Article: Three-Bagger: Slowey, Gibson & May

[ALessKosherScott]

 

But I like the idea of seeking out an undervalued under-30 pitcher with good peripherals in another organization who can be given an opportunity and -- if it works out -- potentially figure into the team's plans beyond this year without much expense.

 

While I firmly agree that I'd trade any current Twins starter for Kevin Slowey, could we not dub Vance Worley a guy with good peripherals? And what does it say about our current system that Worley and Deduno (two guys who showed strikeout ability last year) are currently sitting at 4.6 and 4.5 K/9 respectively? Why couldn't the Twins fix Liriano? What was the bigger issue problem with Garza? Whose dog did Kyle Gibson kick? And why does it seem like we're going around in the same circles with finding a rotation over and over again?

[diehardtwinsfan]

Yup. That well is poisoned by both sides. How about Francisco Liriano? The Pirates appear to have a Comeback Player of the Year on their hands, at the cost of only $1M, plus a team-friendly team option year in 2014. The Twins and Liriano apparently poisoned that well, too.

 

FWIW, I don't think Liriano was a good fit in this org either. I'm quite happy with what we got in trade for him, and that's sad as I was hoping he'd get off to a decent start and net more... That said, he wasn't going to flourish here. Just read in another article posted here that Pit made a few minor adjustments and he's walking a lot less guys while still getting the grounders... he also does his game plan based on what he has working... I hope he does well and gets another payday... never felt he was a cancer or anything like that.

[jokin]

Realistically, a MLB team, even a rebuilding one, can only roll the dice on one or two of these low-risk, high-reward guys per year. The Twins rolled with Pelfrey and it hasn't been terrible -- but also not successful. We've seen improvements in recent starts. The Marlins tried Slowey (and others) and the Pirates Liriano. Let's not drool over Liriano or Slowey too much. Liriano has exactly 8 starts and we can all remember 8 consecutive good starts with the Twins too. It's just that those 8 good starts are usually followed by 5 bad ones. He's just inconsistent.

 

The vast gulf in talent difference between Liriano and Slowey is enormous. Liriano's stuff is glowingly electric, whereas Slowey's stuff is akin to rubbing 2 sticks together. The Twins dithered on what exactly to do with Liriano and they resultantly yet again, sold near his low point. You just can't do that continually with the few real elite talents that come through an organization and hope to stay competitive. What they appeared to always have with Francisco was "a failure to communicate." Knowing this reccurent fact appeared uncorrectable over his tenure here, they should have traded him at his peak after 2010, as many of us were suggesting. Instead they settled for a glorified LOOGY, and probably at best, a marginal utility option.

[old nurse]

While I firmly agree that I'd trade any current Twins starter for Kevin Slowey, could we not dub Vance Worley a guy with good peripherals? And what does it say about our current system that Worley and Deduno (two guys who showed strikeout ability last year) are currently sitting at 4.6 and 4.5 K/9 respectively? Why couldn't the Twins fix Liriano? What was the bigger issue problem with Garza? Whose dog did Kyle Gibson kick? And why does it seem like we're going around in the same circles with finding a rotation over and over again?

Deduno's ERA is at 3.2. I'll take that over a higher k/9. His k% last year of 16% would indicate he is not a high strikeout pitcher.

[cmathewson]

Excuses? He's pitched well this year. No one's ever called him an ace but he's better than much of what the Twins have in their system (as is Francisco Liriano, BTW). They seem to have a habit of letting the wrong guys go, which has helped get them to this point.

 

 

 

I don't think I've said otherwise. The K-rate and low hit totals are very impressive, but I've heard more than one scout-type express legit concern about his command issues. He's certainly not dominating in Double-A the way that a 23-year-old heralded as a top-of-rotation talent could be.

 

And even with the clean test results, shoulder soreness is worrisome.

 

He was pretty horrible the last year plus of his time with the Twins. I don't think anybody was too sad to see him go, outside of a few who focused more on his minor league and early major league stats. Much of this was injury-related, sure. But it's a huge surprise that he is doing this well considering his three-team journey the last two years.