Article: The Curious Case of Anthony Slama

[jokin]

A RP who can't even hit 89 on the radar gun? I guess we have different opinions on what is interesting.

Funny thing is Jake Peavy was sitting right around 89 yesterday and baffled the Twins all day. His numbers say he is better then half of the Twins staff right now. Swarzak is a AAAA pitcher, Perdomo is AAA, Robertson AAA, Manship...is just Manship, bad. On and on. The Twins management, scouts etc are not always right. Brian Harper comes to mind. Kelly hated him. But he couldn't keep him out of the lineup cuz he just kept hitting....for 6 years at a .300 clip. At any rate, a look see for on a team about to lose 90+ games just makes sense. And the Twins blew it and pissed off their fan base.

 

What does that make Jeff Gray?

[jokin]

][/b]A RP who can't even hit 89 on the radar gun? I guess we have different opinions on what is interesting.

Funny thing is Jake Peavy was sitting right around 89 yesterday and baffled the Twins all day. His numbers say he is better then half of the Twins staff right now. Swarzak is a AAAA pitcher' date=' Perdomo is AAA, Robertson AAA, Manship...is just Manship, bad. On and on. The Twins management, scouts etc are not always right. Brian Harper comes to mind. Kelly hated him. But he couldn't keep him out of the lineup cuz he just kept hitting....for 6 years at a .300 clip. At any rate, a look see for on a team about to lose 90+ games just makes sense. And the Twins blew it and pissed off their fan base.[/size']

 

I don't know what Slama's velocity was this year, but here's his velocity chart for his FB for 2010 and 11- http://www.fangraphs.com/pitchfxo.aspx?playerid=3064&position=P&pitch=FA

[snepp]

What does that make Jeff Gray?

 

An enigma?

[jokin]

What does that make Jeff Gray?

 

An enigma?

 

..., wrapped in a riddle inside a mystery? Kind of epitomizes the FO thinking on this, too.

[Bark's Lounge]

I think I have this thing figured out. Slama requested that the Twins not call him up as he excepted the title role in the Charles Bronson motion picture biopic. I can't wait!

[glunn]

I think I have this thing figured out. Slama requested that the Twins not call him up as he excepted the title role in the Charles Bronson motion picture biopic. I can't wait!

 

Finally an explanation that is at least plausible.

[CDog]

The Twins management, scouts etc are not always right. Brian Harper comes to mind. Kelly hated him. But he couldn't keep him out of the lineup cuz he just kept hitting....for 6 years at a .300 clip.

 

Harper played more than he had in any of his previous 8 seasons the first year he arrived, full time from the year after that, and immediately after he left here he went back to not playing nearly as much as he had here.

[LaBombo]

It really isn't a curious kind of situation. This organization is stuck in the 20th century. It believes in seeing-eye scouting predominantly. Statistics "lie" is clearly the mantra.

 

Having studied statistics in school (I was a math major) I know that statistics can be made to say just about anything you want. They can be a helpful tool, but I would never trust them completely in making decisions. They are an aid to the decision-making process, but not the sole (or even the most important) aid.

 

About the article, well written and cogently argued. That said, how many more "Free Slama" articles are we going to have? At what point does this become dead-horse-beating?

 

Sure you were a math major and studied statistics "in school", sb. And that's how you were able to brilliantly deconstruct the stat-based argument in favor of giving Slama a chance instead of relying on some of the worst pitchers in baseball.

 

Oh, wait. At least one of those things never happened. Also, how many posters can you name who are backing the idea of scouting that's based purely on statistics?

 

Yeah, that's what I thought.

[LaBombo]

The Twins management, scouts etc are not always right. Brian Harper comes to mind. Kelly hated him. But he couldn't keep him out of the lineup cuz he just kept hitting....for 6 years at a .300 clip.

 

Harper played more than he had in any of his previous 8 seasons the first year he arrived, full time from the year after that, and immediately after he left here he went back to not playing nearly as much as he had here.

