First impressions are not guaranteed to define careers for Minnesota athletes. If that was the case, Herschel Walker would have led the Vikings to multiple Super Bowls after his shoe-flying, tackle-defying, 148-yard debut. Marcus Banks would still be in a Timberwolves uniform, having saved the point guard position after a 20-point, 21-minute effort against the Celtics in his debut. Etc.
So we're trying not to go overboard when talking about the meaning of the four outs recorded by Twins reliever Jim Hoey. We're trying to look past the sheer desperation which led to last night's situation -- a callup being the first right-hander summoned from the 'pen in a 3-2 game with 2 on and 2 out in the 7th and one of the Orioles' most dangerous hitters at the plate.
But we will say this: If Hoey has that kind of stuff on a reasonably consistent basis, he can help redefine and revamp the Twins' bullpen in a hurry. Because with Joe Nathan still working to find his velocity, the Twins severely lacked a righty with overpowering stuff down in the bullpen -- the kind of guy who can records out without trickery, misdirection or avoiding the fat part of the bat.
Hoey is long and lanky like Matt Guerrier -- the RandBall Better Half, upon seeing him stretched out in his baseball clothes, remarked "he looks like he's 8-foot-17!" -- he throws heat like Jesse Crain (plus a mph or two) and he has an off-speed pitch (a splitter, apparently, that sometimes dives down and sometimes looks more like a changeup but always last night clocked in at 12-15 mph slower than the fastball).
Yes, hitters will start to figure out that off-speed pitch. If they start sitting on it, and Hoey throws it enough, that could be a dangerous combination because he left a few up last night but still had the element of surprise on his side. And yes, good hitters can still tag 96 mph fastballs from time to time.
But Hoey gives the bullpen a chance to be much better. With the Twins playing nothing but close games lately, that's a pretty big deal.
