Thread: Article: The Curious Case of Anthony Slama

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.ph...-Anthony-Slama

"has posted an ERA under 3.00 with more walks than strikeouts."

Make that more strikeouts than walks

I totally agree with this, with the exception of this little thing:

He isn't going to blow batters away but he gets the job done

as a matter of fact his k/9 ratio indicated that he has been blowing batters away in every level. Even in his much maligned MLB SSS 7 IP he has a 10.3 K/9

When we eventually lose Slama - these will be my parting words for him:

"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die."

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.

Originally Posted by Shane Wahl

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.
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Originally Posted by Shane Wahl

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?

Hope nobody lights a match, all those straw men will burn down.

Another Slama thread, really?

Originally Posted by gunnarthor

Hope nobody lights a match, all those straw men will burn down.

Another Slama thread, really?

It's an article, not a thread. Articles are automatically generated as a forum topic.

At what point do we just rename the site: SlamaDaily?

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

At what point do we just rename the site: SlamaDaily?

Parmelee and Slama are the only interesting topics on the Twins right now. It's not surprising that many of the TD writers want to take a shot at interpreting the situation.

Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

At what point do we just rename the site: SlamaDaily?

Parmelee and Slama are the only interesting topics on the Twins right now. It's not surprising that many of the TD writers want to take a shot at interpreting the situation.

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

The title of the article is clear. If you didn't want to read another take on the handling of Slama, you didn't need to read it. And you didn't need to comment.

It doesn't surprise me that Cody wrote a piece about Slama for his blog, "North Dakota Twins Fan" and I appreciate that his blog entries are also posted here at TD.

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

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

What's interesting about Slama is his situation, not necessarily the pitcher himself. He could fail as a MLB reliever. The interesting question is "why isn't he getting a shot instead of Gray/Perdomo/scrub reliever?"

Slama really did not look good in his two stints with the Twins. But there are guys who look a hell of a lot worse who get longer looks. I think he must have insulted the manager in some way: maybe called him 'fat, balding.'

Does anyone remember the circumstances under which Slama was called up in 2011? Just went and saw that he had 2.1 IP with 0H, 0R, 2 BB, 1 WP and 3 SO.

Wondered what happened that he only got in 2 games. Was someone just out for a day or two? Again, with how bad this club was, it seems just downright weird that they didn't keep him with the club for more than 2 games. I know they hate walks but it's not like their other relievers were all that effective -- maybe Matt Capps didn't walk anybody but it seemed like he always put at least 1 runner on base before he worked his way out of an innning.

Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

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

What's interesting about Slama is his situation, not necessarily the pitcher himself. He could fail as a MLB reliever. The interesting question is "why isn't he getting a shot instead of Gray/Perdomo/scrub reliever?"

The team has answered that question several times. The question has become do fans know more than the Twins FO on player development?

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.

Originally Posted by JB_Iowa

Does anyone remember the circumstances under which Slama was called up in 2011? Just went and saw that he had 2.1 IP with 0H, 0R, 2 BB, 1 WP and 3 SO.

Wondered what happened that he only got in 2 games. Was someone just out for a day or two? Again, with how bad this club was, it seems just downright weird that they didn't keep him with the club for more than 2 games. I know they hate walks but it's not like their other relievers were all that effective -- maybe Matt Capps didn't walk anybody but it seemed like he always put at least 1 runner on base before he worked his way out of an innning.

I think someone came back of the DL and then Slama was sent back to AAA and got hurt and missed a lot of time.

Originally Posted by gunnarthor

Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

Originally Posted by SpiritofVodkaDave

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

What's interesting about Slama is his situation, not necessarily the pitcher himself. He could fail as a MLB reliever. The interesting question is "why isn't he getting a shot instead of Gray/Perdomo/scrub reliever?"

The team has answered that question several times. The question has become do fans know more than the Twins FO on player development?

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.

No matter what you think of Slama, this team kept Jeff Gray on its roster for a good portion of the season. Jeff Gray is an awful major league baseball pitcher. We knew that from day one. Nothing he did had any indication that he would stick in the majors (literally, zero indication), yet the team stuck with him for at least two months.

If the team wanted to see Perdomo so badly, why didn't it happen earlier and why isn't Slama getting a shot in September? Why did the front office stick with a guy who was so freakin' awful that even the most casual fan could tell he was not major league material? On that basis alone, Slama deserved a shot after the "scholarship" comments when JR returned to the GM spot.

I don't care that much about Slama. He could fail spectacularly. That's not the point. The point is that a guy who earned a shot at the majors is not getting it in favor of playing a combination of talentless scrubs for a good portion of the season.

Originally Posted by sbknudson

Originally Posted by Shane Wahl

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?

So what distortion is being made about Slama's statistics? No one is saying that they should be "trusted completely" but rather that perhaps we should be able to get some more Slama statistics . . . as in his major league stats.