It Could Be Worse?

While TBL has not personally had the pleasure (?) of seeing Matt Chico in action, Larry Dobrow of CBS Sportsline (who, it may be worth noting, is not exactly TBL's favorite sports journalist, though he is on occasion hysterically funny) claims he's much, much worse than the train wreck that is Sir Sidney Ponson.

Sidney Ponson and Jeff Weaver should be pitching in Triple-A: Oops. Rather, they should be placed in restraints and secreted off to a secure location, for their safety as well as our own. The idea that the Twins, an organization that should know better, is once again sacrificing early-season games at the altar of a "proven veteran" boggles the ol' noodle. It's not as if either organization lacks better and cheaper options under its own roof (Matt Garza and/or Glen Perkins in Minnesota, Ryan Feierabend in Seattle).

And yet neither Ponson nor Weaver can claim the title of 2007's worst starting pitcher -- that would be the Nationals' ghastly Matt Chico. Watching his starts is like watching XXX: State of the Union in Swahili, minus the subtitles. His last one, in particular, was a masterwork of demented artistry: not only did he walk the opposing pitcher twice, but one of his pitches ended up in the stands. Both he and Nationals fans are as deserving of your pity as a motherless child.
--Larry Dobrow, "From A-Rod to Big Z, how it all went wrong"

This got me to thinking. How is Sir Sid stacking up amongst the worst of the worst in this young season? Off to the stats!!

"Top" 10 Worst Starters by ERA (3 or more starts)

American League

Name	Team	ERA	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	HB	BB	K	WP	WHIP
J Weaver	SEA	13.91	3	11.0	24	17	2	0	3	7	0	2.45
B McCarthy	TEX	10.20	4	15.0	25	17	3	2	6	7	1	2.07
J Westbrook	CLE	9.15	4	19.2	24	20	6	1	11	13	2	1.78
M Batista	SEA	8.83	3	17.1	25	17	4	2	4	12	1	1.67
S Ponson	MIN	8.44	4	21.1	35	20	6	1	9	12	0	2.06
J Tavarez	BOS	8.36	3	14.0	19	13	3	1	6	9	0	1.79
K Igawa	NYY	7.84	4	20.2	24	18	5	3	9	13	1	1.60
J Seo	TB	7.66	4	22.1	36	19	4	1	6	11	1	1.88
O Perez	KC	7.54	5	22.2	33	19	1	0	8	10	0	1.81
C Fossum	TB	6.94	4	23.1	29	18	4	3	3	11	0	1.37
League Leader:
D Haren	OAK	1.41	5	32.0	23	5	2	0	9	17	0	1.00

There's Ponson, the 5th-worst starter in the AL by ERA ranking. By WHIP, he's 3rd, after Weaver and McCarthy, respectively. He's also 3rd in home runs surrendered (Boof, alas, is first, but otherwise off the Leaderboard of Suck) and OBA [on-base average].

National League

Name	Team	ERA	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	HB	BB	K	WP	WHIP
R Vanden Hurk	FLA	13.97	3	9.2	16	15	2	0	9	13	2	2.59
W Miller	CHC	10.54	3	13.2	24	16	5	0	6	6	0	2.20
M Redman	ATL	10.13	4	18.2	29	21	3	2	6	11	1	1.88
C Hensley	SD	9.45	4	20.0	34	21	2	0	11	8	1	2.25
B Myers	PHI	9.39	3	15.1	15	16	5	0	9	19	0	1.57
M Pelfrey	NYM	7.90	3	13.2	20	12	2	1	7	6	1	1.98
J Williams	WSH	7.77	3	22.0	26	19	5	0	12	14	1	1.73
J Patterson	WSH	7.71	5	23.1	28	20	3	0	17	11	4	1.93
J Schmidt	LAD	7.36	3	11.0	17	9	3	0	5	13	0	2.00
Z Duke	PIT	6.92	5	26.0	38	20	3	1	5	6	0	1.65
League Leader:
T Hudson	ATL	1.22	5	37.0	25	5	1	1	11	31	0	0.97

Hm. No Mark Chico. Turns out he's 14th, by ERA. WHIP is another story...

Chico's line, for the record:

Name	Team	ERA	GS	IP	H	ER	HR	HB	BB	K	WP	WHIP
M Chico	WSH	6.38	4	18.1	24	13	5	1	15	12	2	2.13

So, at what point do you declare the Ponson Experiment a failure? Now? After another start? Two? Three? June?

Is he even showing signs of getting his crap together? Let's gawk at the game-by-game numbers for a minute.

Game	Versus	ERA	W/L	IP	H	ER	HR	HB	BB	K	WP	WHIP
4/9	NYY	12.71	L	5.2	10	8	2	1	3	2	0	2.29
4/14	TB	8.18	W	5.1	8	2	0	0	3	6	0	2.06
4/20	@ KC	9.39	L	4.1	10	6	2	0	1	2	0	2.54
4/25	KC	8.44	W	6.0	7	4	2	0	2	2	0	1.50

He's had one outing that was okay, except for the walking and the brevity. The other starts have just flat-out sucked. That's a .750 SA (sucking average), my friends.

Unless he can string together 3 or 4 quality starts--in a row--I say chuck him next time he stinks. We've got some kids doing pretty darn good in Rochester, maybe you've heard of them? Garza and Slowey. Some fellow named Cummings (about whom TBL knows nothing of importance) is also putting up some fine numbers out east. Oh, and there's this guy named Perkins, happens to be in Minnesota already...