Last night the Twins finally called up right-hander Anthony Slama, who has been so dominant in the minors and deserving of a chance for so long now that various Twins blogs have been running “Free Anthony Slama” campaigns. Clearly the front office doesn’t believe in the former 39th-round pick, keeping Slama in the minors until five months before his 27th birthday despite a 1.80 ERA in 235 career innings and Ron Gardenhire making it pretty clear that he wanted to give him a look since spring training. However, his amazing minor-league track record screams out for an opportunity. I don’t expect Slama to be an elite reliever and he’s no sure thing to even develop into a quality setup man, but he might and when someone holds opponents to a .170 batting average while racking up 83 strikeouts and a 2.11 ERA in 68.1 innings at Triple-A there’s no reason not to give him a shot.
Twins finally call up dominant Triple-A reliever Anthony Slama
Published July 20, 2010 06:44 AM