Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson took his perch behind the bullpen mounds at Hammond Stadium this morning, watching his pitchers throw for about 10 minutes in groups of five.

Sidney Ponson was in the first group, and his catcher was Joe Mauer, who is anxious to learn his new teammate’s repertoire. When the session ended, Ponson smiled, and Mauer walked to the mound to pat him on the back.

It’ll be a few weeks before anybody knows if Ponson is poised for a turnaround season. These 10 minutes didn’t mean a whole lot, but two things struck me:

1. Ponson looks pretty good. Much slimmer than he did when I last covered him in 2004. He reported to camp that year at 269 pounds. He told me he’ll officially weigh in tomorrow, but last he checked, he was at 252. As La Velle wrote for today’s paper, Ponson’s weight is a lot less important than whether he can still pitch. But the fact he’s in decent shape — by his standards — is a good sign.

2. Anderson can have a positive effect on Ponson, to be sure. But I think it’d be a mistake for people to expect miracles. Ponson pitched for good pitching coaches in Baltimore: Mark Wiley and former Twins manager Ray Miller. Last year, he latched on with the Cardinals and had the supervision of pitching coach Dave Duncan and manager Tony La Russa, both highly respected.

For Ponson to turn himself around this time, it’ll take a combination of factors. First, his elbow feels better after having bone chips removed in offseason surgery. Last year, scouts saw his fastball velocity dip into the 90-91 mph range. When he was thriving with the Orioles, he was in the 91-93 range. His arm’s health and his off-field focus are two big variables here. The Twins put Ponson’s locker next to Johan Santana and Carlos Silva, hoping their playful but focused approach will keep Ponson in the right mindset. But Anderson can only control so much.

The same goes for Ramon Ortiz, who is said to be in terrific shape but won’t be in camp until about Thursday because of visa problems leaving the Dominican Republic. Could Anderson have a profound effect on Ortiz? Perhaps. But consider that Ortiz pitched for the Angels from 1999 to 2004 under Bud Black, another one of the most respected pitching coaches in the business.

The Twins will spend the next six weeks seeing what they have in Ponson and Ortiz. The better they are, the less pressure it puts on everyone behind Santana, from Silva to Boof Bonser to Matt Garza, Glen Perkins, Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey, etc. But if this experiment fails, it shouldn’t be a reflection on Anderson.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 19th, 2007 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Catch-all. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.