Ramon Ortiz brings weight proportionality to staff
Posted on January 19th, 2007 – 1:49 PMBy Michael Rand
Can the pitcher, who floundered with the Nationals last season (11-16, 5.57 ERA) turn things around with the Twins, with whom he has agreed to a one-year, $3.1 million deal contingent on passing a physical? No clue. But if our guy La Velle E. Neal III is correct in guessing at a rotation of Johan Santana, Sidney Ponson, Boof Bonser, Carlos Silva and Ramon Ortiz, you have to like the move purely from a weight standpoint. Ortiz, checking in at a downright gangly 175 pounds on his 6-0 frame, stands in stark contrast to Bonser (260), Silva (246) and Ponson (250). Ortiz will be stuck at the top of the teeter-totter should the staff ever make a trip to the playground, but that’s a concession the Twins needed to make in the name of balance.
46 Responses to "Ramon Ortiz brings weight proportionality to staff"
No way does Pig Unit Ponson make the starting rotation out of spring training, let alone as a #2 starter. LaVelle has been following too much soccer.
Pig Unit will eat Pott’s out of wings by the first week of spring training!
RE: Ortiz
Correct, the dude is frail looking. Rick Anderson better be practicing his magic Cuddyer-style, because he’s going to have to work a lot of magic this coming year.
LaVelle needs to walk by Ponson in spring training and say, “Mix in a salad”
Actually, I like Ortiz for the back of the rotation. He is the consummate 6-inning guy. I trust Gardy and Anderson to come up with some program that will get him through the season.
If I remember correctly, Ortiz’s ERA in Washington was bad because the Nationals had a poor defensive team that turned singles into doubles. That won’t happen with the Twins.
Good move by Terry Ryan.
Ortiz looks like a good pickup to me. He has a nice strikeout to walk ratio and a really good attitude. He too a no-hitter into the ninth September 4th against the Cardinals so he has the pitches and just needs to be more consistent although he has certainly been durable too.
$3 mil sounds like a lot for someone who might have been looking for a minor league contract. he must have a good agent. but not quite as good as kyle “4 mil” lohse.
I want to be the first to welcome back Kyle Loshe to the Twins.
RandBall: Exploring the soft underbellies of the Twins’ rotation….
A Twins official just told me that, if the season started today, Silva would be the No. 2 starter. Run with that talking point, RandBall beeyatches.
Silva #2?
Experience over talent seems to be the twins mantra, so this wouldn’t surprise me at all.
La Velle, how can Garza be the talk of the town last year and now not even come up in the rotation talk. He didn’t pitch that bad, he was no Liriano but no one starts a career that well.
Is Ramon doing Pilates in the picture?
Hey, great - we can get down to the business of giving up line drives off the center field fence on day 2 of the rotation this year, instead of on day 4!
Thanks for the great news, LENIII and Twins brass!
Yerright Coyote, Garza would most probably be there over Ponson so the rotation will look like this: Santana, Silva, Ortiz, Garza, and Boofus. I like that a lot better than depending on Ponson or Baker or Perkins although I’d love to see them compete for a starting position so “nobody is given anything” as Terry Ryan likes to say.
It should be noted, too, that the RandBall rotation order was determined based on estimated waistline, not pitching quality. That said, Carlos Silva is not a No. 2 starter.
We don’t have a legitimate #2 starter. We’ve got Johan and The Posse. But I like The Posse a lot better with Ortiz on it than with Ponson.
I’m all in favor of a heavyset rotation. If nothing else, it’ll allow us to break out some of the great insults from “Ball Four.”
The Twins’ 2007 motto: “Hey, one man to a pair of pants out there!”
I like the santana-boof-garza-silva-perkins rotation better. Otherwise, forget the infielders and play all seven in the outfield to cover the gaps, with maybe two of them actually standing on the fence.
What should you do if you find yourself between the The Posse and the post-game buffet? Run before you are trampled (or mistaken for a roast duck)!
Here’s hoping that, at some point, Gardy has to pull a Frank Robinson and put Matthew LeCroy behind the plate. Preferably when Boof is pitching.
They’d be the first battery in Major League history that weighed more than the left side of the Vikings’ offensive line.
So is Ortiz the beginning and the end of our search for a new starter? (I’m not counting Sidney Ponson–I’m still hoping we’ll all wake up and find out that was just a result of eating too much chili the night before.)
I had heard talk of interest in Bruce Chen–I hope that hasn’t been abandoned.
Bruce Chen? The Bruce Chen with a 0-7 record, 6.93 ERA and 28 homers allowed in less than 100 innings last season? Not sure that would be much of an upgrade.
Yeah what ever happened to Bruce Chen? I remember when he pitched for the Triple A Richmond Braves and was a promising young pitcher. Maybe Glen Perkins will make an impact this year. So that’s what we are back to again…prayer.
Good move by Terry Ryan, this move adds much needed depth to our rotation. With Johan, Silva, Boof, Ortiz, and either Ponson or Garza at the bottom it looks alot better than it did at the end of last season. If we can get good innings out of the bottom three, whoever they turn out to be, we’ll have a shot again at the division.
