It’s Slowey!
Posted on May 29th, 2007 – 9:33 PMBy La Velle
We haven’t been told yet, but Kevin Slowey has been told that he’s been promoted to the majors and will start on Friday in Oakland.
“I’m certainly elated,” Slowey told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle a little while ago. “It’s what you dream of, to pitch at the highest level. It’s kind of surreal. I hope it doesn’t knock me over on Friday.”
Slowey last pitched on Friday, so he’ll be well rested to face the A’s.
For the Seths of the world, lefty Brian Duensing has been promoted form Class AA New Britain to replace Slowey in the Rochester rotation.
The Twins will not announce who will go down to make room for Slowey until after Wednesday’s game.
71 Responses to "It’s Slowey!"
LEN3,
First, you better give Joe C a hug, he seemed a little wound up today.
Next, Who is going to get sent down?
La Velle, great news on Slowey. When do you expect the “official” move? Friday? Thursday?
Also, is there any thought to bringing Barrett up and moving BOTH Cali and DePaula down. Our pen would be pretty deep since Barrett absolutely kills lefties.
Barrett just got healthy, and they think Cali has good stuff. They also think Barrett is thrower more than a pitcher….
How soon does Cali or Miller get in, during a tight situation? Twins are getting by with the “big 3″ in front of Nathan. outside of Saturday, they’re doing ok.
Good starting pitching and blowout wins help.
And DE PAULA needs to go down. Kid was pitching scared.
Hey LaVelle!! This is terrific news!
And, I’m also happy that Duensing is moving up to Rochester! He’s been terrific at New Britain and is ready for this.
So, does Ryan Mullins replace Duensing for New Britain? Or Oswaldo Sosa?
If Manship is indeed only out for a few days, maybe he moves up to Ft. Myers… or maybe Alexander Smit goes back to the starting rotation.
On FSN, they just showed Gardy acknowledge that Slowey will start on Friday! Woo hoo!
I’m quite excited for Slowey’s start on Friday.
Any official word on the roster move the Twins made for this to happen? Crain to the 60 day DL? DePaula sent down?
Any update on Mauer?
Brian Duensing…the Cornhusker! Great to see him move up! Awesome!
Here’s a story I did on Duensing and his recovery from elbow woes…
Oh, and yes, it’s Mullins who gets called up to Double-A…
Damn Tim! You all over this.
You and Seth make a dangerous team!
I like Mullins.
Tall lefty, who has always K’ed hitters at a solid rate, and who’s always put up a very good GB rate.
He could potentially join that next “wave” of good, young arms in the organization.
Duensing joins Garza and Slowey as guys from the 2005 draft who have made it to AAA. According to the Twins web site’s
draft list is a left handed pitcher who throws right handed. I’m pretty sure he throws left handed.
Unlike some of the earlier candidates, Slowey is not someone who is expected to be a number one or two starter. He will be successful if he just holds his own. He and Baker are sort of in the same boat. They need to pitch well enough to hold a job and get major league innings. If they don’t, the guys with the talent (Garza and Perkins) will push them aside.
In Mullins’ last five starts for Ft. Myers, he is 3-1 with a 0.87 ERA. After a disappointing 2006 season in Beloit, Mullins has been terrific in FM!
Think about this, in the 2005 draft, the Twins took Matt Garza in the 1st round and Kevin Slowey in the 2nd round. They then took both Brian Duensing and Ryan Mullins in the 3rd round. Reliever Danny Powers was taken in the 8th round, and he’s already in AA. Not a bad draft of college pitchers, I’d say!
I think that Slowey has been passed off as solely a control artist, and I don’t think that is completely true. There are a lot of good hitters in the minor leagues, so to do what Slowey has done all the way up means that not only does he have great control, but he has some “Stuff” too. Although comparisons to guys like Radke, Mussina and Maddux are unfair to anyone, Slowey’s makeup makes me believe that he will be just fine.
A few questions for everybody?
Between now and the end of the season, who will pitch more innings, Clemens or Slowey?
