Western SD Fan

Maybe everyone can save a little face, and Royce can make an IL visit with discomfort of something. A 10-day IL visit with up to 20 days of rehab. Maybe that will be enough time to work out some kinks.

Sometimes you have to tip you cap to the defense. That was a great play to get Buxton.

Finally, an honest color man in Plouffe to discuss what we are all seeing at the plate from Royce.

I'm the other way around. I'm glad I purchased the full MLB package because it is fun watching them. They never seem rattled or out of a game. Their construction is similar to ours in terms of veteran/youth mix and good pitching. Something I wish a certain team that we are watching would pick up on.

Idk how many people are watching the game. I know this may just be piling on to Royce, but he looked like he was jogging over to that foul ball that Jeffers caught. Jeffers may have called him off, but to be jogging over to the ball says a lot for me.

In other AL Central games, the Motor Kitties can't be stopped, but they kept the Royals behind us. The Angels beat Cleveland so at least not losing any ground compared to the teams around us.

I've said this for years whenever we play Cleveland and ponder why we can't get our pitching to respond like they do. My answer has always been: They have Carl Willis and we don't.

Festa hasn't been able to get through 5 innings in St. Paul since coming back from arm fatigue. The stuff may be there to bring up, but he likely isn't getting through 4 innings in the MLB level. SWR has pitched into the 6th in both games that he has started since being optioned.

My guess with McCusker was brought up to be an "In case of emergency, break glass" type of player. Sort of like Keirsey Jr was before we actually had to see him take AB's and not just be a defensive replacement. I would also say that the Twins may have been hoping for a lop-sided result somewhere along the way where he could have had more AB's. When the offense is clicking as much as a Tesla battery about ready to die and the pitching has been holding, that doesn't lead to many opportunities.

I am uncertain where this article was supposed to go in terms of boosting or hurting people's opinion of Rocco. I almost see it as a back-handed compliment as Rocco has developed (to my knowledge) a hands-off approach that almost depends on leadership from within the team itself. It worked in 2019 and 2020 when there was a veteran laden lineup but hasn't seemed to work as well when fielding a younger team.

This is still more believable than all the advanced expected metrics suggesting the Royce is just fine and he just needs time to regress towards the norm.

According to my five minutes of research, Lewis played at 2B ONCE, in AA, prior to last year. Considering what the commenters on here already think of his defensive skills, I would suggest that he was probably a little leery about whether he would be detrimental to the team playing a position that he doesn't know. The FO didn't ask him in the offseason or in spring training about working on the 2B position although we had opined on it in many offseason threads about a way to plug a hole in the lineup. Not all players have the confidence of Michael Cuddyer and just say F it and give me glove. The Devers situation is even worse as the team had multiple chances to address it. Once they signed Bregman, they could have approached Devers in the offseason about getting some 1B work in and heavily worked with him during spring training so he would have at least felt capable about fielding the position. They didn't and when they tried to pressure him after Casas got hurt, he rightly pushed back. Again, the team had a chance to smooth it over by suggesting that he include some 1B work as part of his daily routine so they can use him at 1B if they ever get healthy enough for all of their players to be on the field. The FO has seemingly refused to talk to Devers about it. Ultimately, I would like to see both Lewis and Devers become more flexible in the positions they play, but the quote: ‘Lack of Planning on Your Part Doesn’t Constitute an Emergency on My Part’, that I have heard much of my life, should also apply to front offices as well as in other instances in life. That means better communication and giving them the time and space to prepare to actually play the position that you're asking of them.

This may be a scenario where the FO doesn't want to admit they screwed up in bringing up Lewis too soon. Many of us watched or kept track of his rehab in St. Paul and it didn't look like he was ready. Given the overall team situation, it seemed bringing him up to the MLB club was more out of desperation than it was that he was ready to contribute. As other commenters have made, Lewis needs a trip back to St. Paul. Whether that means an IL visit to "save face" for the FO or just a straight send to AAA, I don't really care. It's more important for himself and us as fans that he gets himself right and prepared for a playoff push. Even the FO can claim a win in sending him down by saying that getting Lewis back on track will be like a mid-season trade for a hitter that will benefit the club. Finally, to address the "have fun" quote. All of us have had to use some coping mechanism to keep going and keep your spirits up. I've said before that this is possibly the first time that he has this level of disappointing results in his life and he probably doesn't know how to react as of yet. I'm sure he realizes he's pushing too hard and being honest about essentially being out of answers should ring lots of bells with the coaching staff and the FO that they need to help him and quickly.

