General manager Terry Ryan is counting on some young pitchers to emerge in spring training and complete the pitching roster. None of them has less experience than Kevin Slowey, the team’s second round draft choice in 2005. Still, Slowey wouldn’t have received an invitation to the team’s major league camp if Ryan and others didn’t think it was possible that the 23-year-old right-hander will make the team.
Last season Slowey pitched in the minors as a starter for both Fort Myers and New Britain. With Fort Myers in High Single-A, he was 4-2 with a 1:01 ERA in 14 starts. At Double-A New Britain the record was 4-3 with a 3.19 ERA. His overall minor league numbers last year: 8-5, 1.88 ERA, 148.2 innings, 102 hits, 22 bases on balls, 151 strikeouts. His ERA was the best of any Twins minor leaguer. He walked a batter only once about every seven innings.
“He had one of those years statistically that really catches your eye,” Ryan said. “He hasn’t been a professional that long but he’s certainly made rapid progress.”
Any conversation about the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Slowey is almost certain to include discussion about his control. Ryan said he “pounds strikes” and that even as an amateur (the Twins drafted him out of Winthrop University in South Carolina) he was a “strike machine.”
Talk to Ryan and you have the impression that Slowey, who only throws his fast ball at 88 to 90 miles per hour, has a confidence and maturity that is unusual for such an inexperienced player. “You put him out there and he just has a mound presence,” Ryan said. “He’s confident. He’s got enough pitches, he’s got enough stuff and he gets people out. It’s maybe not lighting up a radar gun but he finds ways to get people out. He knows how to sink the ball, and he knows how to pitch in and he knows how to put people away, and he certainly knows how to put the ball in play and pitch to contact. … He’s a joy for a defensive club to play behind.”
Ryan makes no prediction about whether Slowey will join the Twins in the majors this season but is clearly impressed with him. “I don’t want to cut anybody short here,” Ryan said. “If they have got an invitation to major leave spring training they ought to come in with the objective to try to make the club and that’s what Kevin ought to do. Just because he might not be a household name or hasn’t appeared in the major leagues that doesn’t mean he couldn’t come in here and force the issue. ”
While Slowey and other young pitchers will be followed with sharp interest, there’s another pitcher whose future really makes Twins fans hold their breaths. Francisco Liriano, who was a phenomenal rookie last season with his gaudy 12-3 record and 2.16 ERA, had reconstructive elbow surgery last fall and will not pitch in 2007. Ryan was asked for an update on Liriano.
“There’s no reason he can’t be the same pitcher that he was this year when he was doing a tremendous job,” Ryan answered. “He’s young and he’s strong. Obviously this is a major surgery but people come back from these. I would think he would fine starting in spring training in 2008.”