Friday Forum: Twins #3 Pick, Matt "One Of Us" Wallner Gone...Royce Lewis next?

[USAFChief]

Will the Twins suffer another ramblin wreck with their #3 overall pick in the upcoming MLB amateur draft? Codie Christie adds to Twins Daily's excellent and thorough coverage with a look at a possible Georgia Tech catcher. Many good takes from readers here...what do you think?

 

Forrest Lake's Matt Wallner struggled mightily through the first quarter of the season, both defensively and at the plate. Walks down, K's up, power virtually nonexistent. On this past Thursday, the Twins reached a no doubt painful decision and sent him on the green line to St Paul. Weigh in here:

 

While Wallner is no longer with the big club, Royce Lewis remains. Are his problems at the plate fastball related? Betwixt the ears? Too much eyeblack? What say ye?

 

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[RpR]

Yes.

[twinstalker]

They clearly have given power to incompetence in the drafting (hitters) area.  Nobody fully gets what is important, and so they have a farm system full of guys who will never be good at the MLB level.  I have no idea what they're looking at.

They got lucky getting the 5th pick and Walker Jenkins.  Could have screwed that up but didn't.  Not exactly a ringing endorsement.  They got lucky with Keaschall (we think), and were  maybe the one team that thought a hitter (Jeffers) could catch.  That's in nine years.

They have no idea what they're looking for.  If Cholowsky and Emerson are both gone, I'm reasonably sure any hitter they take will be a relative bust.  Those two are relatively bust-proof.  I've heard the same on Lackey, but track record (Georgia Tech's catchers) not good and track record (for Lackey himself) suggests he's a pop-up player whose regression could be all the way back to someone you'd take in early rounds, not with early picks, meaning his range of outcomes could be wide and varied.

I'd probably take the safe pitcher whose almost certain outcome is "lots better than" Kyle Gibson.  Otherwise, I know two things:  George Lombard is consider a top prospect in the game.  Jacob Lombard is considered better at the same stage than his brother.  Twins can probably ruin that with their "development" team, but maybe it's as simple as this.  Picking Lackey isn't idiotic, but I'd shy away from it.

[Nshore]

I'd like to be optimistic about Lewis, because he had a lot more injury adversity to fight through than Wallner.  But he has the familiar off balance/clueless pitch recognition look of a player circling the drain.  He said he worked with a new off season coach, but I don't really see much difference at all.  Maybe he's just not that good.  I think he's toast.  

[Heiny]

I think Lewis just needs a minor league reset.  His ego needs a little massaging also.  He seems to be a little on the paranoid side and needs a confidence rebuild.

[Hpyeet]

Let Lewis play awhile.  What do we have to lose?  We're not paying him that much.  We know he can at times be a great hitter.  IMO he needs a more workman approach, more serious, more focus.  It's good to have fun playing, but maybe tone down the childlike overflowing zealousness.   Odds are Ryan and Jeffers will get traded so?

[gil4]

Quote

...Royce Lewis next?

They have a Royce Lewis jersey give-away on Jun 6th.  Can they wait that long?  Do they send him down now and hope he remembers how to hit in time to call him back up?

I'm sure the correct answer is don't let the baseball ops department read anything put out by marketing, but I'm not sure that happens in the real world.   

 

[Whitey333]

Sometimes I think Lewis keeps getting his head filled with so much that it's hard to concentrate.  So many different coaches telling him how to do things.  Perhaps if he just said " screw them" and just hit like he used to and not worry about all the mechanics and stuff idk.  Something has to change though.

[twinfan]

While I never cared for Lewis even when he was a prospect, he did have a great start to his career. Have injuries simply wiped out his skills? Who knows! But the Twins have several players who are at or below the Mendoza line and only come up with a few games where they hit well. Wallner needs to straighten his swing and approach out but I don't expect him to hit more than .220 with 25-30 home runs max if he ever gets a regular job. The Twins will take that. Plus his defense is suspect as well though not as important considering where he plays.

[Jeff K]

None of us are in the mind of  Royce Lewis.  We can evaluate his numbers, understand the eye test and listen to what he says.  With all that in mind, it appears to me that he needs more than a reset with the Twins.  He needs a reset and a change of scenery.  Unforunately, his trade value is virtually non-existent.  I don't know the correct answer for Royce Lewis, but the Twiins need to do what is right for the team first.  I would send him down and support him as well as they can, but he is not playing at a major league level and that should be how the Twins move forward.

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, Whitey333 said:

Sometimes I think Lewis keeps getting his head filled with so much that it's hard to concentrate.  So many different coaches telling him how to do things.  Perhaps if he just said " screw them" and just hit like he used to and not worry about all the mechanics and stuff idk.  Something has to change though.

All the hitters have the same coaches.

Over the Winter Royce chose to hire a personal hitting coach to help him improve. I don’t know if abandoning that to get back to where he was last year makes much sense? (not exactly stellar results in ‘25) I do know that hitting coaches do not promote moving your feet away from the plate and toward the plate nearly simultaneously while the ball is nearing the plate. He looks like a fool on many pitches and HE’s the guy that needs to fix himself!