The Johnsonian

Issue date: 9/12/07 Section: Sports

Former Winthrop all-conference pitcher Kevin Slowey has had a remarkable year in his young baseball career. He is representing Winthrop in the biggest stage of baseball pitching for the Minnesota Twins.

In his first full season with the Triple-A Rochester Red Wings, Slowey earned numerous accolades that include International League Most Valuable Pitcher for the 2007 season, Minor League Player of the Year, according to USA Today Sports Weekly, and opportunities to start in the Major Leagues for the Minnesota Twins.

Slowey's MLB starting debut came for the Twins on June 1 against the Oakland Athletics where he played in a hostile road environment going six innings, giving up five hits, one earned run being a homerun, walking two batters and throwing three strikeouts ending in a no decision.

His first win in the majors came just five days later on June 6 against the Los Angeles Angels. Slowey pitched five innings giving up four earned runs and two strikeouts. His win was secured by the offensive performance of the Twins.

Since debuting at the beginning of June, Slowey stayed with the Twins through the early part of July pitching against the Athletics, Angels, the Atlanta Braves, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Detroit Tigers, and where his first stint in the big leagues would end, at Yankee Stadium against the New York Yankees. Slowey's record was 3-0 with a 5.84 ERA.

After getting a beating by the Yankees, Slowey was sent back to Triple-A Rochester to learn from his experience in the league and work on making a comeback and being a force for the Twins.

In the time Slowey was in Rochester he iced the minor league's record books as the best pitcher of the year leading the league in ERA.

Slowey typically used a four pitch arsenal in Rochester using fastball, curveball, changeup, slider all being located very well; fastball being his dominant pitch according to Rochester's manager Stan Cliburn.

His work ethic was the best on the team as he would be the first one to the ballpark and the last one to leave, Cliburn said.

"Barring any arm injury, he's going to be a major league pitcher for a long time," Cliburn said.

His precise location in pitches is evident as he accumulated 107 strikeouts and only 18 walks in a 20 game season for Rochester.

A couple of weeks ago, Slowey was giving all the post-season awards for his remarkable year in the minors and was once again called up to Minnesota.

Slowey started for the Twins last Tuesday night against the Cleveland Indians going five innings, giving up five hits, one earned run and striking out three batters.

In his college days here at Winthrop from 2003-05, Slowey had a career record of 29-8, 3.02 (342.0 ip, 115 er) with 13 complete games, allowing 297 hits while walking 41 batters and striking out 328 in 53 career games (40 starts).

He was 14-2, 2.18 (136.1 ip, 34 er) allowing 91 hits, walking 13 and striking out 134 batters in 19 games (17 starts) during his final year for the Eagles.

"It's really exciting to see him in the pros and see how hard work pays off," former teammate, Chris Carrara, said. "I've never seen anybody that works as hard as Kevin does at pitching. He is a smart kid and he's got an incredible work ethic and he deserves everything he's gotten there in Minnesota."

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