The Fat Man Cometh
« No Wonder | Main | Pairwise Dependent »This afternoon, the Cardinals announced the signing of Mr. International Criminal Record, Sir Sidney Ponson. In a related story, Anheuser-Busch's stock immediately shot up 50%.
In all seriousness, however, this has at least a little bit of potential to be a decent move. If Ponson gives up the booze and settles down for a while, if he doesn't suck as gloriously as he has the past two seasons (he's only 29, he shouldn't be regressing), and if the undisclosed terms he signed for are around a tenth of what the Orioles were supposed to pay him this season, he might actually be a decent pickup who could eat some innings in a Suppan-esque fashion. And Duncan's history with castoffs hasn't been too bad. Unfortunately, that's a lot of ifs. Not to mention the fact that His Largeness will be blocking Reyes' and/or Wainwright's clear path to the bigs for another year. So at this point, the negatives outweigh the positives... but it's not a completely useless signing.
Posted by MO Boiler at December 21, 2005 12:17 PMYeah, looks like its a 1 year / $1 million deal with added incentives. Not too bad overall as far as risk goes. Let's hope Dave can work his magic.
Posted by: George in SF at December 21, 2005 01:24 PMThe risk here is that Anthony Reyes spends three months in Memphis while LaRussa makes a big show of confidence in Ponson as Sir Sidney sucks. Reyes might be the Cardinals' second-best starter in 2006 and he'll be stuck behind a guy who probably deserved little more than an NRI.
It was cool that Sidney pitched in a Browns uniform back in 2003. I wonder if the Cardinals even bother with him if it weren't for that day.
http://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B06070SLN2003.htm
Posted by: Rob at December 21, 2005 02:46 PMSo do you think its automatic that whoever doesnt get the 5th rotation spot falls back into Cal's recently-vacated long relief role?
Posted by: George in SF at December 21, 2005 03:34 PMIf they're serious about signing F-Rod, then they're running out of bullpen spots. I count Izzy, Flores, Rincon, Looper, F-Rod, Thompson and Mateo. Maybe they're planning something around Mateo.
Posted by: Rob at December 21, 2005 05:43 PMBased on hearing the radio news reports around here the past two days, the Cardinals are the laughing stock of most of Maryland.
Posted by: MO Boiler at December 22, 2005 11:37 AM