Sidney Ponson Is Not The Answer

In need of an emergency starter during the double-header against the Mets last week the Yankees went with Sidney Ponson. Ponson couldn't have pitched much better and picked up the win as the Yanks topped the team from Queens 9-0. The Yankees would have been better off winning that game 9-8 as the unlikely success of Ponson just leadthe team into thinking they had a halfway reliable starter in the 31-year-old pitcher. But they didn't, Ponson shut the Mets out and the Bombers thought they had another Aaron Small or Shawn Chacon. But they don't, they have a 260 pound pitcher who's been cut more times than a homeless guy living underneath the Triborough Bridge. The Yankees would have been better off starting Dan Giese or even the other recently released pitcher Chacon. Instead they decided to stick it out with Ponson. The result was a wasted lead in the sixth inning tonight against the Texas Rangers when his lifeless fastball lead to a four run inning off a pair of two-run shots. Perhaps even worse the Yankees are now poised to fall even further behind the first place Rays and have perhaps squandered their best chance to make up ground in the AL East race. The next time the Yankees are going to need a fifth starter isn't going to be until July 12 against the Toronto Blue Jays. I hope when that date rolls around it won't be Ponson who gets the call. There isn't much depth to the Yankee rotation, but they do have better options. Like I said they can use Giese, but if they don't like that option they can sign Chacon as he doesn't seem to have many suitors. If the team doesn't like either of those options they can call up Ian Kennedy, Jeff Karstens (last resort?), or even Daniel McCutchen. My point is just because Ponson has been getting lucky doesn't make him a good pitcher and he shouldn't be trusted. A 4-1 record can't hide a 1.56 WHIP or a .307 batting average against. With those numbers the Yankees might as well have David Wells going out to the mound.