Interesting points, jorgansweet.

Meyer's walk rate of 4.4/9 doesn't look too bad among the pitchers you highlight.

We know the Twins are a little manic about walks, but maybe the new pitching coach will have a somewhat different attitude.

Looking forward to seeing him in the majors this year!

Just a theory but guys that are over matched in the minors might see electric stuff and think "there's no way I'm gonna get a hit" and the might just sit on a lot of pitches where as guys in the Majors see that kind of stuff frequently and are therefore more confident to swing

While the walk rates were/are a concern, as they should be to a degree, I feel there are two reasons for Meyer's "delay" in coming up sooner. The first is that he simply has more limited IP and GS in his milb career than say May. Meyer has a TOTAL of three milb seasons thus far under his belt, and as we all know, 2013 was cut short. Simply no need to rush him. Secondly, but tied to the first point as well as the BB issue, is greater consistency. Look, pitchers are not perfect, even the best ones have ups and downs, but you are looking for consistency game to game, inning to inning and even pitch to pitch. There is a difference from missing with pitches, and missing a lot so you get shelled. And in regard to walk totals, it's not just the BB themselves, it's the lack of pitch economy, which leads to short outings. Everything can be improved upon. The Twins would live with some walks. But they want to avoid the walks AND high pitch totals to non BB batters.

Have you tried looking at the swing rates against the pitchers of interest in minor leagus compared to the majors? Might help you evaluate your theory.

I'm not really that dedicated

Have you tried looking at the swing rates against the pitchers of interest in minor leagus compared to the majors? Might help you evaluate your theory.

DocBauer brought up minor league experience. It is hard to compare innings in the lower minirs with some getting those innings in college. I have listed below innings in AA/AAA. I added AA in order to make sure Meyer's season cut short by injury was included.

Hernandez 24

Price 21

Lester 52

Samardzija 59

Ventura 31

Kershaw 16

Kluber 87

Scherzer 26

Alex Meyer's 40 AA/AAA starts is on the bigger side of the middle of that group. It certainly wouldn't keep teams from calling him up. His walk rate wouldn't keep teams from calling him up either.

Consistency? All of those pitchers were inconsistent with their control. They all had bad starts. Want consistency in the minors? Look for a control pitcher like Albers. The Twins are waiting for something that won't reasonably happen in a pitcher with great stuff.

Great entry! 

Jorgen, very interesting numbers you've come up with. And I really can't and won't debate the points you've made. Primarily because they have validity, and yet, they also don't as every situation is different.

My point is simply that, generally speaking, all pitchers, relief or starting, even from college, require at least a couple years, on the short side, in the minors to harness ability and improve to make the SHOW. Do some, a very, very few some, do it in a year? Yes. Is that the norm? No.

So in MHO, have the Twins "held back" a just turned 25yo potential stud from reaching the majors? I'd say a resounding NO. Had Meyer not encountered some, fortunately mild, shoulder issue in '13 would he have hit the majors last season? Probably. But he did, so the Twins babied him a bit to build up his arm as well as work on his 3rd pitch and overall consistency. But never forget, he was/is, right on the precipice of making the majors after his first season at AAA, and only 3rd season in the minors.

As I wrote earlier in another post concerning Meyer, I think the Twins would live with a few walks considering the vast potential, the SO's, the broken bats and jam shots he would provide. It really comes down to consistency, and avoiding the high pitch counts to batter after batter. 100 pitches in 7 innings is not preferred, but acceptable. 100 pitches in 4 or 5 innings is not. And while Meyer WAS on a pitch count last season just to protect him, there were stretches where he was hitting that 80 pitch limit in only 4 innings.

I think he's really, really close. And I feel the Twins sense it to, and want it to happen. All he needs is just that little more consistency. He won't be an all-star right away...who is?...but he will be ready and continue to learn on the job with just that little bit more consistency.

