FanHouse EdwarRamirez

This is the best and the worst time of year for Dugouts. The trade deadline looms and we'll get a chance to cover a lot of teams we don't normally cover. At the same time, the newsmakers of baseball start making news, and most of the time that involves a steady stream of unbelievable stories from the Yankees and the Red Sox. I want to do more Pirates Dugouts, but nobody in Pittsburgh just had their marriage broken up by a random assemblance of pop musicians. Nobody from the Pirates ran up a wall and high-fived a guy.

We've been sitting on this for a few days, waiting for the logical "oh THIS is what really happened" to come along. It just... isn't coming along. So today we attempt to handle this from an educated, even-handed perspective.

Today's Dugout, which should've just been about the Royals again, is after the jump.

When the Rangers released northpaw manimal Sidney Ponson a couple of weeks ago, I rightly predicted that he would he would be captured and employed by another team within a month's time. I wrongly predicted the team, but the fact remains: we have not seen the last of this feral lump; this undomesticated Grendel.

In this morning's Dugout, Ponson becomes acquainted with his new Yankee teammates.

Sidney Ponson is horrible.

As tough as Boston's early stretch this season was, the Yankees have had it nearly as bad. They're in the midst of a stretch where they play two games in 20 at home, they've lost their top two catchers to injury, and while their young pitching struggles, they've had to play the last week without dominant setup man Joba Chamberlain as he tends to his ailing father in Nebraska.

That's forced manager Joe Girardi to tinker constantly with the bullpen and the lineup (see below). The good news is that Chamberlain has returned. His father was taken off the ventilator last night and he flew back today to rejoin the team. He received a warm welcome from the horde of Yankee fans assembled here at Camden Yards.

The bad news is that Girardi might be down another reliever soon. He was incensed by Major League Baseball's three-game suspension of reliever Kyle Farnsworth, who threw -- intentionally or not -- behind Manny Ramirez's head Thursday night. Girardi told me and the other reporters assembled during the Yankees' pre-grame stretch that he was "shocked" by the decision to discipline Farnsworth, adding "I just don't understand why he was suspended to begin with."

Minor League Spotlight is the MLB FanHouse's look into baseball's minor leagues. But you probably figured that out already.

Edwar Ramirez has made two appearances with the Yankees so far this season. He's gone 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA. So, where was he last year at this time? The United League.

If anyone deserves credit for the Yankees' discovery of Edwar Ramirez, it's a computer.

"Statistics found him," Billy Eppler, the team's director of professional scouting, said yesterday.

(.....)

It was early July last year when the Yankees needed a reliever to fill out their roster at Class-A Tampa.

While Eppler looked for players who had been recently released by other organizations, Troy Caradonna -- the assistant director of baseball operations in the team's Tampa offices -- checked statistics of the independent leagues.

Caradonna found Ramirez in the United League: 1.07 ERA, 46 strikeouts and 10 walks in 25 1/3 innings for Edinburg (Texas).

"We didn't send anybody in to look," Eppler said. "I looked at a few old reports, didn't see anything (negative), and made a couple of phone calls checking on (mental) makeup."

See, you can still make it to the majors. Yes, I'm talking to you sitting at your computer right now. Seriously, just go pick up a ball and start throwing. Let me know how things go, OK?

As for me, does a pretty good BA in 16-inch softball raise your interests, New York Yankees?

(HT: BBTF)