Royce Lewis Has Run Out of Gas

The idea that Royce Lewis has worn down is a charitable reading of the situation. More likely, he's finally played enough games that there's a book on him and he's quite easy to get out right now. 

2 minutes ago, August J Gloop said:

The idea that Royce Lewis has worn down is a charitable reading of the situation. More likely, he's finally played enough games that there's a book on him and he's quite easy to get out right now. 

That’s my thought. Happens to young players all the time. Or maybe he is just in a slump - happens to all players. 

Ownerships lack of support is putting  excess pressure on the players & coaches and eroding their confidence. 

That said, rookies or not, they have to band together and fight through it.

14 minutes ago, Linus said:

That’s my thought. Happens to young players all the time. Or maybe he is just in a slump - happens to all players. 

Just never know about young players. Some hit the ground running...then as said above major league pitchers quickly learn their weaknesses and things get ugly. Orioles Holliday and Mayo raked in AAA but have not started well in MLB. The guy they traded Norby is hitting a ton in Miami. Go figure. Lee started well for Twins but not so much now. Hard to judge a prospect based on part of one season.

Is Lewis turning into a head case? Would trading him make sense? Will Buck or Correa be ready for postseason? Will Twins actually qualify? It's no longer a sure thing. Our 2 regularly scheduled injured stars are needed but hardly reliable and we have enough dots to connect to know this probably won't change.

Is Rocco's tinkering with where his guys play from day to day screwing with clubhouse morale? They used to attack the late inning deficits..now they go meekly as evidenced by the recent 3 game no-,show by the hitters. Gonna be a tough last couple weeks.

Royce's declaration of not doing slumps shows a lack of humility, judgement and any understanding of the immutable cruelties of the game. He put a target on his own back  and other players (including probably a few of his teammates) are likely delighted at his struggles. The "grind" grumblings just seem like more of the same.

I am a Rocco neutralist but he has had a brutal month too. If managers had a batting average, he would have posted about a .175. He also appears to lack self-awareness about that.  He has been dismissive and defensive when questioned about it. In a tougher media town, he would have been skewered. 

I love the Twins but golly, they are making that hard.

26 minutes ago, KBJ1 said:

Ownerships lack of support is putting  excess pressure on the players & coaches and eroding their confidence. 

That said, rookies or not, they have to band together and fight through it.

1 minute ago, Johnny Ringo said:

Royce's declaration of not doing slumps shows a lack of humility, judgement and any understanding of the immutable cruelties of the game. He put a target on his own back  and other players (including probably a few of his teammates) are likely delighted at his struggles. The "grind" grumblings just seem like more of the same.

I am a Rocco neutralist but he has had a brutal month too. If managers had a batting average, he would have posted about a .175. He also appears to lack self-awareness about that.  He has been dismissive and defensive when questioned about it. In a tougher media town, he would have been skewered. 

I love the Twins but golly, they are making that hard.

My guess is that Royce is finally learning what not being bigger than the team really means. He's been bad at third, much of it driven by a surprisingly poor throwing ability. Second base makes some sense in that context. But he's out there pouting and temporarily forgot how to hit. 

What is the fantasy outcome of skewering a manager? He'll build a time machine and go back and tell Jorge Alcala not to blow that game? I literally don't understand what people are hoping for with those kinds of statements. 

4 hours ago, William K Johnson said:

Yes, next spring put him in left field and leave him there.

It would seem that Lewis hitting those Grand Slams could be the worst thing that happened; it put him up in an Ivory castle that is shattering.

Twins need to move on from Rocco.  They also need to overhaul their training staff.  How does your young superstar 3B pull his quad running to 3rd base in the first game of the year?  Rocco relies on analytics to develop a starting lineup each night when to pull the SP.  Why he pulled Ober the other night after 7 one-hit innings is beyond me.  He had KC's number and Rocco let a computer printout tell him what to do.

Give Royce a day off, then let him play out the year at 3B.   He's gotta learn about the "grind" any way.  Might as well be this year.  Put him in a corner OF spot next year and play Miranda at 3B.  Stop coddling the youngsters and play baseball! 

Royce does need to learn to discuss his thoughts with coaches, veteran players, teammates, his parents or just about anyone without a microphone.  His immature and childless comments on playing 2B (“we have lots of other 2B’s”, “it’s not ST or AAA”), “never slumping”, “ice cream veins”, the many complaints about the organization holding him back too long on rehabs etc.  That clubhouse is full of men who have had to make position changes, were no longer the stars of their teams, and had to learn to process their emotions without using the media.  

