than 100 games in what should be his 4th season. 

But if they could spin Julien into one of the young Marlin arms I'd be into that. They have their own concerns that have lowered their value in the same way Julien has. Julien enough to start a conversation with Miami about Meyer or Luzardo?

I think the "there's no room" or "we have a log jam" ideas are crazy. Kyle Farmer is still on this team. There's no such thing as too much talent. But if they could get a Miami arm for a package based around Julien I'd be all for it.

I have a tough time with Luzardo specifically because he's had his own history of injuries and he's only got 2 expensive years left of team control. I wouldn't trade much more than Julien for him, and even then I'm not sure that would be to the Twins' advantage.

Certainly not opposed to flipping him for starting pitching, but with his OBP & slugging profile and being under team control through 2030 they'd better get back some real value & team control if they do go that route. 

[SF Twins Fan]

26 minutes ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Would be selling very low to trade Julien this year. He can be a very valuable piece of the infield for the next 5 years with Lee/Lewis/Correa/Miranda, and brings some more left-handedness to that group. He's done more to prove he can hack it in the majors than any other prospect at or below AAA, which shouldn't be underrated. 

His trade value isn't as great now as this past offseason, but you wouldn't really be selling "very" low on him though, especially with how he's hitting the past month at AAA.  Also, the Twins will have to give up something good to get a good pitcher.

 

The Twins have Lee, Wallner, Kepler, Larnach and Castro as guys that can hit left handed with Severino and Kiriloff down at AAA.

[2wins87]

2 hours ago, SF Twins Fan said:

I wonder if he gets traded.  There just doesn't seem to be room for him going forward on the Twins roster.  Lewis, Correa, Lee, Santana and Miranda all play the infield.  Castro, Buxton, Wallner, Kepler and Larnach all play the outfield.

 

Plus, Severino has had a strong year and he's either a 1B or DH and Keaschall keeps improving every day and could be promoted to AAA at any point.  Julien is running out of spots and could be a good trade piece to bring back a quality pitcher.

There is enough depth that they certainly could trade Julien but I wouldn’t say there isn't room for him.

With Santana on the roster this year his role is less clear if everyone is healthy, but I can easily envision an infield with Correa, Lewis, Lee, Miranda, and Julien going forward. There will be enough ABs at 2B, 1B, and DH for Julien even with the others as full time players.

I do think this offseason they will have to sort through their position player depth and decide who they absolutely need to keep. Barring a great offer, Julien would be on the keep list for me.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

3 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

His trade value isn't as great now as this past offseason, but you wouldn't really be selling "very" low on him though, especially with how he's hitting the past month at AAA.  Also, the Twins will have to give up something good to get a good pitcher.

 

The Twins have Lee, Wallner, Kepler, Larnach and Castro as guys that can hit left handed with Severino and Kiriloff down at AAA.

Commensurate to my perceived value I think trading him in a year where he had month long stretch with 35 strikeouts to 11 walks and a .439 OPS means the other teams have a lot of ammo to low ball the offer.

Lee is the only IF of that group, and I still think at least one of Kepler/Wallner/Larnach will be gone by next year. Correa, Royce and Miranda are all RH (though Miranda has reverse splits so far), so Julien helps balance out the IF and he has defensive flexibility - unlike Severino. I'm kind of out on Kirilloff at this point, though I'd be happy to be wrong.

Really, I just don't get the rush in trying to trade him away when playing time opens up naturally next year and his rookie season was one of the best rookie seasons in Twins history. 

[4twinsJA]

Looks to be 4 position spots opening on 26 man next year. Farmer and Margot are no doubters to be gone, Santana- may be pushing Twins luck to sign him for 39 year old season, and Kepler will be free agent, will be too expensive for Twins and have cheaper options. Most likely Julien gets one of those spots if not traded. Lewis if healthy gets one, Kirilloff?, Martin? 

[Seth Stohs]

5 hours ago, SF Twins Fan said:

At what point does Luke Keaschall get promoted to AAA?  After the futures game?

I don't see any reason for him to move up there... He's got maybe a month in Double-A. Let's let him see that level for a little bit. 

[SF Twins Fan]

1 hour ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Commensurate to my perceived value I think trading him in a year where he had month long stretch with 35 strikeouts to 11 walks and a .439 OPS means the other teams have a lot of ammo to low ball the offer.

