Players of the Week Part II

Rochester Red Wings 28-42 14gb

Pitcher of the Week: Anthony Slama- The month of June has not been a good month pitching wise for the Red Wings. The starting pitching has been atrocious and the bullpen has not been much better. It was hard to pick a pitcher of the last week to ten days, however there was one guy that stood out in my mind and that was Anthony Slama. In his last ten outing Slama went 1-0 with a era of 1.38 in 13 innings of work including a save. In those 13 innings Slama only gave up seven hits with an incredible strikeout to walk rate of two walks and sixteen strikeouts. On the year now Slama is 3-1 with a very solid 3.16 era in 22 games. Slama has worked 31.1 innings on the year and only gave up 24 hits with just twelve walks and 33 strikeouts. Slama had a rough start to the season as he was injured early in spring training otherwise he likely would have made the Twins. So he missed the first 4-5 weeks of the year with arm issues which slowed him down. When he came back he did pretty well and with all the injuries with the Twins he earned a call up from the Twins and did pretty well even though he only appeared in two games where he threw 2.1 shutout innings with two walks and three strikeouts. The thing I don’t understand is all he has done at the minor league level is dominate. He however has not really gotten a fair chance with the Twins to show how good he can be. If he keeps dominating in Rochester it won’t be long until he gets another shot with the Twins.

Hitter of the Week: Trevor Plouffe- After suffering a hand injury in his last game with the Twins before his demotion that required Plouffe to miss some time with the Red Wings he sure came back strong. In the last 10 days Plouffe is hitting .326 with three doubles, a triple, three homeruns, and nine rbi’s along with three walks. He has a stat line of .326/.370/.651/1.021 which is quite impressive no matter how long it lasts. On the year now Plouffe is hitting .298 with seven doubles, two triples, a team high nine homeruns, and 22 rbi’s along with eleven walks. He had a stat line of /298/.353/.612/.965 which would be the best year of his career if he can keep it up. Trevor Plouffe did not get a quality opportunity with the Twins as everytime he made a mistake with the Twins Gardy wouldn’t play him for two to three days and Plouffe has such potential that you need to let him work through his mistakes. I think the best thing for him is probably to be traded by the Twins as he obviously is not going to get that kind of opportunity with the Twins. Maybe I am higher than most, but I am quite high on Trevor Plouffe and given a real opportunity he will be a quality shortstop. He will never be a star, but I think he can be a league average shortstop, it just is too bad that he won’t get that opportunity with the Twins so the best thing for everybody is to move him.