How does he think Jose Miranda, Brooks Lee, Willi Castro, or Kyle Farmer feel about his comments?  All of them are arguably better fielding 3B. (Apparently we have a lot of those too).  It sounds like they are supposed to eff off and stand somewhere else because the superstar is here even if he hasn’t earned it with better fielding performance..  Give me what I want or I will embarrass you by whining to the media.  Bet that goes down well in the clubhouse.

The point is not that Royce Lewis should or shouldn’t play 3B.  This post is about his immature approach to communication.  Just want to clarify that for a couple of spin doctors.

Just wanted to point out what is obvious, albeit tangential to this: athletes, like . . . world class athletes keep getting injured, and across all sports, well, or at least all sports that have such a stupid love affair with the weight room. Tendons and ligaments cannot handle such increased muscle mass.

I don't know how this is not obvious. The human body can increase muscle mass in fully natural ways. The weight room is not natural at all.

I really doubt we're labeling Lewis's recent struggles as "being worn down by the grind of a season," if it's late June and he has played 60ish games. 

4 hours ago, Rufus said:

In other words he is not a "gamer"  Play me where I want to play or I will whine about it.  He has played half a season and he is worn out?  Come on!  I am really starting to dislike this guy.  One thing I always liked about Miguel Sano and he never got credit for and I am sure it hurt his career, was  that he always agreed to switch positions to help the team out.  He moved from 3rd to left, to 3rd, to 1st.  But the fans were always on him because he was not good at his position, especially 1st base.  But I never heard him complain once.  Now we get cry baby Lewis.

No matter how much he got booed, how bad he was doing Sano was always at the top of the dug out steps cheering his teammates on.  He usually  always the first one on the field when another teammate did good.  Yeah his career crashed and burned but I never heard of him complaining about it.  Lewis has spent half the season on the IL and he is complaining that he is worn out?

3 hours ago, saviking said:

I

 

Lewis is in a slump. Pitchers are figuring out how to pitch to him, and it will take time to adjust. I'm not particularly eager to talk about trading Lewis because we have 48 million dollars hung around our neck in two untradable players. Two months ago he hung the moon and now he's odd man out. This is just frustration from us because the Twins are stinking it up ..

Not entirely out of frustration. The Twins' economics and roster construction make a Lewis trade somewhat plausible. 

5 hours ago, USAFChief said:

C'mon.

Batting practice?

MLB players put in more hours than just games, sure.

But physically demanding? No. Not to mention they have unlimited access to the absolute best therapeutic recovery methods, training staff, medical staff, nutrition, etc etc etc known to mankind. Chartered flights. The best hotels. 

Catchers get physically abused. They cant be expected to play every day.  Nobody else on a MLB team has a single solitary excuse for not meeting the physical demands of the job. Or whining about it.

 

I say this as a registered dietitian, certified strength and conditioning specialist, and someone who played baseball into college: it’s a lot more physically demanding than you’d expect. Everything is about explosive power and repetition, which takes a major toll. 
 

ie: I’m younger than some players on the roster and in really good shape (my profession requires it). Went to twins fantasy camp for a week. After day 1, my groin and hamstrings and IT bands and calves were shot, from taking a few swings and playing a few innings in the field. No BP. No lifts. Nothing. I could tolerate it and work through it, and I had access to said training staff and I’m qualified to be their dietitian, so my recovery methods are great. But I did a fraction of what they’d do on a daily basis, and they do it for 8 months a year. 
 

baseball will wreck you and remind you have muscles you forget you even had. So the grind is very real. Not to defend them, but it’s certainly not easy. 

That’s my two cents. But Royce needs to stop crying and show up since he’s all the team has left for a spark 

Add another coulda/shoulda/woulda to the Twins long line.

He might not just be cooked for the season, but his career.

If you can’t get through a baseball season at ages 23-25, it isn’t likely to improve with age.  He doesn’t have the same saving graces Buxton has (elite defense and speed).  When he’s not hitting, he’s a black hole.  He’s a defensive butcher.  He can’t run.  And, remember when he was an unflappable ray of sunshine in the clubhouse?  So much for that.

Another case of awful resource management leading to another failure of a season by this franchise.  Rinse and repeat into eternity.

3 hours ago, swahl said:

Just wanted to point out what is obvious, albeit tangential to this: athletes, like . . . world class athletes keep getting injured, and across all sports, well, or at least all sports that have such a stupid love affair with the weight room. Tendons and ligaments cannot handle such increased muscle mass.

I don't know how this is not obvious. The human body can increase muscle mass in fully natural ways. The weight room is not natural at all.

 

I agree and I’ve made this point to people in the past (I believe even on here).

