Slowey, Perkins, and Baker... Who are these guys?

Because the Twins play in the AL and don't have many (any?) minor league affiliates in the same league as the Brewers it is easy for me to not pay attention to their young players.  After the Santana trade they got young in their rotation very quickly and we will see three home grown pitchers for them this series.  Here is a look at those three.

Kevin Slowey is a 24 yr old right hander.  He pitched a little last year in the show but currently has an ERA above 5 and is having trouble with the long ball (9 in 43.6 innings).  He throws a four seamer, a straight change, a slider, and a cutter.  His fastball is really not all that impressive checking in at 91 MPH with only average movement.  Still he throws his fastball almost 2/3 of the time.  His favorite off speed pitch is his cutter which literally has no horizontal movement.  Many righties who throw a cutter like to use it against left handed batters but not Slowey who opts for even more fastballs (71%)!  Slowey's best assist is his control, walking less than two batters in nine innings.  As you might imagine, average fastball + using it a lot + around the zone = a lot of homers.  He reminds me a lot of Dave Bush who ironically he will be facing tonight.  In a home run derby though I will take our bats against a team that is slugging .388 with a DH.

Glen Perkins is a 25 year old lefty (yum) from St. Paul.  I saw Perkin pitch while he was in A ball and he dominated the midwest league as a 21 year old much the same way he is pitching today.  Perkins best pitch, by far, is his fastball.  He it averages 92.5 MPH with plus horizontal and vertical movement.  That combination is extremely rare in any pitcher much less a lefty.  As you might expect he pounds the zone with his fastball throwing it over 70% of the time.  He also throws a change (mostly to RHB) and a curve (mostly to LHB).  The thing that separates Perkins from a dominate pitcher is his off speed pitches.  While he hides his change well he only gets about an 8 MPH difference from his fastball with it.  His curve is very slurvy with more horizontal movement than vertical movement which means he doesn't miss a lot of bats with it.  Still, out of the three pitchers we are going to see I think Perkins has the most upside by far.  If he improves his secondary pitches Perkins could be a top of the rotation guy.

Scott Baker is the veteran of the group at 26.  He has been pitching with the Twins off and on since 2005 and you might remember him from last year when we faced him twice (one good one not so good).  Baker throws a four seamer, a slider, and a change.  His best pitch is his slider and he uses it on any count.  He gets a very good speed differential and a solid horizontal movement differential from his fastball.  His fastball is slightly above average as well checking in near 92 MPHs with solid movement.  His straight change is a bit of a work in progress and he doesn't throw it much to LHB which is a bit surprising.  He rarely uses it deep in the count instead opting to use it as a get me over pitch early in the count.  This is probably contributing to his poor numbers against lefties who have an OPS against him of .798 compared to righties .606.  That trend continues with his three year splits .728 vs RHB and .851 vs LHB.  Baker will be pitching in his second game back from the DL with a groin injury.  He has only thrown 100 pitches in a game once this year so the plan should be to make him work and get into what hopefully will be a tired pen for the Twins.