Kevin Slowey

[thatguy27]

This guy seems to be pitching pretty well of late (June 8th game against the White Sox notwithstanding). I seem to recall he was a pretty highly touted prospect as recent as last season when he got the call up. Is he worth taking a flier on in deeper leagues?

[MasterX1918]

See Laffey, Aaron. I can see Slowey being Laffey-esque to the extent that they both can be inconsistent. They show flashes of brilliance but then some nights they have nothing. For instance, both of them had starts in which they gave up 8 earned runs right in the middle of when they began to appear to be solid and reliable fantasy options. With that said, i'd wait to see how Slowey fairs in his next start which I believe is against Arizona. He definitely is starting to look like a solid option, though. In deep leagues of 14+ I would definitely pick him up.

[thatguy27]

Thanks for the input. Any other thoughts on Slowey. Can he be a solid #4/5 starter going forward?

[Snakes Gould]

See Laffey, Aaron. I can see Slowey being Laffey-esque to the extent that they both can be inconsistent. They show flashes of brilliance but then some nights they have nothing. For instance, both of them had starts in which they gave up 8 earned runs right in the middle of when they began to appear to be solid and reliable fantasy options. With that said, i'd wait to see how Slowey fairs in his next start which I believe is against Arizona. He definitely is starting to look like a solid option, though. In deep leagues of 14+ I would definitely pick him up.

who doesnt? brandon webb was on one of the best runs in the last few years and got rocked. the thing is, no one is reliable when it comes to starting pitching. whether its webb, johan, peavy, laffey, slowey. you have to deal with the bad when it comes.

slowey has generally been very strong, and while he was a highly touted prospect, he was never in the dominating mold. hes more of a control guy and wont really rack up a ton of k's, but he is a decent pitcher. i have him on 2 of my teams (1 a deeper league, 1 a dynasty) and ive been pretty pleased with him. play the matchups right, and hes pretty solid.

[freeling_prideful]

Laffey's actually a pretty bad comp. He's an extreme GB pitcher who thrives the same way that Fausto Carmona, Derek Lowe, etc. do--they get double plays and they avoid home runs.

Slowey, on the other hand, is an extreme FB pitcher who gets 34% of outs on the ground (and even worse, 29% last year).When you combine this with a pretty hittable fastball, one that has roughly average velocity 88-92 mph, he's going to give up a lot of home runs. In fact, he gives up 1 about every 5 IP this year, and last year was 16/67, or closer to 1 in every 4 IP.

What makes Slowey useable is his extremely good control, which translates into an awesome walk rate and a good K:BB ratio since he also strikes out a decent number of guys.

My comparable would be a guy like Andy Sonnanstine on the Rays, who has similar stuff and similarly good command. Both are guys who can have solid QS but will also get absolutely rocked every 4 games or so.

[kcs261]

All I know is when looking at Slowey's numbers, I see:

39 Ks to 9 BBs in 57.2 Innings. He also sports a great WHIP of 1.18.

I definitely think he's a guy who is worth a grab and some spot starts.

People say that he'll got rocked from time to time. But, really, in 10 starts this year, he has one start where he gave up 8 runs and another where he gave up 4 runs. Otherwise, every other start, he gave up 3 or less runs.

[Snakes Gould]

Laffey's actually a pretty bad comp. He's an extreme GB pitcher who thrives the same way that Fausto Carmona, Derek Lowe, etc. do--they get double plays and they avoid home runs.

Slowey, on the other hand, is an extreme FB pitcher who gets 34% of outs on the ground (and even worse, 29% last year).When you combine this with a pretty hittable fastball, one that has roughly average velocity 88-92 mph, he's going to give up a lot of home runs. In fact, he gives up 1 about every 5 IP this year, and last year was 16/67, or closer to 1 in every 4 IP.

What makes Slowey useable is his extremely good control, which translates into an awesome walk rate and a good K:BB ratio since he also strikes out a decent number of guys.

My comparable would be a guy like Andy Sonnanstine on the Rays, who has similar stuff and similarly good command. Both are guys who can have solid QS but will also get absolutely rocked every 4 games or so.

nice post. i think slowey has better stuff than sonny does though, and will be more effective now, and down the road.

[Inukchuk]

Laffey's actually a pretty bad comp. He's an extreme GB pitcher who thrives the same way that Fausto Carmona, Derek Lowe, etc. do--they get double plays and they avoid home runs.

Slowey, on the other hand, is an extreme FB pitcher who gets 34% of outs on the ground (and even worse, 29% last year).When you combine this with a pretty hittable fastball, one that has roughly average velocity 88-92 mph, he's going to give up a lot of home runs. In fact, he gives up 1 about every 5 IP this year, and last year was 16/67, or closer to 1 in every 4 IP.

What makes Slowey useable is his extremely good control, which translates into an awesome walk rate and a good K:BB ratio since he also strikes out a decent number of guys.

My comparable would be a guy like Andy Sonnanstine on the Rays, who has similar stuff and similarly good command. Both are guys who can have solid QS but will also get absolutely rocked every 4 games or so.

Yup, that about sums it up, although I do think you'll get much more out of Slowey than Sonnanstine, especially down the road.

[thatguy27]

solid performance by slowey tonight. granted it was in san diego but he outpitched peavy over 6 innings.

[tmlfan4ever]

a shame they only left him in for 6 IP. I think he was only at 90 pitches.