If the Yankees finsish last, does Jeter still get “life time” MVP votes?
Who is the MVP of the Twins to date?
SethSpeaks,
What was so disappointing about Mullins’ 2006 season at Beloit?
IMO, he had a very solid year. Good K rate, good HR rate, good BB rate…just gave up 1 more hit than IP…and his ERA was in the 3’s.
Between now and the end of the season, who will pitch more innings, Clemens or Slowey?
-Push
If the Yankees finsish last, does Jeter still get “life time” MVP votes?
-Yes. He’d win the MVP award if he hit .200/.300/.350.
Who is the MVP of the Twins to date?
-Torii Hunter. Morneau is getting close, but Hunter carried this offense for quite some time.
Sorry, I should have said “solid” BB rate for Mullins’ 2006 season in Beloit.
Erik, valid point, but I thought that Mullins would find his way up to Ft. Myers. I acknowledge, his numbers were decent, but at no time did I think that he warranted a promotion.
Yeah, I guess that makes sense.
I just thought he had a solid year at Beloit…I think he’s got the potential to be a very good arm for this organization someday.
He’s a tall lefty, who gets a good amount of K’s and GB’s at a good rate. He’s got a lot of projectability, which helps too.
Should be fun to watch the “next” wave of young pitchers develop within this organization.
Manship needs to get healthy and simply won’t be ready to move up to FM until July.
Of course I MAY have a bit of bias since Beloit’s only trip to Cedar Rapids this year is June 25-28 and I want to see the kid pitch. 
Thanks LaVelle…the Twins minor league junky circuit gets fired up over a Slowey call-up, that’s for sure…
But I gave a bad link (of a sort). I linked to the Duensing/Mullins shuffle story. The actual Duensing elbow injury story is at:
As Jim Mandelaro points out in his Rochester Chronicle blog, Slowey is the 6th pitcher promoted to the Twins AHEAD OF MATT GARZA. Who’d have thunk it? Wonder what Garza’s blood pressure is these days?
Although I’m sure he’s not happy that he’s not with the Twins, I am sure that Garza is just fine. He can remain confident. He knows he’ll pitch in the big leagues. Several of those pitchers have been relievers, so that really isn’t completely related. He’ll be just fine.
It’s pretty weird that people would be talking about Jeter getting undeserved MVP votes. I know the guy is evil, but he’s actually been ripped off in MVP voting, not once but twice (unless you wanted to give the first one to Pedro).
Last year’s voting was a joke–you could have made the case for Mauer over Jeter, but Morneau? No reasonable analysis could reach the conclusion that Morneau was more valuable than Jeter last year.
Justin is, however, the Twins’ MVP so far this year. Him or Neshek.
Roy,
Come on, if Jeter played for Oakland, he would not have finished in the top 10 FOR MVP.
By “no reasonable analysis”, I guess you mean any analysis that doesn’t reach the same conclusion you do.
I like Neshek as well as anyone, but anyone who would say he’s a more likely candidate for Twins MVP at this point than Hunter is pretty much loses all credibility with me.
By “no reasonable analysis” I mean no analysis based on facts and reason.
Here are some facts. Jeter led the AL in VORP, 80 runs above replacement. Morneau was way down the list with 53. That’s 27 runs’ difference, which is huge. Any other sophisticated measure is going to give you the same result, unless your idea of ’sophisticated’ is RBI. The key here is that Jeter and Morneau were similarly outstanding offensive players, in their different ways, but Jeter plays a hugely more difficult defensive position.
And, to anticipate, Jeter had more clutch hits than Morneau as well; in fact, he was the most clutch hitter in the AL last year (measured using WPA).
If you like, I’ll rephrase: I have not seen a reasonable explanation of why Morneau was more valuable than Jeter last year. Since I have seen a bunch of irrational and silly explanations, I concluded that a reasonable one was unavailable.
“By “no reasonable analysis”, I guess you mean any analysis that doesn’t reach the same conclusion you do.
