Ponson Shown The Golden Gate: O's Trade Right-handed Aruban To San Francisco For Trio Of Young Pitchers

The Orioles had boxed themselves into a Hobson's Choice when it came to re-signing their newfound staff ace, Sir Sidney Ponson, this summer. But for once, they may have turned failure into good fortune.

The club could have offered Ponson more money than they thought he was worth, in the neighborhood of $10 million for each of the next three years; they could merely have held on to him, knowing that he was almost certain to bolt as a free agent once the 2003 season ended; or they could have traded him and hoped to get equal or better value in return.

They opted for the only viable choice when they dealt the Aruban right-hander to the San Francisco Giants for three pitchers on July 31, less than one hour before the major league trading deadline.

Remarkably, even with their backs pressed to the wall by the trading deadline, the Orioles might have gotten more than they gave up in the trade. At least two of the three pitchers, Kurt Ainsworth and minor league prospect Ryan Hannaman, have tremendous potential upside. The third, lefty Damian Moss, once a gem in the incomparable Atlanta Braves pitching production mill, is at the very least a more than serviceable big league starter.

What's even better, all three are younger than Ponson — though Moss by only three weeks.

If the Orioles truly had wanted to sign Ponson, they should have made serious efforts long before it got to the point it did. Like say last year, for instance. One might have suspected that they would have learned a lesson from history. The Orioles lost their previous staff ace, Mike Mussina, after the 2000 season, and their best hitter, Rafael Palmeiro, after 1998, because they didn't enter into contract talks early enough. Both players were eager to re-sign with the Orioles. But after the club kept putting off serious negotiations, other factors came into play and Mussina departed for the Yankees and Palmeiro for Texas. The same would have almost certainly happened with Ponson had the club's general manager tag team of Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie not pulled off the 11th hour trade with the Giants. Ponson, unlike Mussina and Palmeiro, was not that eager to return to Baltimore. He would have come back, had the price been right, although he had problems with management, both this year and last.

The Orioles — perhaps intentionally, perhaps not — insulted Ponsonson with their delayed initial offer of $5 million a year for the next three years. He already was earning $4.25 million this year and was deserving of a significant raise on the basis of his great 2003 season. As with Mussina and Palmeiro, the low-ball offer failed. And as with Mussina and Palmeiro, owner Peter Angelos stepped in at the last possible moment with a higher offer. But once again, it was too little, too late. The Orioles just don't seem to learn.

And, ironically, this time the Orioles might have benefited from their ineffective approach to resigning key players.

The loss of first Palmeiro and then Mussina decimated the team, turning it into a perennial also-ran. The club got nothing but compensatory draft picks in return. But the loss (through trade) of Ponson might prove to be a catalyst for helping restore the team to respectability, if not contender status. Much depends on how active the Orioles are this winter — and how much they are willing to spend — in the free-agent and trade markets.

“We feel excited about this move,” said Beattie, two hours after pulling the lever on the trade that brought the Orioles three starting pitchers for one. “We did talk to a lot of clubs. In the end, we felt this was the only [deal] that was going to make us a better club.”

There is reason for optimism about the acquisition of Ainsworth, 24 (6-6, 3.56 ERA, in parts of three seasons with San Francisco), Moss, 26 (21-14, 3.84 ERA, in parts of two seasons with Atlanta and one with San Francisco), and Hannaman (22), a minor league lefty now with Frederick. But there's also that icky, déjà vu feeling of angst when one takes a look at the three pitchers' medical charts. Before even being signed by the Giants in 1999, Ainsworth had to undergo reconstructive elbow surgery. And he's been on the disabled list for two months now with a shoulder problem. Ainsworth was recovering — hopefullly — from a broken right shoulder blade when the Orioles made the deal. At first he was diagnosed back in May with having a strained muscle in his shoulder. He could return to action in September, but the Orioles say they will be cautious bringing him back. Hannaman also was recovering from an injury — bicepp tendonitis — on the day the deal was made. Moss arrived healthy on the Orioles' stoop, taking over Ponson's slot in the rotation. But he, too, has had physical problems in his career, including ligament replacement surgery in 1998 and blood clots in his throwing arm two years ago.

