The Twins Can't Wait Any Longer to Bring Back Royce Lewis

1 hour ago, Bracky said:

Until Lewis was to work more at 1B at AAA, I trust Clemens WAY more defensively in that role currently. 

I get it, the consistent "Clemens shouldn't even be on the roster" or "Clemens is a terrible bench player on all other teams" messages from this board. Yes, the Twins have roster construction issues. Yes, Clemens is NOT a star MLB player. But in terms of what the Twins have right now, he is nowhere near the top of my list of our problems in terms of contributing players. 

Also with what I saw from Lewis before going to AAA, I still don't trust his bat against MLB level pitching yet.

I didn't say Clemens shouldn't be on the roster.  But he is not an everyday player.  So while he is not near the top of the list of problems, he is a symptom of the issue with this roster.  We are insisting on playing 30 somethings with no future on the team instead of upgrading their positions either with players from St. Paul or outside of the organization.  Clemens should be a bench utility player playing 2 or 3 days a week.  Hitting him in the middle of the order is not going to lead to consistent winning.

It's important that Lewis gets his mechanics right , hitting homeruns is nice but that is not what he was sent to AAA to work on ...

He has to go back to hitting to all fields , lots of adjustments to be made on his offense ( recognition of pitches )and just because he's hitting homeruns in AAA doesn't mean he is ready to comeback  ...

Learning a new position , lewis is in AAA to stay till the allstar break at the earliest ....

I agree with a lot of the comments already posted on here. Lewis has looked better in the box, more athletic, and less dancing around. Let him keep working on that while he learns a new defensive position. Where can he best help that atrocious infield defense?

Good grief! Give him some more time to prove this streak is for real before even considering promotion. How many AAA teams and pitchers has he even played against? Remember that AAA series are SIX games. He’s probably faced only 2-3 teams so far. I don’t know who the “elite” AAA teams are, but wait until he’s faced those teams/pitchers before even considering a promotion. 
He also needs time to show he can play at least average defense at new positions to prove he won’t be a liability in the field. I don’t trust that he’s fixed his plate approach yet, so let him continue to hit for a while. As previous posters stated, promote Fedko and others that have sustained offense at AAA for a longer period of time. Sabato hit 3 homers in one game against LV, I think five in the series. So what, that didn’t get him a promotion either. 

There is room for both Lewis and Clemens in the lineup. Clemens can play right field. Martin is playing too much and has been exposed. Same for Gray and Kriedler. Outman and Arcia should go and Fedko and Royce should be up. The direction of our season will be decided in the next 2 weeks. We have to improve our run scoring.

1 minute ago, DJL44 said:

What does that have to do with his defense? Royce has a lot more range than Josh Bell.

This team has been using Josh Bell and Orlando Arcia regularly at first base. I would rather they used Royce Lewis there instead of those two guys.

Sometimes I think the Venn Diagram between “call up Kyler Fedko, he’s mashing” and “keep Royce in AAA, he isn’t making adjustments” is a circle.

It does counter the “send him to AAA for a reset” argument. The pitching isn’t good enough in AAA to help players work on their weaknesses.

"have to do with  his defense". Nothing really but the .163 renders his defense moot. Plus Clemens has been playing a lot more 1B than Bell and at a Gold Glove level. I just am skeptical that the organization has torn down a massively failed approach at the plate and swing and built in back up more in the mold of Lyman Bostock or even what it looks like Walker Jenkins is heading toward.

As the hitting legend, Paul Molitor said on last night’s broadcast, struggling hitters need to focus first on contact, using the whole field and getting base hits, then gradually the power will come.

1B is a problem whether its Bell or Lewis until and unless Lewis really changes his whole approach.

Clemens is acceptable, maybe better than acceptable, but .220s and .230s batting averages don’t usually do it for me. I do like Clemens and root really hard for him but he’s so streaky. What more does Sabato need to do to get a chance? .966 OPS for Sabato.  

I could also see Mendez coming up and cycling through LF, DH and eventually some 1B and maybe slide Larnach to RF and DH some days until Martin gets back on track. Less AB for Bell.

And Culpepper at .266, but much higher recently, w .372 OBP, .858 OPS, 13 HR,  13/14 SB and very good defense from what I’ve gathered watching/listening to some Saints games and reading about his defense too, combined with Mendez could inject  the offense that Bell, Caratini aren’t providing. And the overall extra offense the team needs.

