Casey Fossum is 2-2 with a 8.58 ERA. According ESPN.com, that’s the highest ERA for any starter in the majors with the qualifying amount of innings pitched.

Twins righthander Sidney Ponson (1-3, 8.44) is close to qualifying. But a few more bad starts and there won’t be any reason to worry how Ponson compares to other starters because he’ll likely be out of the rotation.

As the season heads into its second month, time is running out for Ponson and other struggling starters in the league to step up and contribute. We’re close to the point of the season where hopeful contenders have identified problems and will look for ways to fix them. With a few minor league pitchers doing well (Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Matt Garza), Twins GM Terry Ryan certainly has options to replace Ponson.

After giving some hope during spring training that he could contribute, Ponson has put himself on the hot seat. Opponents are batting .368 against him with a .429 on base percentage. Of 105 batters faced, Ponson has, according to my math, allowed 45 to reach base. That’s unacceptable.

Ponson has gone away from a aggressive strike-thrower in spring training. People with the club have told me that Ponson is trying to trick batters too much instead of being aggressive. Last week’s start against Kansas City provided such an example.

Ponson fell behind 2-0 to Sweeney then started pumping fastballs. Sweeney began fouling off pitches as the count went to 2-2. Then Ponson throws a change up, and Sweeney knocks it out of the park for a 2-0 Kansas City lead.

The word is going around the league that Sweeney’s bat speed is down. So why throw something offspeed to someone with a slow bat - which someone with the club mentioned to me.

The other problem are too many pitches like the one to David DeJesus in the fifth that turned into a homer. Ponson didn’t the get ball inside enough and watched it sail into the upper deck in right. 

So watch tonight how Sidney goes after the D-Rays, a pretty good hitting team so far this season. Watch for how many sinkers he throws and how aggressive he is in the strike zone. It’s fine to mix in a change up - especially when most young hitters get over aggressive - but it’s not Ponson’s best pitch. Watch to see if he’s relaxed. He’s been falling off the mound a lot, a sign he’s overthrowing instead of just letting the ball go.

He needs a big step forward tonight, or Ryan may have to focus harder on the starting rotation at Rochester.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 11:50 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.