The Twins Hot Corner Is Settled for the Future

[The Mad King]

Right now my biggest fear is what we've seen in the past week. Two scary plays that made you grimace and pray he didn't get hurt. 

[tony&rodney]

Did we have this exact article/discussion last year about Miranda?

Hopefully Royce Lewis plays 150-162 games per season at third base for the next decade, but that is far away.

[rwilfong86]

If he can stay healthy, which is a big if. 

[Reptevia]

Yup. Six games and we should give him a 10 year contract!  Certain HOFer!  The people on here are hilarious. 

[chpettit19]

2 hours ago, Reptevia said:

Yup. Six games and we should give him a 10 year contract!  Certain HOFer!  The people on here are hilarious. 

If you think that's hilarious you should look at what Atlanta's been doing with their young, inexperienced players. Or Seattle and JRod. Or the White Sox and Luis Robert. Or Eloy Jimenez. Also Tim Anderson. Matt Moore with the Rays. Or Evan Longoria. Or Brandon Lowe. And Chris Archer. Or Wander Franco (those funny guys in Tampa sure don't know what they're doing!). Corbin Carroll just got paid this year after 38 days in the bigs. Salvador Perez in KC. 

[Beast]

Between Lewis, Miranda, and Lee, I would say there’s a decent chance one of them pans out and fills that hole.

But, I need to remind myself that this is the Twins.  We’ve been waiting on the next great prospect since Puckett.  The number of career derailing injuries is nuts (Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, Liriano, Buxton, Lewis, Kirilloff, could maybe add Sano to the list with the rod and Gordon with the illnesses, off the top of the head).  

I’m having a flashback to that incredible logjam in the OF we had a couple years ago (maybe even months ago)?  Now we’re seeing starting lineups with Garlick, Taylor, and Castro.  Things change quickly.

[DocBauer]

Lewis is in the dirt for now. The only reason the Twins are having Farmer play SS is because he's solid there, and they want to let Lewis settle down and get acclimated. And I bet you donuts to dollars we'll still see him at SS at some point fairly soon.

Is Lewis the future at 3B? He might be. He has all of the talent in the world to be a great and productive 3B. And he can still cover SS easily when Correa needs a day off. 

But Lewis could EASILY give way to Lee in a half season or so to maybe become one of the best 2B in all of MLB. And Lee could be an excellent 3B both offensively and defensively and Lewis could be that outstanding 2B I just mentioned. And what about Polanco? He's easily one of the best Twins players.  Is he moved to make room? Maybe, though it kinda stinks, but his body is aging despite his production.  So even if Polanco is moved, where does Julien fit?

The thing is, Lewis could be a STUD wherever he plays. His injury in 2022 was NOT hitting the wall in CF, it was an awkward landing going for a   ball. Truth is, he has the ability to bs a great OF, at any position. 

If you want the best INF the TWINS  could have for several years going forward, it would be NO Polanco, and it would be AK at 1B...still a viable corner OF here and there... and any combination of Lee, Correa, and Lewis with Kirilloff. That just might be an All Star INF by itself over the next few seasons. But there is no room for a potentially difference making bat like Julien. I say that because OF/DH, the talent of Buxton isn't going anywhere.  And considering that Lewis could play ANYWHERE, Including being a possible CF option, I think there's a lot in flux.

Personally,  I'd love that INF! But I'd rather sacrifice a little defense for Lewis to embrace the OF and let Julien be an OK 2B defensively and put Larnach and Wallner in the corners and sacrifice a little defense.

[Seth Stohs]

8 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Did Twins Daily hire Stephen A. Smith?  Has this website resorted to the hot-takes of ESPN to draw in viewers?  Six games, 25 AB end everything is settled???

Why are we even seeing these types of articles?  I expect better...

Fair enough, but we are talking about Royce Lewis, so yes, people are excited about it, and it's a fair article because Lewis is a top prospect, he is moving to 3B because of Correa. There are several interesting factors involved too (and discussed). 

There's no way to tell what the future holds. Will he stay healthy and keep producing? What are the hopes and plans for Miranda, etc. 

[Riverbrian]

14 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Has this website resorted to the hot-takes of ESPN to draw in viewers?

Yes it has.

This can't be the first time you've noticed this sort of thing. 

The alternative to it is dry spells of content. 

Dry spells of content isn't a very good business model in today's social media. The users of social media are not going to tolerate lack of content. Lack of content is not going feed the masses. Swifties want to talk about what color socks she bought at Wal-Mart. 