The best pitcher I ever faced in high school was a real blimpo. I couldn’t see the center fielder when he was on the mound. I think he was able to use that weight or maybe his blimpo center of gravity to rear back and get his arm moving. But his body never seemed to move. It just got that arm moving. Weight is pretty useful at times. Look at Pat Williams. Could he beat a guard if he weighed less ? Heck no. He didn’t (almost) make All-Pro by being a good athlete. I think the Twins staff suffers more because of their arms than their guts.
1. The Twins have been talking to Bruce Chen’s agent, I’m not sure where things stand (I’m supposed to be on vacay, dammit!).
2. I’m sure the Twins will take Garza, Baker or Perk up north if they earn it in camp. But you have to like the fact that they have another option.
3. Sir Sidney could be turned around here. He’ll have the best of both worlds: He can feed off the work ethic of Santana and Nathan and hit the feed bag with Silva and Boof.
Given the amount of $ Terry Ryan has at his disposal it looks like he made the best move possible. That said don’t waist time throwing together a rotation quite yet. That could change several times before Spring Season is over.
Sounds to me like a better name for the Twins rotation next year is On A Wing and Four Prayers.
La Velle really said “vacay,” didn’t he? We’re not imagining things.
I have to agree with E3-if the young Twin pitchers show a little something something in Spring or early in the year, they will be in the rotation. I guess Ortiz is an upgrade over Lohse especially at 1.1 mil less. I look at Sidney being a project much like Reyes was last year.
Oh and E3-Bears win this weekend but will get blown out in Super Bowl by the Patriots in the rematch from 20+ years ago and Brady becomes even luckier (hot girlfriend, 4 time winning QB)….
FlyZoso, that “waist” was an intentional pun, right? Coyote, I think they want to bring Garza along slowly, as they did with Liriano.
Dr. Mr. Randball: thank you for noticing that. Vacay, Lah-vull? Really?
My guess is the stress of the Sex Cannon potentially ruining his beloved Bears’ dreams on Sunday is causing him to break down just a little.
Or, Pedro Martinez just found his home address.
Yes it was Gus. But I was somewhat serious too. Thinking back to the rotation last year I was expecting more and we got less in May through June. So maybe we should expect less this year.
I look for Ortiz to rebound from 11-16 to maybe 16-11. The Twins have a great defense behind him, unlike the Nats, which lost 20 more games than they won last year. You have to ask: Where would Santana be with even an average bunch of fielders behind him – and hitters supporting him? The Twins have the reigning MVP and batting champion, and another 100-RBI man. What did the Yankees get for spending – What more than $100 million more than the Twins? They won one more game in 2006.
It’s not the payroll but the players.
I like the move for three reasons.
1) Eating up innings - Ortiz might not battle for the ERA title, but like Radke did his entire career, he at least gives you a chance to be there come the 6/7th inning on, most nights. Radke is a bad example as I see him as more superior to Ortiz, but you get my idea.
2) Depth without relying upon the kids… anymore than the club has too due to injury (liriano) or lack of talent (loshe).
3) 3.1 million. That’s less than Silva will make, and less than Loshe made.
I see this as a one year stop-gap before Liriano is back (still a gamble on Liriano) and Garza, Boof, and Perkins get through another big league season in their respective affiliates, if not all are up north with the big club.
My question for Lavel (PA rip) is if signings like this take away upfront cash for the long-term deals for M&M, forcing arbitration this year…
Go Twins! Can’t wait for spring!
With this signing, the Nats have lost one of their finest pinch runners.
I will say this about Ortiz: he is a bargin at $3.1 million. Ortiz’s lifetime ERA is 4.85 and Gil Meche’s ERA is slightly better at 4.65. Is a 0.2 improvement in ERA worth $8 million? I think not.
Ummmm do you all agree that this Randball guy is an idiot? Very annoying and doesn’t seem to know his stuff. Trying to be a little bit too funny, you know, kind of like your ex-girlfriends new boyfriend whom you are forced to see because you are still pseudo friends with the ex. LIKE THAT.
This is Ramon Ortiz. The pitcher who could get no one out in Washington last year. Forget lifetime ERA. The guy’s arm is gone. He is no bargain. Please listen to Stan Kasten. Ramon’s base-stealing ability is all he has left in his arsenal. Look for him in the 9th after LeCroy walks with the Twins down a run.
I agree. He put up a 5.57 ERA in a cavern. Brutal, brutal move. Now we get to watch Gardie fumble a veteran v. rookie decision again a la April & May 2006. Trot Nixon sounds a lot more like it for 3 million clams, need him or not.
RandBall without MewithoutYou equals happiness.
Is there anyway they can bring back Radke? hahaha. Spending $3 million on a questionable pitcher, shouldn’t they have used that money to sign Mauer, Morneau, and Cuddy? You can have the best pitching staff in the world, but withouth the M & M boys, they won’t be squat. I like the Santana, Boof, Garza and then dogfight for the 4 and 5 spot on the rotation.
[…] Those three pitchers combined to go 26-36 with a 5.84 ERA in 456 innings last year, yet the Twins may end up committing three rotation spots and about 13 percent of their payroll to them. Having Silva (245 pounds) and Ponson (250) on the same staff as Boof Bonser (260) and Dennys Reyes (245) ensures the Twins of having the premiere collection of fat pitchers in all of baseball, but that’s not exactly the type of thing that leads to postseason greatness. […]
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