Come on People! Royce Lewis is Here!

Come on people! 


Royce Lewis is here!

Going into the 2022 season, I made a semi-serious pact with myself to quickly pump out a Royce Lewis story to coincide with his Major League debut. An unexpected injury to unexpected Twins shortstop, Carlos Correa, meant that time was sooner than expected. Now sitting at the top of the depth chart, we needed a shortstop immediately, and Lewis was excelling at AAA St. Paul. His first month at that level was promising...


After missing two key seasons of development, can Royce Lewis perform at the Major League level?

Now is our chance to find out.

I distinctly remember sitting on the couch of my luxury Greenwood Point apartment, in Englewood, Colorado, getting ready to watch the 2017 Major League Baseball Draft. The Minnesota Twins had the first overall pick, because they were beyond awful in 2016. It was only the third time the Twins had the first overall draft pick.


2009 O Pee Chee - Joe Mauer

In 2001, they took hometown hero, Joe Mauer. Who had an underwhelmingly productive 15 year career, all with Minnesota. All things considered, Joe Mauer was a great draft pick, especially at first overall.

Their luck in 1983 wasn't as good...


1985 Topps - Tim Belcher

Belcher refused to sign with Minnesota after being drafted at the top spot.

Because he wanted more money than Calvin Griffith could find between the couch cushions. 

So we entered the 2017 MLB Draft with an overall first pick record of 1-1.

2017 would tip that in either direction.

Minnesota took a high school shortstop with their pick. Ahead of more popular choices like Hunter Greene, Kyle Wright and Brendan McKay (who I really expected the Twins to take). Now that it's been close to five years, let's take a look at where about 35% of my Royce Lewis card collection ranks, in a Mini-Whatever. There's just not enough time to scan in a buncha more cards, so this only includes what I've already scanned.

Shame, because I just looked and I've got a lot of his cards I like a whole lot better than at least half of this list.

Which is...

The Top 12 Royce Lewis Cards That I have Previously Scanned!


#12 - 2019 Donruss Franchise Features - Royce Lewis

An insert set with the ground breaking concept of pairing a top prospect with a comparable current major leaguer, on the reverse side. For these cards, the prospect is featured on a plain glossy stock card back, while the veteran is treated to a full "Pink Fireworks" treatment, on the front. Shiny foil printing with color changing explosions behind the image of the superstar. My poor explanation aside, they are really nice looking. (I should have scanned it...) 

The comparable MLB veteran to 2019 Royce Lewis?

Carlos Correa.


#11 - 2017 Bowman Chrome Draft Defining Moments Refractor - Royce Lewis

A parallel of my first Royce Lewis card. In early 2018, I visited Mike's Stadium Sportscards, in Aurora, Colorado. (It's a great store if you're in the area!) I bought a bunch of Twins, Expos and Rockies singles from his boxes, and asked if he had any Royce Lewis cards. 2017 Bowman Draft was probably the only product out then, that included Lewis cards, and I wasn't in the market for packs of that price level. He was looking for me, but hadn't found anything.

After I bought about $120 in singles, I was getting into my car when I saw Mike coming out after me. He found a Lewis Bowman Draft base card and this insert (non-Refractor) amongst his vast inventory, and said I could have them and thanked me for coming by. As a team collector, I really appreciate that kind of thing.


#10 - 2018 Bowman Draft - Royce Lewis

For whatever reason, mid way through his 2018 season, Lewis decided that he should add a high leg kick to his batting stance. The results were mixed at best, and probably set his development back. Just before the real setbacks would occur...


#9 - 2018 Bowman Chrome Draft - Royce Lewis

Here's Lewis's high leg kick, this time in Chrome.


#8 - 2020 Bowman Heritage - Royce Lewis

Here's Lewis's high leg kick, pretending it's in the 1992 Bowman set.


#7 - 2019 Bowman's Best - Royce Lewis

Still a top prospect in 2019, Lewis posted only a .236 / .290 / .371 line over 566 plate appearances, split between Fort Myers (high A) and Pensacola (AA), for the year. However, he slugged to a .353 / .411 / .565 line in the 2019 Arizona Fall League, winning league MVP honors as a result. Lewis wasn't blaming the leg kick for his poor season, and was showing signs of figuring it all out, by the end of 2019. 