To be fair -- Try to come up with interesting content to write about today. Then try to come up with different interesting content tomorrow. Then try to come up with new interesting content the day after that. And the day after that... and the day after that. Now... keep in mind... this interesting content must be contained inside the narrow parameter of not just baseball but Twins baseball. Also... Keep in mind... this website isn't producing just one piece of content a day, It's producing 5 to 10?

Are there 5 to 10 new things under the Twins sun every day?

In other words... Yes it has. 

How else can the website grow or sustain numbers?

We demand it and meeting demand is how you become successful.  

We demand Stephen A. Smith as well. We demand Fox News and we demand MSNBC. 

The content we get is a reflection of us.   

 

[terrydactyls]

14 hours ago, MGM4706 said:

Wish people would quit writng Julien is the future for the Twins. In his trial his fielding was suspect and hitting was abysmal!! Nothing showed he can be the long term solution!!

In my youth, I remember a kid playing for the Minneapolis Millers (AAA affiliate of the NY Giants) who was hitting .477 with 8 HRs and 35 RBIs when he got called up.  He started his major league career by batting .175 in his first 15 games.  But the Giants stuck with him.  And Willie Mays ended up being the Rookie of the Year (and had a decent career).  I'm not saying Julien is the next Willie Mays, but don't write him off just yet.

[Major League Ready]

7 hours ago, DocBauer said:

Lewis is in the dirt for now. The only reason the Twins are having Farmer play SS is because he's solid there, and they want to let Lewis settle down and get acclimated. And I bet you donuts to dollars we'll still see him at SS at some point fairly soon.

Is Lewis the future at 3B? He might be. He has all of the talent in the world to be a great and productive 3B. And he can still cover SS easily when Correa needs a day off. 

But Lewis could EASILY give way to Lee in a half season or so to maybe become one of the best 2B in all of MLB. And Lee could be an excellent 3B both offensively and defensively and Lewis could be that outstanding 2B I just mentioned. And what about Polanco? He's easily one of the best Twins players.  Is he moved to make room? Maybe, though it kinda stinks, but his body is aging despite his production.  So even if Polanco is moved, where does Julien fit?

The thing is, Lewis could be a STUD wherever he plays. His injury in 2022 was NOT hitting the wall in CF, it was an awkward landing going for a   ball. Truth is, he has the ability to bs a great OF, at any position. 

If you want the best INF the TWINS  could have for several years going forward, it would be NO Polanco, and it would be AK at 1B...still a viable corner OF here and there... and any combination of Lee, Correa, and Lewis with Kirilloff. That just might be an All Star INF by itself over the next few seasons. But there is no room for a potentially difference making bat like Julien. I say that because OF/DH, the talent of Buxton isn't going anywhere.  And considering that Lewis could play ANYWHERE, Including being a possible CF option, I think there's a lot in flux.

Personally,  I'd love that INF! But I'd rather sacrifice a little defense for Lewis to embrace the OF and let Julien be an OK 2B defensively and put Larnach and Wallner in the corners and sacrifice a little defense.

All very good points/questions Doc which is why we can't predict the future of this team with any certainty.  The one I am most unsure of is Polanco.  My guess would be he is gone if they get an offer if they like.  It's a matter of when.  

 

[Fire Dan Gladden]

3 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

Yes it has.

This can't be the first time you've noticed this sort of thing. 

The alternative to it is dry spells of content. 

Dry spells of content isn't a very good business model in today's social media. The users of social media are not going to tolerate lack of content. Lack of content is not going feed the masses. Swifties want to talk about what color socks she bought at Wal-Mart. 

To be fair -- Try to come up with interesting content to write about today. Then try to come up with different interesting content tomorrow. Then try to come up with new interesting content the day after that. And the day after that... and the day after that. Now... keep in mind... this interesting content must be contained inside the narrow parameter of not just baseball but Twins baseball. Also... Keep in mind... this website isn't producing just one piece of content a day, It's producing 5 to 10?

Are there 5 to 10 new things under the Twins sun every day?

In other words... Yes it has. 

How else can the website grow or sustain numbers?

We demand it and meeting demand is how you become successful.  

We demand Stephen A. Smith as well. We demand Fox News and we demand MSNBC. 

The content we get is a reflection of us.   

 

I realize this is a line of a discussion dragging us away from Royce Lewis, but I do want to respond to this.

You talk about the general state of today's media as it's a good thing.  The hot-take approach only feeds to divisiveness among people today.  We see that here in the TD comments.  Very little civil discourse, everything is attack, terminate, demand change.  We need it yesterday and it better be "my way because my way is right".