Of course they can leave him at AAA, they have leaving higher upside players down in the minors all year, so why would they change now? Sure there’s cagey 30 year old minor leaguer that doesn’t f s as core into the long term plans they could call up

Then we should be buying light rail tickets for Culpepper replacing everyone at shortstop, Fedko learning Clemens' job, and Mendez taking the outfield corner and moving Martin to Outman's position, as well as Sabato playing 1st base instead of Bell... while Lewis searches for a spot on the field! Lewis as DH?

The phrase everyone is circling around in their comments to this article is:

Over-reaction anyone?

Sure, he has been hot since his demotion, but so what? Mickey Gasper is a AAA legend. MLB? Not so much.

What adjustments has he made at the plate? While at least showing some semblance of positional flexibility, is he actually putting in hard time in practice? How has his attitude been? It didn't sound real hot when he was sent down. Lewis could hit .500 in AAA, but unless he is meeting the criteria set forth by the organization to improve on the field and at the plate, the only way he sees his way back to the big club is a rash of injuries. It is hard to see any scenario where he is promoted before the all-star break.

The confidence factor is overrated. Everyone, including Royce, knows that true confidence is gained by big league success not by mashing AAA pitching. It’s great that he is clubbing some homers but that “confidence” will go away in a hurry when big league pitchers start eating away at weaknesses he hasn’t fixed. 

51 minutes ago, miller761 said:

There is room for both Lewis and Clemens in the lineup. Clemens can play right field. Martin is playing too much and has been exposed. Same for Gray and Kriedler. Outman and Arcia should go and Fedko and Royce should be up. The direction of our season will be decided in the next 2 weeks. We have to improve our run scoring.

Their run scoring is just fine. They scored 6 runs last night. They’re at 4.6 runs per game, the same as Tampa Bay. The offense took a hit when Jeffers was hurt but it is still productive.

The defense is giving up an extra run every game compared to an average defense. Fix that instead.

53 minutes ago, greglw333 said:

. What more does Sabato need to do to get a chance? .966 OPS for Sabato.  

Royce is so much better at baseball than Sabato it is ridiculous.

Bring him up and DFA Outman. Easy decision.

4 minutes ago, Patzky said:

Martin, Outman and Arcia do provide something Larnach, Keaschall and Gray do not. I'll leave it here for someone to guess.

Arcia does not play good defense. He’s an old, slow player. His sprint speed is worse than Josh Bell.

Strange as it sounds, I agree with those that say he hasn’t made any adjustments. If you watch him, he’s trying to pull everything, taking advantage of AAA pitching and small ballparks by hitting home runs and doubles…exclusively pull, exclusively pitches middle-in. The pitches major league pitchers refuse to give him.

Still, bring him up. If nothing else, he may have gained some confidence, and will succeed more often when he does get the pitch he’s looking for. My long-term expectations remain severely muted until I see a change in approach. Maybe even more failure is required for him to revert to what we saw his first couple years. And this season would be the year to tolerate that process.

3 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

What adjustments has he made?

"the Twins needed to know that the changes were real."

What changes were made and why should the Twins believe they're real? There was never any doubt Royce Lewis is too good for AAA pitching. Him destroying AAA pitching doesn't prove he's made any adjustments or changes. You don't present any information on what changes or adjustments were made or why anyone should believe they're "real." 

Royce's walk rate is 5.2% in AAA compared to the 10.1% he had in the majors this year. He hasn't started laying off pitches and taking good at bats. His oppo% is down to 11.9% in AAA compared to the 14.7% he had in the majors this year. He hasn't started going the other way with pitches. His swing percentage overall has gone up to 51% from the 48.6% it was in the bigs. His O-Swing% (out of zone pitches he swings at) has gone up an insignificant amount from 32.8 to 33%.  Again, he hasn't stopped chasing pitches. He's simply making more, and better, contact against inferior pitching.

So, I ask again, what adjustments has he made and why should the Twins think they're real? Because it's pretty easy to look at his swing decision and approach numbers and see he hasn't changed anything. He's simply destroying inferior pitching. Why should we believe he's "fixed" and he wouldn't continue to struggle with his swing at everything, pull everything approach in the majors again when he hasn't changed that approach one bit? 

This and the post below it are really good.  Gives a lot to think about in terms of the underlying stats.  The only thing I'd counter with, is confidence matters too.  I know that can't be measured, but Royce and MW 'seem' to be fragile guys where a little success (or failure) can matter.  Either with coming back up, or as a marketable trade asset, sadly, this may be the peak.  Only concern would be leaving them at AAA until they fail, then have little value for us, or others.  But again, you guys laid this argument out in an insightful way I would not have thought to do.  Thanks!