Lee is the only IF of that group, and I still think at least one of Kepler/Wallner/Larnach will be gone by next year. Correa, Royce and Miranda are all RH (though Miranda has reverse splits so far), so Julien helps balance out the IF and he has defensive flexibility - unlike Severino. I'm kind of out on Kirilloff at this point, though I'd be happy to be wrong.

Really, I just don't get the rush in trying to trade him away when playing time opens up naturally next year and his rookie season was one of the best rookie seasons in Twins history. 

It's not about it being a rush to trade him.  It's he's a surplus at this point that the Twins can afford to trade to try and bring back a quality pitcher to upgrade their starting rotation.  When healthy, the Twins have four infielders (Lewis, Correa, Lee and Miranda) who are all better than Julien.  They have five outfielders (Castro, Larnach, Buxton, Kepler and Wallner) who are all better than Julien.  Plus, they have additional prospects that are knocking on the door to being ready.

[Seth Stohs]

5 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Nowlin has a ways to go with his command and control but he is grinding this season and slowly improving.

Emmanuel Rodriguez has been down quite a while for what was initially a simple hand injury. I never saw anything specific but it seemed like a jammed digit was aggravated from the slide in the game where he came out.

Keaschall consistently has good at bats. 

Carson McCullers is a big athletic guy, one  hits the ball really hard.

I've been a bit surprised by Nowlin's lack of strikeouts, but because of that, he's been able to get weak contact and work some extensive innings. 

E-Rod's been in the FCL now since late last week. They only gave him a week off initially for his hand/thumb injury... thankfully it wasn't a broken hamate bone. But, they're going to want him fully healthy. 

McCusker's a great story... powerful swing. 

[SF Twins Fan]

9 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

I don't see any reason for him to move up there... He's got maybe a month in Double-A. Let's let him see that level for a little bit. 

He only played 52 games at A+.  He's played 39 AA games, so another two weeks and he'll have played more AA games than A+ games.  His stats below exclude his first 10 games from AA, which is all it took for him to adjust.

[jmlease1]

39 minutes ago, SF Twins Fan said:

He only played 52 games at A+.  He's played 39 AA games, so another two weeks and he'll have played more AA games than A+ games.  His stats below exclude his first 10 games from AA, which is all it took for him to adjust.

He's been great and really improved his prospect stock. But it's still a relatively small sample and he's already rising very fast in the organization. It won't impact things significantly to have him roll a while longer in AA and figure out his defensive options, which are still a little unclear. He's not getting called up to MLB unless utter catastrophe happens so whether he's playing every day in AA or AAA for an extra month or two won't really matter much.

He jumped up 2 levels in like 20 minutes last season after he was drafted, and been promoted already this year. He's doing great.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

1 hour ago, SF Twins Fan said:

It's not about it being a rush to trade him.  It's he's a surplus at this point that the Twins can afford to trade to try and bring back a quality pitcher to upgrade their starting rotation.  When healthy, the Twins have four infielders (Lewis, Correa, Lee and Miranda) who are all better than Julien.  They have five outfielders (Castro, Larnach, Buxton, Kepler and Wallner) who are all better than Julien.  Plus, they have additional prospects that are knocking on the door to being ready.

Given the propensity for injuries in today's MLB, 4 good infielders isn't nearly enough to call the 5th guy a surplus.

I think Miranda is a push with Julien (probably an unpopular opinion), but either way you can pretty easily find plenty of ABs for 5 or even 6 infielders if they're good enough hitters to get DH starts. 

I totally disagree that Larnach/Wallner/Kepler are all decidedly better than Julien. He's definitely shown more than Larnach, I would argue has shown more than Wallner, and Kepler for his price isn't more valuable than Julien.

My thing with prospects is that until they prove it in the majors, they're not better than a guy who has produced. Plus, given Keaschall's OF flexibility (and the continuing need for a RH OF) they have a lot bigger logjam from which to trade from in the outfield than they do in the infield. Rodriguez, Keaschall, Martin, Keirsey and the only real IF knocking on the door in the next couple seasons is Severino who is limited to 1B/DH.

[CCHOF5yearstoolate]

1 hour ago, SF Twins Fan said:

He only played 52 games at A+.  He's played 39 AA games, so another two weeks and he'll have played more AA games than A+ games.  His stats below exclude his first 10 games from AA, which is all it took for him to adjust.

I like Fangraphs' layout better for looking at minor league stats, Keaschall has been incredibly impressive at every level. 

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Lewis shouldn't be a reason to trade anyone. His talent should be, but he's played less than 100 games in what should be his 4th season. 

I keep wondering what kind of pitching they could get for Royce Lewis.