The Colorado Rockies made a quizzical move when they decided to acquire Kevin Slowey from the Minnesota Twins. Although the Rockies only gave up a player to be named, Slowey is definitely not an ideal fit for the team. Not only was he quite awful last season, but he also owns an underwhelming career strikeout rate of 6.67 batters per nine innings. He only walks about 1.42 batters per nine, but the control freak really provides absolutely nothing else positive in terms of tangible value.
Many people refer to Kevin Slowey as an innings-eater- which may be correct- but that doesn’t really matter when the innings that he pitches aren’t exactly quality innings. He pitches to contact and has a career FIP of 4.24, and the fact that he is an innings-eater may be the problem.
Slowey was really only acquired to be a depth-guy, but there was really no use in acquiring him. Their motives made no sense, which is why I referred to this deal as quizzical. The Rockies have a couple of prospects looking to stake their claims as starters, and Slowey’s mere appearance is a hindrance to the development of pitchers such as Alex White, Drew Pomeranz, and the newly-acquired Tyler Chatwood. Every batter that Slowey faces is a missed opportunity and loss of valuable experience for these three young arms. I really don’t see where Slowey fits in with the Rockies in this regard (personnel-wise), but things get even worse when looking at his skill set as a pitcher.
The main problem with Kevin Slowey pitching for the Colorado Rockies is Coors Field. He owns a career FB% of 47.9 and gives up home runs on a tenth of the fly balls he allows. Well, since he already allows a ton of fliers, it’s safe to say that he’ll only allow even more home runs in his new ballpark. The triumvirate of the Rockies, Coors, and Slowey would go together about as well as Pompey, Brutus, and Caesar (although Brutus is the odd man out in this set-up given historical knowledge, but this is all hypothetical of course).
So, in essence, Slowey provides no value for the Rockies, yet the team gave up basically nothing to obtain him. He doesn’t really cost very much, so the Rockies are just hoping that Slowey returns to his 3 WAR form in 2008. That isn’t going to happen, so it really seems like the Twins got off a good deal by getting something in return for a player whom they didn’t even need. The Rockies, on the other hand, just gave playing time, parted with some random player, and are- on top of that- paying a pitcher who won’t do, in truth, much good. Since it’s a PTBN, it’s tough to call this a bad deal, but it really seems like the Rockies made a Dodger-esque move this offseason (made an unnecessary veteran signing).