Lewis Optioned

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Back to the topic of optioning Lewis:

Larnach, Miranda, and Gordon are all in today’s Twins lineup.

Larnach should always be in the lineup. I'm not sure your point on him. I do question the others.

[Otto von Ballpark]

37 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Larnach should always be in the lineup. I'm not sure your point on him. I do question the others.

No slight on Larnach. The point was, some people said we couldn't option Miranda to keep Lewis because Miranda would need to be optioned when Larnach was activated. That evidently wasn't the case.

[TopGunn#22]

I would have liked to see Lewis STAY.  He was playing very well.  Could he have sustained it ?  Probably not, but I would have stuck with until he proved he COULDN'T sustain it. With his versatility, CF, LF, RF, SS, 2B and 3B were ALL positions he's supposed to be able to play.  Trea Turner had to play CF his rookie year with the Nats.  If you can play a position, you can play it !  Lewis looked fine at SS, but am I being greedy for wanting Buxton, Correa AND Lewis to be on the same team ??  

[Squirrel]

1 hour ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

No slight on Larnach. The point was, some people said we couldn't option Miranda to keep Lewis because Miranda would need to be optioned when Larnach was activated. That evidently wasn't the case.

I think what people were saying, that since it wasn't Miranda who went down when Lewis did, and I think most were surprised it wasn't Miranda, he would go down when Larnach was activated. It wasn't a 'couldn't do it' thing, iirc. But since someone else went to the IL in the meantime, they kept him up.

[Riverbrian]

20 hours ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Back to the topic of optioning Lewis:

Larnach, Miranda, and Gordon are all in today’s Twins lineup.

Lookie there.

Larnach up... Miranda still up. 

 

[Squirrel]

42 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Lookie there.

Larnach up... Miranda still up. 

 

So? There were others to the IL. Not sure the point of this, except more trolling.

[Riverbrian]

18 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

So? There were others to the IL. Not sure the point of this, except more trolling.

Others to the IL was pretty much it. 

There was opinion expressed that Miranda staying up over Lewis didn't matter because Miranda was going down soon due to the imminent return of Larnach. 

Question for the moderator.

Are Otto and I guilty of "trolling" by pointing this out? 

   

[Squirrel]

3 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Others to the IL was pretty much it. 

There was opinion expressed that Miranda staying up over Lewis didn't matter because Miranda was going down soon due to the imminent return of Larnach. 

Question for the moderator.

Are Otto and I guilty of "trolling" by pointing this out? 

   

No, Otto wasn’t trolling. Yes, you were.

[Riverbrian]

On 5/19/2022 at 3:05 PM, Riverbrian said:

  

Miranda... In my eyes... he is merely a symbol for what's wrong with the decision making process here. Miranda needs to return to St. Paul and should have been the first guy in the Uber heading that direction so I mention him to exclamate my point. (I think I just made up a word with Exclamate). I assume Miranda is the guy sent down when Larnach returns but while we wait for Larnach to return... someone else could get hurt and then Miranda's time in the majors extends. Or once Miranda's time extends due to someone's injury... we just send Miranda down anyway because he is still absolutely struggling and now the discussion bounces back to we should have just sent him down when Correa came back. Miranda should have been first in line and this is hardly a debate in my eyes.    

 

 

 

[Riverbrian]

12 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

No, Otto wasn’t trolling. Yes, you were.

 Ah... I've been labelled. 

Well... I didn't intend to be a problem poster. Seems that I am. 

[Squirrel]

31 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

 Ah... I've been labelled. 

Well... I didn't intend to be a problem poster. Seems that I am. 

But well intentioned.

But, back to Lewis. As I and others have said ,,, Lewis being sent down wasn’t my first choice, but I’m not upset by it, either. I don’t think it’s some great wrong and it is what it is. Imo, I think he will be back up. I would have thought sooner, May 31st as I said earlier, but now I’m not sure what to think. Did I think Miranda would soon follow Lewis to AAA? Yes. What do I think since he hasn’t been? Eh. Didn’t call that one right, but then it is what it is. Bottom line for me, the Twins are winning. As long as we are winning, I don’t really care where Lewis and Miranda play and who’s up and who’s down, but if the Twins start faltering, I hope there is tweaking to the roster.

