Pitchers Galore
"You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun." --Al Capone

New York is aflutter with pitching promises of new guns these days. Yesterday we recounted the absurdly exciting pseudo future of Cuban defector Alain Soler upon his signing with the Mets and last night saw the AA debut of the long-anticipated Scott Kazmir.

Kazmir took a no decision in a 6-5 extra inning victory for Binghamton in his debut, throwing 103 pitches (62 strikes) and failing to have a 1-2-3 inning. He walked five and struck out seven and wiggled out of minor jams in the second and fifth innings. For a AA debut so anticipated, it was a promsing, if somewhat indecisive performance. What does it mean? Kazmir is progressing steadily. No sudden flash is going to project him into the Met rotation this season a la Dontrelle Willis or Daniel Cabrera, of course, but as he is more frequently mentioned as trade bait in a number of potential manoevers, it is important that his promise isn't prematurely extinguished out of impatience. One would hope that Kazmir is given the rest of this season to develop before any decision is made on moving him somewhere else for a rent-an-arm.

On the heels of that performance came the recent revelation that yes, even the lowly Mets are in the running in what now is semi-officially, the Randy Johnson sweepstakes.

Like any far-fetched dream, the idea of adding Randy Johnson to the starting rotation (which would give the Mets the unique privilege of having three dominating lefties in the rotation) seems almost too good to taste. Although the Yankees and Angels seem to be the front-runners to acquire the suddenly available Johnson, a person familiar with the situation said Friday that he also considers the Mets a possible destination.

Jon Heyman ranks the Mets chances at 17-1 and the Red Sox at 25-1.

And naturally, speculation of the Yankees adding Johnson to their collective was chewed over by the incessantly annoying Mike Lupica:

"...And the subtext is this: Getting A-Rod wasn't enough after losing last year's World Series. Getting Gary Sheffield and Javier Vazquez and Kevin Brown and Flash Gordon and Paul Quantrill wasn't enough. This payroll isn't big enough, the gap between the Yankees and the Red Sox isn't big enough, the gap between them and the rest of the field isn't big enough.

There is only one solution, of course.

Spend more money.

Get the Big Unit."

But still, Randy Johnson, a Met? Pshaw. This is yet again, the sort of media-driven hyper-inflation of speculation one comes to expect in any hysterical sports town. While imagining Johnson in their rotation is a succulent exercise, more delicious would be the inevitable sting against King George as the Yankees, virtually bereft of prospects to deal with, stare down the barrel of yet another possible trade coup against them. It wouldn't sting as much as seeing him reunited with Curt Schilling in an all-time killah rotation of Pedro, Schilling and Johnson but oh, how King George squirts when his crosstown publicity rivals outfox him.

*****

What they should all be looking for is a Ben Sheets clone. Milwaukee's Ben Sheets had another solid outing last night, this time spinning eight shutout innings against the Reds, allowing a mere five singles and walking one while striking out eight. In doing so, he raised his record to 9-5 and lowered his ERA on the season to 2.26, best in the National League, while retiring the last eight batters he saw. He has now thrown 16 consecutive scoreless innings. Further, since June, he has pitched 50 1/3 innings, has allowed 33 hits, walked only 8 while striking out 56 and sports an anorexic 1.62 ERA.

Ah, there once was another Louisiana native named Ben who wrestled alligators and had all the potential Sheets is fulfilling. Ironically, long after his promise had been chug-a-lugged down the well of injury and infamy with the Orioles, Ben McDonald once pitched for the Brewers. Drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1st round (1st pick) of the 1989 amateur draft, McDonald became almost synonymous with the disappointment of those early 90s Orioles and eventually, faded away to a corner of the world where even the internet search failed to turn up a sign of him. If anyone knows his whereabouts, let us in on the secret.

What often escapes mention however is that joining Sheets in the suddenly formidable Brewers rotation is the well-traveled 9 game winner, Doug Davis who has crept along with great stealth, joining 8 game winner the even more well-traveled Victor Santos.

The last time the Brewers had two pitchers with at least 9 victories by the All Star break was 1989, when Don August and Chris Bosio did it. The Brewers finished 81-81 that season, Don August finished with only 12 wins and Bosio ended up with 15. Oddly enough, none other than current Red Sox manager Terry Francona made his sole career pitching appearance for the Brewers that year, tossing a single hitless, scoreless inning.

*****

On the other end of the spectrum, we have the arm of Sidney Ponson, or perhaps the absence thereof. The saddest part of the Ponson tale is that it demonstrates the irrevocable stupidity of the Orioles upper management. Ponson was an enigma in constant battle with poor conditioning with the Orioles for five long years, running down a 41-53 record in that time prior to last season when inexplicably, he suddenly discovered whatever great mystery it was suffocating his potential and was roaring away at with a 14-6 record at the July 31 trade deadline as one of the hottest trade commodities on the market.

Boom! The Orioles didn't fail their chance to finally rid themselves of an historic underachiever, and Giants GM Brian Sabean was lauded when he landed Ponson for pitchers Kurt Ainsworth and Damian Moss. And that, as they say, should have been the end of that.

The crazy part came when, climbing the walls for a starting pitcher of merit this offseason, the Orioles madly went ahead and signed him back as a free agent! Unlike the Giants, the Orioles literally bought into Ponson's overall standout season, giving him a three-year, $22.5 million contract last winter. They are paying dearly in bitters now for that stifling error now as Ponson plods along with a 3-12 record pained with a 6.29 ERA. Not that Ponson doesn't seem upset about failure. ""I'm praying to God that this turns around. It's been a long time, and it's frustrating," said Ponson, who hasn't won since May 16.

Despite this enormous error of judgement, the Orioles have a minor chance to redeem themselves. If you dig deeeeep into the rumour well, you'll find mention that Ponson continues to draw trade interest, despite his entering his start Saturday. The main caveat to whatever judgement-challenged team might want him is that Ponson has a blanket no-trade clause for this season, meaning he would have to approve any deal the team tried to make.