High and Tight.: Why All The Talk of Washburn Replacing Rasner?

Why All The Talk of Washburn Replacing Rasner?

Besides the fact that I think acquiring Jarrod Washburn is short-sighted and ill-advised, why in the world do media types keep insisting he'd replace Rasner in the rotation instead of Ponson?

(T)here are reports that Jarrod Washburn of the Mariners could be joining the Yankees. The cost: another minor leaguer. Washburn (5-9, 4.50) is not the ace he was six years ago, but he's a good replacement for Darrell Rasner at the back of the rotation, another little piece of the puzzle that would seem to fit well as the Yankees make a run in the AL East.

The proper one to be jettisoned from the Yankees rotation - for Washburn, Dan Giese, a minor leaguer, Dave Eiland, or any contestant in the 2008 Miss Universe pagent - is Sidney Ponson. It's been well documented how strongly against this signing I was in the first place, and hoped it was only for a couple of starts, but as bad as Ponson had been before the trade, he's been even worse after it.

2008 Stats, with NYY:
Ponson: 26.2 IP, 38 H, 28 ER, 12 BB, 12 K, 6.08 ERA, WHIP 1.88, ERA+ 68
Rasner: 72.7 IP, 87 H, 39 ER, 22 BB, 48 K, 4.83 ERA, WHIP 1.50, ERA+ 86

Sure, Rasner hasn't been amazing, but that's serviceable from a 5th starter and he has a much higher ceiling than Sir Sidney, who hasn't posted an above-league-average ERA+ since 2003.

I still don't want to Yankees to deal for Washburn, especially because he's signed through next year and severely limits the other options for 2009 (Chamberlain, Mussina, Pettitte, Hughes, Wang, Kennedy just as a few possibilities) from making the rotation or long relief roles. That doesn't mean, however, that Ponson should still be on this club.

Two obvious replacements for Ponson were sent to the Pirates last week in Jeff Karstens and Dan McCutchen, but that doesn't eliminate some others. Is Jeff Marquez ready (assuming he's healthy)? Steven White doesn't appear quite there yet, and Kei Igawa slipped through waivers over the weekend and thus is off the 40-man roster, which would prompt a move to recall him. Alan Hornw couldn't do worse than Ponson, could he? Alfredo Aceves has shot up through the system this year.. he could be worth a shot. Lest we forget, Ian Kennedy is all but ready for a recall, and he's already on the 40-man.

Now I'm aware Kennedy didn't exactly impress in his early season tryout, but besides the fact that some of that could be attributed to injury, he still pitched better for the Yankees than Ponson has (albeit barely). Wouldn't he appear to have a higher ceiling? Well if he doesn't, the Yankees need to fire their entire scouting staff.

Release Ponson before he can start again, and bring someone up to start or replace Geise in the bullpen (Chris Britton is still alive, you know) and move him to the rotation, or look for a guy whose contract expires at the end of this year and won't be very costly.

There's no excuse to keep running Ponson out there every 5th day.

Labels: darrel rasner, ian kennedy, lupe's bf, roster moves, scranton, trade rumors

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 1:59 PM 0 comments

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