[chpettit19]

22 hours ago, Otto von Ballpark said:

Back to the topic of optioning Lewis:

Larnach, Miranda, and Gordon are all in today’s Twins lineup.

Not overly surprised that Larnach replaced a pitcher and not Miranda. And I don't think it's as simple as "Stashak went on the IL." Miranda wasn't kept for his bat, he was kept because they felt comfortable playing him at 1B. Larnach can't play 1B. Never understood the theory that they would send a cIF down when a cOF came back. I wonder if they've had Sanchez and/or Jeffers practicing at 1B at all. A right handed platoon for Arraez is the hole Miranda is currently filling. Maybe they get comfortable with Arraez as the everyday 1B even against lefties or they're comfortable with Kirilloff being the everyday 1B and Arraez going back to bouncing around, but Miranda looks to be in until they find another 1B option. Maybe it's Urshela that gets 1B reps when they feel comfortable with Lewis at 3B? Will definitely be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[Riverbrian]

49 minutes ago, Squirrel said:

But well intentioned.

But, back to Lewis. As I and others have said ,,, Lewis being sent down wasn’t my first choice, but I’m not upset by it, either. I don’t think it’s some great wrong and it is what it is. Imo, I think he will be back up. I would have thought sooner, May 31st as I said earlier, but now I’m not sure what to think. Did I think Miranda would soon follow Lewis to AAA? Yes. What do I think since he hasn’t been? Eh. Didn’t call that one right, but then it is what it is. Bottom line for me, the Twins are winning. As long as we are winning, I don’t really care where Lewis and Miranda play and who’s up and who’s down, but if the Twins start faltering, I hope the roster does, too.

You were not the only one who said that Miranda would be replaced by Larnach soon so my comment wasn't directed at anybody specifically. It was simply an affirmation of how I interpreted Otto's implication which I agreed with.  

It's hard to predict injuries but easy to predict that they will happen. It isn't a surprise to me that Miranda is still here. (Good Game props to Jose on Friday BTW). It's why there needs to be a pecking order for who goes down and it should be based on performance.  

I'm not upset by it either. Lewis is a phone call away. It doesn't mean automatic losses. It doesn't mean that Lewis is ruined. It doesn't mean that the lightbulb with Miranda won't turn on brightly tomorrow.

It's the thought process that shakes me. Any decision made by a room full of people that concludes (in consideration of actual on the field performance) with Miranda staying up and Lewis going down is concerning to me. There is major league successful precedent... including on the Twins that the minors are not necessary to accomplish what they need to accomplish.  

I believe the front office when they say that Lewis is going down for multi-position training because that is what is happening in St. Paul. 

Regardless, I still support the front office. They are doing what they said they would do. I'd still like to make fun of them for it. 

[stringer bell]

Miranda's value to the Twins at this moment is that he is an acceptable option at third base and first base. It is not like you hand a guy a first baseman's mitt and say "you're a first baseman". Other infield positions have some commonality, probably most is third base, but there is stuff to learn at each position and there have to be some skills. Kirilloff, for example, has long been projected as a good or better first baseman, while someone like Brent Rooker wasn't (despite that being his primary position in college). The Twins have identified Arraez as an infielder and rather than have him in left field, they have decided they would rather have him being an undersized first baseman. The word is that Gary Sanchez is taking grounders at first. Maybe this is a "break glass in case of emergency" thing or maybe they'll roll with it in games. I also noticed that, rather than move utilityman Nick Gordon to third base when Correa pinch hit for Miranda, the Twins used their last bench move and put Urshela in the game. That tells me that, in their minds, Nick Gordon isn't a third baseman. It would figure that if Miranda is sent back to the minors, there would have to be defensive flexibility both at third and first base. 

This kind of stuff fascinates me, like the fact that Kepler hasn't played left field, and the pecking order between Larnach and Kirilloff between left and right field (if both are manning a corner OF spot, it is Larnach is left and AK in right). Nick Gordon is now deemed an acceptable option at short and second and left and center, but has only played a few innings in right. The other day in Oakland, they brought Miranda in to play first base and moved Arraez to second rather than giving Miranda a couple innings at second. 

Circling back to the OP, Royce has gotten to stand at third and in left, hurray. Hopefully, he is working on alternate positions before the games. He's a great talent and I'd love to see him back in Minneapolis without another Correa injury.