You don't have to be a physician to know that the Orioles have seen many of their best pitching prospects sidelined by serious injuries over the past couple of years. And when the Orioles obtained right-hander Luis Rivera as the jewel of the B.J. Surhoff trade with Atlanta at the trading deadline three years ago, they insisted he would be a major leaguer soon, despite being sidelined at the time by tendonitis. He was rushed to Baltimore for one token appearance, then sat out all of the last two years with a torn labrum.

Beattie said the Orioles medical staff did a thorough diagnosis of Ainsworth and Hannaman and found “no problems” that would prevent them from recovering fully and being able to pitch successfully again.

Ironically, it was the possibility of a labrum problem last year that once and for all soured Ponson on his relationship with the Orioles. The club sidelined Ponson in August, saying he had tendonitis. The pitcher was furious, claiming he was not hurt, and that team officials just wanted him out of the rotation so that they could take a look at some younger pitchers. At the time, Ponson said he had no intention of signing with the Orioles after the 2003 season. But the man running the Orioles then, Syd Thrift, was let go last winter, and Beattie and Flanagan were named to replace him.

Ponson likes Flanagan but apparently harbored less than pleasant feelings towards Beattie. He said a few weeks before the trade that his animosity towards the club in 2002 went beyond Thrift, and that there were other problems that still persisted. Beattie, apparently, was one of them.

Regardless of what his feelings about the Orioles as an organization were, the fun-loving Ponson turned his career around this year. After five generally mediocre years (8-9 in 1998, 12-12 in 1999, 9-13 in 2000, 5-10 in 2001; and 7-9 last season — and never an ERA better than 4.09), Ponson sparkled for Baltimore this season. He went 14-6 with a 3.77 ERA and looked like a strong possibility for becoming the first Orioles 20-game winner in two decades. There is disagreement over what converted Ponson from a middling major leaguer starter to a domineering one this year. The explanations range from his being knighted by the queen of the Netherlands this spring to his approaching his first go at free-agency this winter. More likely, it's just that Ponson finally matured, both physically and mentally, to the point where he could control his game, rather than being controlled by it. People forget that although this is Ponson's sixth season in the majors, he's still only 26. Many young pitchers don't even reach the major leagues until they are 25 or 26. And Ponson always acted much younger than his years anyhow, both on and off the field. This year, according to the Orioles coaching staff, he finally became a real pitcher.

Even if the trade turns out to be a bonanza, Flanagan admitted sadness at letting go of a homegrown player who had been in the organization 10 years and finally had reached his potential this year. Flanagan has been associated with the Orioles during most of those years and was the pitching coach when Ponson first joined the team. “That makes it all the more difficult,' said Flanagan. “Certainly, personally, I wish him nothing but the best.”

Yet Flanagan believed the deal will be a big help to the Orioles down the road. “Not too often do you get players like Ainsworth and Moss who are already at the big league level,” in deadline trades, he said. “In this case, we felt very fortunate. We would have let the deadline pass if we hadn't gotten the right players.”

He said Moss is a highly competitive pitcher who “always finds a way to win.”

Both Moss and Ainsworth, according to Flanagan, are “middle to the front of the rotation” starters, meaning they could be penciled in anywhere from No. 1 to No. 3 pitchers.

Ainsworth was the Giants' first draft choice in 1999 out of Louisiana State University and was rated their top prospect after that season.

He began this season in the San Francisco rotation and reeled off victories in his first three starts. But he didn't pick up his next win for six weeks and ended his season with the Giants going 5-4 with a 3.82 ERA, before his shoulder problems knocked him off the mound at the beginning of June. His fastball nicks the low 90s on the radar screen, and he's averaged three to four walks per nine innings during his career.

Moss has been a steady starter with both the Braves and Giants, although he does have control problems. He was 9-7, 4.70, with San Francisco this year and 12-6, 3.42 last year in Atlanta. (Pitchers generally post better ERAs in the National League than in the American League, in part because they face pitchers in the lineup rather than DHs.) A native of Australia, the lefty has a good change-up but a less than overpowering fastball. He averages close to five walks every nine innings and about the same number of strikeouts.

Last winter Hannaman was rated by Baseball America as the Giants fourth best prospect. Before he was disabled this season, he went 4-4, 4.71, at Single-A Jose. In four minor league seasons, the southpaw has struck out more than one hitter every inning and allowed fewer hits than innings pitched. It's uncertain how long, if ever, it might take Hannaman to be major league-ready.