McCarthy out 4-6 weeks, Rangers panic, sign Ponson

It's now official: the Rangers have determined that Brandon McCarthy will be out for 4-6 weeks, which means he will open the season on the 15-day disabled list. Of course, this comes as no suprise to me or anyone reading this blog as I've followed McCarthy's situation very closely over the past couple days.

Tomorrow, he will fly back to Dallas, and receive an injection that will "spin his blood and inject platelets back into the elbow". I'm sure that sounds a lot worse that it really is, and it's certainly not the worst that could have happened - but I think Brandon himself sums things up quite nicely in the following quote:

"Not having surgery is good, but the situation overall still stinks."

Brandon, you have no idea how true that is.

Now that the Rangers know a little more about how long McCarthy will be out, they now have time to get a look at their younger options for the rotation when the season starts - as I documented when the news of McCarthy's injury first broke, Luis Mendoza, AJ Murray and Eric Hurley are all seemingly in the running for the vacated rotation seat. Also included in that list was mention of a guy that I seriously hoped would mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Looks like I was wrong.

The Rangers signed 31 year old right-hander Sidney Ponson to a minor league contract today, and added him to the spring training roster. Ponson, who will be entering his 10th big league season this year, saw his career year way back in 2003, when he went 17-12, struck out a career high 134, and posted a career-best 3.75 ERA. Since then, things have just gone downhill for Ponson, on and off the field. He was arrested in his native Aruba in 2004 for assault, and battled a drinking problem that got him picked up for 2 DUI's in 2005 before he went through rehabilitation. Thanks to the drinking, he has had trouble keeping his weight down and staying in shape in the past, and the results of that where obvious on the field, as his ERA has increased every year since and his WHIP shows a similar trend, if you check out his page on baseball reference:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/ponsosi01.shtml

And yet the Rangers seem to think they have some kind of low risk/high reward signing here in Ponson, who has never been better than a fringe-average starter in his best years: "He's thrown all winter, and we've seen him a few times" Says Rangers GM Jon Daniels "He's down 20 pounds from what he was when he struggled the past couple of years. We talked with him about our expectations, and he understands where he is at this point of his career. He feels he has something to prove."

Well, that's nice, I'm glad Sidney Ponson wants to prove he can pitch again. But does he have to do it here? What happened to the youth movement Texas supposedly undertook this winter? It seems that for every youngster we have, we manage to pick up a fringe-average veteran who "has something to prove". When does it end?

Development is all about making the young players step up. Sometimes during development, those players have to step up sooner than expected - but that's when you find out who's got the stuff to succeed, and who needs more time in the minors. But if young players never get that chance to learn and adjust, then they're not going to succeed in the Majors. It's really that simple.

Luis Mendoza and AJ Murray are being presented with a shot here. They should get their chance to run with it - without the added pressure of having a useless spare like Ponson around to muddy the waters. After all, even if they fail, at least the struggles of Mendoza, Murray, or even Hurley would mean something in the long run. The struggles of Ponson, however, would mean nothing but Ranger fans having to watch another bad signing rolling through Arlington.