Anthony Slama Called Up; Burnett Demoted

The Twins have (finally) promoted righty Anthony Slama from AAA Rochester, and sent Burnett down to make room. To make room for Slama on the 40 man roster, the Twins transferred Clay Condrey to the 60 day DL.

Slama has a 1.58 ERA and 0.97 WHIP this year for Rochester and has a 31.3% strikeout rate. Although he doesn’t have the best stuff, Slama certainly deserved a shot long before now. I don’t think he’ll be an ace out of the pen or anything, but I do think that despite his lack of dazzling stuff his feel for pitching will lead to him being a good reliever.

As for Burnett, his demotion to AAA isn’t a huge deal; he was promoted straight to the Twins from AA and he had almost a 2 to 1 strikeout ratio with the Twins while adjusting to a bullpen role. He didn’t get a lot of batters to chase pitches outside the zone, nor did he induce a lot of groundballs, but as he gains feel for pitching those numbers can be improved. I still think Burnett can be a good bullpen piece in the future.