There’s another facet to this as well.  The improvement of medicine.  There have always been people who’s bodies couldn’t handle the workload/stress.  But, those people used to blow something out before making it to the pros and their athletic career was over.  Now, they can go get a minimally invasive surgery and have another chance.  Royce is on his, what, 3rd chance?  A few decades ago he may already be done and selling used cars or insurance.

7 hours ago, mrcharlie said:

Indeed. I would suggest though that the problems have existed for some time but with the losing it is more visable.  And it does reflect on the coaching.  So I am hoping changes are made in that department.

6 hours ago, LambchoP said:

Not sure what they're doing wrong, but it really seems like an organizational problem. All of our MLB stars and all of our top minor league prospects just can't seem to stay on the field? With a team that has payroll limitations, having our top paid guys in Correa and Buxton only playing about half a season year after year, is going to cripple the rest of the team. Lewis is looking like he's going to be the exact same. If we can only count on our best players for half a season or less, there is something wrong. Especially when we are seeing the same thing in the minors. Jenkins, Rodriguez, Gonzalez, Keaschal. All these guys are missing serious time. Twins need to start looking at durability and stamina as a real skill that needs to be worked at and improved. I have a hard time believing ALL these kids the Twins are drafting are really ALL that unlucky or brittle. Our conditioning coaches or strength coaches, personal trainer s...they all have to do better I think.

Sounds like Baldelli has totally lost the team.

7 hours ago, nddan67 said:

I wouldn't mind seeing coaching changes.

There are some significantly uninformed takes in this thread.

There is a mental and physical grind to all sports, but baseball is the one that deals you the most failure over the longest period of time. Not mention the grind of being on the road (which is a drain), the pressure to produce, and having to rehab multiple injuries in-season while finding ways to adjust. That is the reality and that is what they get paid to do, but it doesn't make it easy. 

One of the best players on the Twins is struggling because his body has not been able to consistently play this number of games in a row for a long time. He is working through figuring it out. He is trying to figure that out, his body out, and new positions all the while being asked to carry an already undermanned roster. I don't understand tearing down one of the teams best players because he was vulnerable and shared his frustrations. 

7 hours ago, Johnny Ringo said:

Royce's declaration of not doing slumps shows a lack of humility, judgement and any understanding of the immutable cruelties of the game. He put a target on his own back  and other players (including probably a few of his teammates) are likely delighted at his struggles. The "grind" grumblings just seem like more of the same.

I am a Rocco neutralist but he has had a brutal month too. If managers had a batting average, he would have posted about a .175. He also appears to lack self-awareness about that.  He has been dismissive and defensive when questioned about it. In a tougher media town, he would have been skewered. 

I love the Twins but golly, they are making that hard.

Very good thoughts. I think it’s 100% time to move on from Rocco and Falvey. I’d be in favor of dumping Correa and Buxton but who would want them? Lewis may bounce back like Wallner did.

Time to give the McCusker, Rodriguez, Keaschal, Jenkins, Keirsey Jr, Austin Martin, Eaves?, Andrew Morris group their time

The Twins have screwed up another window (2019->) (2023-2024).

I would totally believe that the morale in the clubhouse is low. Ownership sucks and Baldelli just had possibly the worst month of any manager in Twins history with a cavalcade of wretched decisions, further sabotaging the team. -30 MM, injuries they’ve known about ahead of time and Rocco. Plus Falvey and Levines horrible track record at the trade deadline.

Time to rebuild this organization. It would be glorious if a management group could be put together to buy the team from the Pohlads.

11 hours ago, rv78 said:

It appears the Twins superstars don't know anything about conditioning. It's not like Lewis has played every game to this point of the season. It's not like Buxton and Correa don't get days off for rest. Which they really shouldn't need if they were in good shape. There are scheduled off days for that purpose. A 162 game season these days isn't any longer than the 162 games they played back in the '70's, '80's or '90's and most players back then, especially the superstars that each team relied on, had little trouble playing 150+ games every year. I would gripe that Rocco doesn't play his superstars enough and here we have what is suppose to be the Twins 3 best hitters and they can't sustain anything close to a full season of play..... Lewis has played in 64 games out of a possible 143. If that is a grind then him playing a full season or at the very least being productive for a full season will never happen. Maybe the Twins superstars and Rocco should have looked across the diamond during the Royals series and noticed how a real superstar plays. Bobby Witt Jr = 144 games played in 144 possible.

I've long suspected that the Twins' (and Rocco's) habit of frequently resting players is actually a big part of the injury problem here. A body can't be expected to handle the bursts of activity at the highest level of one's sport when that type of activity is avoided at all other times. Their bodies won't be used to it and will break. 

How many days in a row did Cal ripken play? And our key players can't get through half a season? Maybe the rest days and all the effort that goes into "protecting" our players health is counterproductive...