Today, the Twins finally did the inevitable, and rid themselves of Starting Pitcher Kevin Slowey, by trading him to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later. This in a wake of a season that saw Slowey battle injuries and go back and forth between starting and relief pitching. His line in 2011 was 0-8 with a 6.67 ERA in 59.1 innings pitched. But before that, Slowey had decent success as a starter, by registering three consecutive 10+ win seasons while battling injuries those years as well.
Besides the injuries, Slowey had been more of a clubhouse cancer with his attitude during the past year, which ultimately lead to this move today. Slowey had not been happy with pitching in relief when he was the odd man out of the rotation in spring training. Then, he pitched lifelessly when his "injuries" allowed him too.
Kevin Slowey started out with great potential when he burst onto the scene in 2008. But then over time, his injuries and attitude really watered down his ability to pitch well, and thats why we are at this point today. The good news for him is that he is going to a place where they have few decent starters, so he should get all his appearances as a starter in 2012 and probably 2013 as well. But, he will be pitching in the mile high city, where the ball just flies. So hopefully, he can keep the ball down.
I am in favor of this deal. Yes, they are getting rid of a decent starting pitcher. But, they chose to go with Nick Blackburn over Slowey when the team gave Blackburn a ridiculous extension (He is owed $4.75M in '12, $5.5M in '13, and a $8M team option in '13) prior to 2010. And yes, they lose starting pitching depth with this move (Hopefully this leads to another move that sees us acquire a starter). But, the fact is Slowey needed to go. The team just does not have time for pitchers who have attitude problems and dont give a crap when they take the hill. So I wish Colorado luck on trying to keep him happy.
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