WHIP or ERA for all those other guys?     I thought May pitched better in 2014 based just on ERA and quality starts.   I thought Meyer should have been promoted soon after May since he was simply the next most deserving based on performance.   I didn't care for the pitch or innings limits.    Nothing I have ever seen convinces me that Meyer is any more or less likely to be hurt the first week of spring training because of the coddling.    Nothing I have ever seen convinces me that if he had thrown 180 innings last year that it would affect 2015 in any way.

A few other points to note.  Last year was Meyer's worst from a BB per 9 perspective.  His control was not on anyones radar a year ago. He was also tinkering with a new pitch, which he developed mid-season.  One could conclude that could hurt his control (no data exists for minor league pitch fx data by pitch type).

Lastly, (cue me beating a dead horse), but he ended with a 3.52 ERA.  He led the league in K's and gave up only 10 HR.  So a lot of those free passes did not score

DocBauer brought up minor league experience. It is hard to compare innings in the lower minirs with some getting those innings in college. I have listed below innings in AA/AAA. I added AA in order to make sure Meyer's season cut short by injury was included.

 

Hernandez 24

 

Price 21

 

Lester 52

 

Samardzija 59

 

Ventura 31

 

Kershaw 16

 

Kluber 87

 

Scherzer 26

 

Alex Meyer's 40 AA/AAA starts is on the bigger side of the middle of that group. It certainly wouldn't keep teams from calling him up. His walk rate wouldn't keep teams from calling him up either.

 

Consistency? All of those pitchers were inconsistent with their control. They all had bad starts. Want consistency in the minors? Look for a control pitcher like Albers. The Twins are waiting for something that won't reasonably happen in a pitcher with great stuff.

There are 5 Cy Young award winners on that list.  Comparing Alex Meyer to that list because of similar BB/9 seems a little narrow.  I would guess more separates Meyer from those others than just the Twins management.  Like others have said, it probably isn't the walk totals that have held him back so much as the arm problems and occasional seriously labored outing (which seemed to always come when there was talk of a promotion).  We kicked and screamed for Gibson, May, Albers, and Slama while the scouts told us they weren't major league ready or simply weren't major leaguers.  We are all anxious to see what we have in Meyer, but let's make sure we get the best Meyer possible.

Twins fans and the organization itself get too worried about high walk rates for gas throwing pitchers and high strikeout rates for power hitters. Full stop.

I think it's very likely that Alex Meyer would have been up last year, instead of Trevor May, had he not gotten injured around the all-star break. If the Twins don't have AM up to start the season I'll be more than a little perplexed, and if he's not and the Twins don't call him up for the first available spot start, then it's time to rethink Terry Ryan's place at the front of this organization.

Alex Meyer needs a chance to show what he can do against MLB hitters. Use him out of the pen if he's not ready, or start him in AAA until it warms up, but by no means should he be in AAA when the calendar turns to June.

For curiosity sake, I went back to check, and Alex Meyer didn't have control problems when he was acquired. Ryan called him a power guy who throws it over the plate. So I wonder if the insistence that Meyer master a change up pitch has anything to do with his control and two month shoulder soreness (by the way, two months is not a full season and Meyer was pronounced fully healthy when he did return and pitched in Arizona Fall League that year).

Combine this with the myth that "young pitchers must struggle" (the Yordano Ventura comparison is helpful here too) and I feel the Twins may be blowing a huge opportunity. Meyer might realistically have been positioned to become an ace as of Day One of this upcoming 2015 season (if perhaps on an innings limit of some sort). Instead, it's also a real possibility that Meyer in AAA continues to issue walks at a rate not acceptable to Ryan and Molitor, with Meyer consequently being kept down in AAA because of it. And somehow this is all proof of the wisdom of the Twins front office. Ok, I'll stop my rant for now. For all that, it's also more likely than not that we see Meyer by mid-May or sooner, and that if he does struggle that the Twins work with him here at MLB rather than return him to AAA.