The starting rotation of the Minnesota Twins ranks 12th in the American League in strikeouts (463), sixth in ERA (4.3), and 11th in runs allowed (4.8). Journeyman softosser Livan Hernandez leads the team with eight wins. Needless to say, they aren’t the most flashy group in the league, but this patchwork rotation has spearheaded a 14-4 surge through interleague play that had the Twins just 1.5 games back of the White Sox in the AL Central entering Sunday.

Since giving up 8 earned runs in 3 innings June 8th against the division rival Chicago White Sox, righthander Kevin Slowey has been dominant in winning three of his last four starts. In 8 shutout innings Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers, the NL’s 8th best offense, Slowey struck out eight, retired the first 10 Brewers he faced and allowed only one baserunner to reach third base. Just as impressively, he did it with a fastball-laden 109 pitches, nibbling at corners like his mound opponent Ben Sheets.

In his last 29 innings, Slowey has allowed a grand total of three runs and walked a Greg Maddux-like two batters. His stuff is far from overpowering, but as teammate Hernandez has shown, location can be just as, if not more important, than velocity.

While the 24-year-old Slowey is available in less than half of fantasy leagues and is certainly a worthwhile pickup, he  won’t be drawing comparisons to Maddux just yet. He is still just 5-6, and three of his five wins have come against the struggling Tigers, Royals, and Nationals.

Dave DeIuliis will be a senior at Penn State’s School of Journalism. He can be reached at dmd5042@psu.edu.