He was still only 20 years old.

Not too late to become that Twins superstar shortstop I wanted him to be!


#6 - 2021 Topps ProDebut - Royce Lewis

For a 2021 Minor League set, Lewis is shown with his 2019 club, the AA Pensacola Blue Wahoos. Because he lost the 2020 season to the Covid shutdown, which cancelled all minor league games. Topps couldn't update with a 2021 action shot, because he missed the entire year with a torn ACL. Surprised Topps bothered to include him in the set. Had he been picked any lower than first overall, he would've likely been excluded from this set.


#5 - 2021 Bowman Chrome Mega Box - Royce Lewis

These are such nice cards.


#4 - 2018 Bowman's Best - Royce Lewis

Balking at the price of 2018 Bowman's Best at the time, I chose to not buy any unopened boxes. Just three years later, the price of a box of Bowman's Best is more than double what I -then- thought was too high. Not long after it was released, the box of Twins singles at my LCS had most of the 2018 Bowman's Best base and three of the autographs. Picked the whole lot up for less than the price of an unopened box. 

Funny thing is, a comparable pile of 2021 Bowman's Best Twins singles would likely be the same price, give or take a few bucks. But the price for that box today would have bought you two and a half 2018 Bowman's Best boxes and you get...

Yeah Whatever...

Right now sucks.


#3 - 2018 Bowman Platinum Prismatic Prodigies - Royce Lewis

Ranked high, for not only it's shiny Refractorness...

But Royce is obviously making that lip squeaking noise that I use to get my cats attention.

Which I learned from Benno.

And Doktor John could never do it.

This card should be number 1, just for that reason alone.


#2 - 2018 Bowman Tek Autograph - Royce Lewis

Still my only Royce Lewis autograph. That will change. Especially now that he will start signing Major League cards. Despite it being a Royce Lewis autograph, I wish it was a better card. I've never been a fan of the Topps (or Bowman) Tek line. The clear acetate "cards" just scream gimmicky. 

They do scan nicely though...


#1 - 2017 Bowman Chrome Draft Refractor - Royce Lewis

Because of that Photoshop work! 

No... I mentioned that I got his 2017 1st Bowman Draft base card from Mike's Stadium Sports Cards, when Mike stopped me from leaving in order to give it to me. Later, I picked up the Chrome parallel, which is not yet scanned. Last summer, I picked up his 2017 1st Bowman Chrome Draft Refractor, for the ridiculously low price of $3.

While nowhere near the level of a Wander right now, if Lewis ends up having a decent 12 year career, this would sell for much more than $3. Perhaps even as much as a box of 2034 Bowman's Best? 

No, not even a Wander would get you that much...

******

The good news for the Twins, Carlos Correa's finger wasn't broken, and he wasn't even placed on the injured list. Unless the Twins have a place for Lewis to play everyday, once Correa is ready, Lewis likely goes back to St. Paul. He still needs to make up for lost time.

But it helps to make a compelling argument to stay...

In his major league debut against the Oakland A's, Lewis went 1 for 4 with an opposite field single at the plate, and several nice plays in the field. Then a 1 for 3, including his first double (that didn't miss going out of the park by much) off the Seven Foot Hippie, during his second Major League game. He was thrown out trying to get back to second base, after Gilberto Celestino missed the bunt.


If he's able to make it interesting, that will help our surprising first place team hold off the Sox and Spiders. (I'm still warming up to Guardians...) The Tigers and Royals are both showing they're nowhere near as ready as they thought they were.

Probably should have scanned my additional 20 or so Royce Lewis cards, that would have made this a true Whatever. Guess I can hold them off until a revised Whatever down the road. One that would hopefully include many future years of base, insert, parallel, relic and autograph cards!

Good luck Royce, I hope you have a long and productive career.

Minnesota needs you!

And I need more Royce Lewis cards...

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