People watch SAS because he is a joke and everyone knows it.  He is an accident on the freeway, everybody has to look.  It is like watching a sitcom claiming to be news.

TD chooses to post 5-10 pieces of content per day.  Nobody is forcing them.  This is the business model they have chosen.  It started smaller, with more... affection for each article they posted.  That is what brought readers like myself here.  Now we get 7 articles a day retreading the same talking points.  I have to hunt and fish through the repetitiveness, the hot-takes, (not to mention the unending stream of pop-up advertising) to find an article of substance.

A study was done on Twitter a few years ago:  Of all the users on Twitter, less than .2% were vocal active users.  Every reaction to Twitter responses was pandering to less than .2% of the Twitter population, yet everyone treated this like general consensus.  The vocal majority is not the same as the majority.

I guess it really depends on what you are trying to achieve.  I understand there is a fine line between providing quality content and pandering to the masses.  FOX News and MSNBC may make money, but they are also the primary reasons contributing to all the hate in the country.  If TD continues to go down this path, and chooses to follow the FOX News / MSNBC approach of less quality and more rousting just to provide content, I can think of at least one reader they will lose.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

10 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

Fair enough, but we are talking about Royce Lewis, so yes, people are excited about it, and it's a fair article because Lewis is a top prospect, he is moving to 3B because of Correa. There are several interesting factors involved too (and discussed). 

There's no way to tell what the future holds. Will he stay healthy and keep producing? What are the hopes and plans for Miranda, etc. 

Thank you for making my point Seth.  Be excited for Lewis.  Be optimistic for Lewis.  But don't fall into the hot-take trap of saying 3B is solved.  Be better than that. 

[stringer bell]

36 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Thank you for making my point Seth.  Be excited for Lewis.  Be optimistic for Lewis.  But don't fall into the hot-take trap of saying 3B is solved.  Be better than that. 

If he stays healthy, Lewis will fill a major role on the Twins this year and beyond. It may or may not be third base. 

[Riverbrian]

44 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

I realize this is a line of a discussion dragging us away from Royce Lewis, but I do want to respond to this.

You talk about the general state of today's media as it's a good thing.  The hot-take approach only feeds to divisiveness among people today.  We see that here in the TD comments.  Very little civil discourse, everything is attack, terminate, demand change.  We need it yesterday and it better be "my way because my way is right".

People watch SAS because he is a joke and everyone knows it.  He is an accident on the freeway, everybody has to look.  It is like watching a sitcom claiming to be news.

TD chooses to post 5-10 pieces of content per day.  Nobody is forcing them.  This is the business model they have chosen.  It started smaller, with more... affection for each article they posted.  That is what brought readers like myself here.  Now we get 7 articles a day retreading the same talking points.  I have to hunt and fish through the repetitiveness, the hot-takes, (not to mention the unending stream of pop-up advertising) to find an article of substance.

A study was done on Twitter a few years ago:  Of all the users on Twitter, less than .2% were vocal active users.  Every reaction to Twitter responses was pandering to less than .2% of the Twitter population, yet everyone treated this like general consensus.  The vocal majority is not the same as the majority.

I guess it really depends on what you are trying to achieve.  I understand there is a fine line between providing quality content and pandering to the masses.  FOX News and MSNBC may make money, but they are also the primary reasons contributing to all the hate in the country.  If TD continues to go down this path, and chooses to follow the FOX News / MSNBC approach of less quality and more rousting just to provide content, I can think of at least one reader they will lose.

I can't speak for TD's business model. I suspect it's an over simplification. 

But... I agree with everything you said and share your concerns.  

[h2oface]

65 MLB at bats now. Absolutely get him extended for his career. I am convinced he will be the real deal. Don't worry about the SSS. He was a Number 1 overall. He sure has had flashes of greatness, already. Roll with Royce!

[Linus]

20 hours ago, stringer bell said:

If he stays healthy, Lewis will fill a major role on the Twins this year and beyond. It may or may not be third base. 

This. He’s a great athlete that could be a great fielder at several different positions given a chance. That assumes health and he hits. 

[Mike Sixel]

This hasn't aged well at all.....I'm on the fire the FO bandwagon at this point. Jeffers is the only hitter / fielder drafted and developed in 6 years. That's it. Or even traded for, at this point. That's kind of astounding, even by accident you'd think you could luck into more than 1 hitter in 6 years.