 

Harper was finally given a full-time job when the Twins left themselves no other alternative to Tim Laudner, who went back to being Tim Laudner in 1989 by batting .222/.293/.351. And Harper's reduced playing time after his very good run with the Twins was due to the fact that he was, at age 34, nearing the end. And even then, he was a better hitter than Matt Freaking Walbeck, the guy with the mediocre minor-league stats who the Twins scouts loved. Who cares about numbers when a hitter's swing looks good?

[LaBombo]

It really isn't a curious kind of situation. This organization is stuck in the 20th century. It believes in seeing-eye scouting predominantly. Statistics "lie" is clearly the mantra.

 

I am all for giving Slama a chance. Your line is preposterous. Metrics alone do not predict major league success. David McCarty comes to mind as he tore up the minor leagues, fizzled at the majors. There is a clear difference between the skill levels of the players at different levels . To the Twin's credit they are not public about their perceptions of what is lacking in Slama's pitching. On the other hand, they must still be interested in him when discussing winter baseball option.

.

 

Yet another straw man from the anti-stat crowd. Who is saying "metrics alone"? Nobody. And what on earth could you possibly think that dropping David McCarty's name does for your 'argument'? He was a mediocre hitter in his only full season of minor league ball before getting his first extended look in the majors at age 23. Why are you attempting to equate that to Slama's brilliant minor-league record?

[StormJH1]

This actually sorta reminds me of the Kila Ka'aihue situation in KC. KC fans demanded that Ka'aihue be brought up - he had dominated the minors (although prospect sites weren't as heavy on him). He got 12 games in the majors at 24, spent all of his age 25 season back in AAA, as well as most of his age 26 season. In 5 seasons at AAA (over 400 games) he had an OPS over .900 while drawing nearly as many walks as strike outs. KC fans were going crazy that he didn't get a shot since KC sorta sucked while letting vets like Mike Jacobs play first base. Things from the FO like his defense is horrible, he has plate issues, he can't hit ML pitching were part of some vast conspiracy by a FO afraid of stats. Of course, he was a disaster at the ML level, traded for a crappy relief pitcher and DFA'd by Billy Beane.

 

Interesting comparison. I think there are a few differences, though - for one thing, Ka'aihue looked the part of an MLB slugger. 6'4", 235 lb with unquestioned strength, and 4 years of Triple-A Omaha where he absolutely mashed the ball (though undoubtedly with a lot of K's and other holes in his swing). But he was also a 15th round draft pick, and the organization knew that either Billy Butler or Eric Hosmer was going to be their 1B of the future. Ka'aihue did get a cup of tea in the majors and didn't look all that great, but he's still only been in a grand total of 126 MLB games. But yes, more likely than not, he is a prototypical "4-A" player.

 

Slama doesn't look the part of an MLB reliever, or even a successful AAA reliever, for that matter. You can look at Ka'aihue and imagine him hitting 30 HR's, albeit with a terrible average, but you can't look at a sub-90 mph fastball and imagine Slama having a 9.00 K/9. Yet, the success is there, and very consistently so in AAA baseball. And unlike Ka'aihue, it's not like you have to take playing time away from Billy Butler or Eric Hosmer to put Anthony Slama in the Twins bullpen. You simply have to remove a Jeff Gray-type reliever and give Slama a bunch of mopup time in meaningless games to get some prolonged sense of whether his "stuff" works on real hitters or not.

 

That's what makes it so frustrating in the case of Slama that they haven't done that - nobody can tell what the downside is, even if the upside may not be all that great.

[Curt]

Slama only gets guys out but he doesn't look good doing it? I thought we stopped thinking like that since Brad Pitt won twenty games in a row. It's not like Slama would be taking a job away from a real major-leaguer or might cost the Twins a title. Give him a shot. Let him succeed or fail. At least let him enjoy ML per diem for a while. I don't get the hostility toward him.

[Teflon]

Top 5 Reasons Anthony Slama has not been called up:

 

1.) Mistakenly put in witness protection after witnessing "twin-killing" at second base.

2.) Dyslexic Front Office keeps trying to call up Anthony Salma.

3.) Porn mustache freaks out everyone but Pavano.

4.) Twins waiting for challenged fans in left field to figure out how to update the "K" signs first.

5.) Lack of ability to pitch to contact.

[old nurse]

Another outing like tonight's should remove any doubt about Perdomo's future.