I'm going to try to look positive and suggest today was a hot day on getaway day with a day off and crossing the country. Think about it as having to work on a Friday afternoon on Memorial Day weekend and you have plans. Many people's job performance is probably satisfactory at best. I'm much more concerned that the lack of offense continues to put pressure on the pitching to be perfect or get tagged with a loss. I do hope that we pick up some health on the trip to Seattle. It does discourage me that Wallner is DH-ing tonight. Fingers crossed they want to give him another day (Thursday) in Omaha before hopping that red eye to Seattle.

First person to be optioned will be McCusker. Then I hope they rip the band aid off and send Royce down to St. Paul to work on getting himself right again with the understanding that the team NEEDS him to work on this out of the limelight. With all the injuries Royce has had over the years, it's possible this is the first time in his career he has ever been in a slump, and he is overdoing it. That likely keeps Bride on the roster until either Lewis gets his mojo back in St. Paul or Keaschall comes back. Plouffe made a point on Tuesday that they may want to ease Wallner back into the lineup over the weekend. His reasoning was that it may not be wise to throw Wallner into the deep end of the cavern that is Seattle with Seattle pitching as he is trying to get back into the swing of things.

Another old friend greeted us in Omaha as Trevor Richards closed out the game for the Storm Chasers.

Jax could even make a guest appearance if he is able to continue his dominance for the next month or so. Managers will choose non-"closers" considering they show dominance.

IIRC, Correa had something similar when he took a pitch off of his fingers or knuckles earlier this year. He could play the field but couldn't really hold a bat without pain. If Bader has a similar type of feeling in his finger(s), it makes sense why he wouldn't be in the lineup. Although tonight he was available as a defensive replacement. I also hope that Bader can start tomorrow.

Lewis has not had a day off since he came off the IL. I know there have been rainouts and off days in between, but it does seem like his head is not fully in it at the moment. Both offensively and defensively and they are too banged up to send him down. So, a day off to clear his head will hopefully help.

I'll reiterate that I'd rather have an OF that we are sure can actually play the outfield. There are already too many DH's and infielders playing in the outfield. With Bader down and uncertainty surrounding Buxton's return, I'd rather be on the side of someone that we can be more certain about putting into the field.

Per MLB.com: I'd prefer this approach vs what the team did to Lewis and rush him back. Especially since we seem to have a dearth of outfielders that can actually play the outfield at the moment. Wallner said he expects to play at least a couple more games on his rehab assignment after Sunday. The club’s stated preference is for Wallner to play back-to-back full games before he is activated, so one plausible scenario would be for him to play Tuesday and Wednesday before joining the Twins on Friday in Seattle during the second part of the upcoming road trip.

Curious if that bunt was called from the bench or he did it on his own. Either way, a lot of respect for Ryan as they think they have to manufacture a run to get to him.

I was hoping to hear from the manager on Bader's status. Buxton will just be whenever the doctors clear him to play. I'm ok giving Lewis a day off to clear his head

I'm glad somebody else noticed this. I would think that a pitcher would struggle getting through the lineup more than once or twice because the hitter can potentially foul more pitches off if they don't have to adjust their approach for pitch speed and wait out Zebby to make a mistake. I'm hoping this is Stage 1 in terms of working with his pitch mix and find a true off-speed pitch he can control in the zone.

I would even suggest that Castro has a couple of days off where he is at least not starting and maybe come in as a PH or a defensive replacement. I would also like to see Lewis get a day off on Wednesday as a day to clear his head since there seems to be something off with this timing or his legs.