Sidney Ponson Gets Shelled

As the World Baseball Classic heads into the semi-finals at Dodger Stadium, I want to look at two men with a relationship with the Baltimore organization -- one past, and one present -- the first being Brian Roberts, the other being Sidney Ponson. Brian Roberts -- our starting second baseman -- has all been nothing short of impressive at the plate during the second round of the WBC...

After another Sabean Special today, one thing has become clear to me... when we have good pitchers start, that usually goes better than having bad pitchers start.Groundbreaking, I know. But then again, we are still starting Carlos Silva and Ramon Ortiz for 40% of the games, so this message isn't quit...

Through 2 games, Ramon Ortiz has been everything the Twins hoped he would be and more. If you had bet in an Online Sportsbook before the season that after 2 starts Ramon Ortiz would lead the Twins in IP, ERA, WHIP, and have 2 wins, well, you're braver than I am.Ortiz pitched 8 innings, giving up only...

The hitting was good, Sidney Ponson was very good (really), and that was a pretty good combination for the Twins en route to a 9-1 beatdown of the DRays.Ponson turned in easily his best performance of the year in a start in which he probably had to do well to keep his spot in the rotation. He threw 7...

The Ramon Ortiz Story was great for a few starts... however, the time has come to pull the plug. Most of us knew this would happen sooner or later, and it's become increasingly apparent that the real Ramon Ortiz is back.He was good for 5 starts or so, but that was probably more of an abberation than ...

The Korean WBC team only has one MLB player compared to Venezuela’s 22 and Choo Shin-Soo from the Cleveland Indians made sure it didn’t go unnoticed hitting a three run homer in the first inning off Carlos Silva who gave up 7 runs in 1.1 innings as Korea moves on to the Finals on Monday [...]

Korea made it easy in the semifinal, exploding on Carlos Silva for seven runs in his just over one inning of work.  Venezuela could never recover from that and lost 10-2.  Korea started Suk-min Yoon, who went a little over six innings to get the win.  Venezuela was credited with five errors in the game, though it only resulted in two unearned runs being scored. The offensive hero...

The Twins offense is starting to hit their stride (even with Joe Mauer still out of the lineup for a little while longer), so no complaints there. Likewise, Carlos Silva was very good, so nothing but praise for him on this Memorial Day Weekend.But the best news, long-term, for the Twins was that Ramo...

The last time the Angels lost the first home series of the season against Texas was in 2004, when Ramon Ortiz was still impersonating a major league starter, and John Lackey was still a headcase. If you're looking for recent precedent, that's a good one — the Angels went to the postseason that...

Re-enacting the same kind of vibe as when the least Dutch looking group of athletes ever knocked off the Dominicans, it's the South Koreans taking down my pick to win, the Venezuelans. The Koreans go to the finals, and will either face the Japanese or Americans.You'd like to wax rhapsodic about the scrappy Koreans, but really, Hugo Chavez's team lost this one when Johan Santana claimed...

There were five runs scored this game. All of them were a direct result of the longball. 1) Jose Vidro's solo shot on the second inning off Jason Jennings. 2) Jose Lopez' three run shot in the fifth off of Jason Jennings. 3) Ben Broussard's solo shot in the sixth off of Carlos Silva. That was th...

The Washington Nationals added two pitchers to their lineup in the past two weeks. Both players were signed to one year deals. They are Ramon Ortiz and Tony Armas, who was resigned. The two will be competing with starter Ryan Drese for playing time. Livan Hernandez, Brian Lawrence and John Patterson ...