…anyone who would say he’s a more likely candidate for Twins MVP at this point than Hunter is pretty much loses all credibility with me.”
Pot? This is kettle.
Hey guys, give Roy a break. I hate Jeter (although I respect him on the field), but he had his best year last year. Plus he got a gold glove. He should have been MVP.
Did Morneau have a great year and deserve consideration? Yes, absolutely. My guess is the media was voting against Jeter, more than their vote for Justin.
Does that mean Justin should give it back or apologize? No. Do we need to apologize to Yankme fans? No. But I have a hard time disagreeing with Roy on this one, if I am totally objective.
If the Twins keep winning and Justin continues at his current pace, well, then people will forget about last year, as he wins his 2nd MVP. He is putting up HUGE numbers.
IMHO the thing that hurt Jeter the most in the MVP voting is that the Yankees had SO many great players. When you talk about the most valuable player you are really talking about the guy who would be hardest to replace if he went down. The Yankees have a great hitter up and down their lineup. If Morneau would have gone down last year the Twins would have had a huge hole to fill in the middle of their lineup. It is not Jeter’s fault that the Yankees have a deep lineup but would it be a bigger loss for him to be out or would it be a bigger loss for Morneau to be out?
I sure wish some of the hitter would develop as well as the pitchers the Twins draft. They are have great success with the arms, and without to much delay unless there was an injury.
The difference, rghrbek, is that no one is claiming that “no reasonable analysis” would conclude Jeter was deserving. This issue was analyzed and debated to death 6 months ago and Jeter-lovers insist any opinion that Morneau was deserving is “irrational and silly”… in other words, that’s any analysis that doesn’t concur with theirs. It’s pure sour grapes and some people STILL clearly can’t get over it.
It would be amusing if it weren’t so sad, really.
CharlieM. Hence the best argument for Justin winning it last year. I would argue, though, that without Jeter, that fragile group of egos would fall apart on that team. Jeter was the ultimate table setter last year with his runs, ave., on base %, and stolen bases. Remember the Twins had a better team batting average. The Yankees just hit more bombs (and probably a better on base %). Ok, I am done talking about the Yankees, on their behalf. I feel slimy.
MVP is not VORP champion. Just because 1B is an easy position (which hurts your VORP) does not mean you should be removed from MVP consideration.
I think what people were voting on was that it’s difficult for any Yankee to win the MVP, because the player in question would have to be the MOST valuable player on his team, which includes a good number of superstars. Was Jeter far and away more valuable than A-Rod/Cano/Damon/Sheffield?
I’m just saying, looking up VORP stats doesn’t make your analysis sophisticated.
JimCrikket. I couldn’t agree more, they need to move on. We did with Johan and Bartolo back in 05, which was more of an injustice than the MVP vote last year, despite what that article at ESPN.com said.
The assertion that “no reasonable analysis” could support Morneau over Jeter for MVP might make sense if there was a more concrete definition of “MVP.” If MVP meant highest VORP, then there is only one reasonable choice every year, unless there’s a tie.
Personally, I might have picked Mauer for MVP. But there is almost certainly a connection between Morneau’s amazing June-September and the Twins amazing turnaround in that same period of time. That in itself is support for giving Morneau the award.
Nick, Nick, Nick… now you’re just being “illogical and silly”.
my bad… make that “irrational and silly.”
we can’t wait for Slowey to pitch on Friday, wishing him the best of luck!
Roy, your “no reasonable analysis” assertion is downright wrongheaded.
Look, Morneau had a 4.5 WPA: He provided the twins just about 4 to 5 wins by himself (we’re not looking at VORP and other “over a million seasons, he’d provide on average X wins” predicative stats. We’re looking at the actual production they provided this last year.)
Jeter had a 5.9. That’s a full win and a half better.
However, if not for Morneau’s four-to-five wins, the Twins wouldn’t have won a divisional championship, and might even have led to them sitting at home. Jeter’s wins, on the other hand, were gravy.
Morneau’s four and a half wins were more valuable to the Twins than Jeter’s six were to the Yankees. And that, I think, is a perfectly valid interpretation of the word “valuable.”
The MVP criteria are extremely vague. If it were something as straightforward as “The player who provided the statistically highest individual offensive output,” then you’d be right. But good cases can be made for both Morneau and Jeter. Saying that anyone who looks at anything other than a VORP table is “unsophisticated” is insulting.
What’s irrational is Jeter winning a gold glove. He’s one of the 3-4 WORST shortstops in baseball. Just shows you that Gold Gloves are a joke now and are all about reputation.
And no way Jeter deserved it last year. It should have been one of Morneau/Thomas/Hafner (though Hafner got hurt). Failing that, Mauer alone beats out Jeter. He’s actually GOOD at his defense (one of, if not THE best) and his overall other numbers were slightly better.
Sean, I didn’t just “look up VORP.” I used it as an example. Do you have an objective measure by which Morneau is superior? I did not say that 1Bmen were ineligible, but it should be obvious that a first baseman will, in general, have to be a better offensive player than a shortstop in order to be a more valuable overall player.
And yes, the gap between Jeter and his best teammates was wider than the gap between Morneau and his (Mauer, Santana)–by a substantial margin.
Pat, first it should be noted that WPA doesn’t adjust for position, so the real gap is more like 3.5 wins. Your analysis in terms of the team’s chance of winning the pennant without the player is, I must admit, reasonable, but you’re going to find yourself with some strange consequences: no player whose team wins the division by 10 games can ever be the MVP. Is that really where you want to go?
Jim, I have offered the evidence that led me to my opinion. Others have offered counter-evidence, some of which is damaging to my case. You have offered only the assertion that I never consider evidence, but reject out of hand anyone who disagrees with me. Since you don’t know me, your assertion is a baseless insult.
Dustin,
I mentioned at the start that a case could be made for Mauer. Thomas would have been a much worse choice than Morneau.
The topic of Jeter’s defense is very controversial. The most serious analysis I’ve seen (by Mike Emeigh) concluded that he was close to average earlier in his career, and he had a good year last year, so I suspect that the truth is between the GG folks and the Lead Glove folks.
La Velle,
I can’t read a damn thing. What up with the type?
By the way, there are methods that account for having to share the team’s success with other stars; for example, Win Shares does this, since the whole team must divide up shares that 3 times the number of games the team wins.
Jeter led the AL in Win Shares with 33, Mauer was second at 31, Morneau had 27.
I agree Mauer might have been a better candidate than even Morneau, because of the many intangilbles (best fielding catcher in AL, and handling the staff ect…).
Dustin, your comment that “no way Jeter deserved it” is ludicrious. In my opinion he was easily one of the top 3. He had a career year for a Yankees team with limited pitching and no bullpen until Rivera. Yes they had a great lineup, but he was the catalyst.
Jeter wasn’t even the best player on his own team. The Yankees were a .500 team until Abreu arrived, and then they took off.
Until Morneau started hitting (and we got rid of Castro and Batista), the Twins were a .500 team. His hitting and RBI’s carried us to the Division title.
Switching subjects, Lavelle, Baker is getting shelled. It’s only one bad start, but I’m really thinking the Twins should have traded him and got an average to above average right handed stick.
I truly believe in a month it will be Garza replacing him, with Baker going back down to AAA, thus losing all trade value. Just my opinion, and hopefully Scottie proves me wrong.
Oh hey, looks like there’s a game going on. What’s the lineup? Anybody reporting from the Strib today? Wnat’s the latest on Mauer’s soreness?
Baker continues to give the sub-Little-League effort:
1) No pitching inside
2) No velocity
3) Two-pitch pitcher
4) Can’t field his position
5) Isn’t driving off from the rubber
6) Blind adherence to the pace of the game: doesn’t seem to be upset with himself, or pacing the mound, or taking deep breaths, or possessed of any intensity.
Like the whole game experience is controlling him instead of the other way around. He looks baby-faced and green, like he’s afraid of making a fool of himself or in awe of the pressure on him.
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