Zito the old hand at age 26
The Oakland Athletics’ advertising campaign includes a television commercial featuring three starting pitchers: Barry Zito, Rich Harden and Danny Haren.
Harden and Haren speak of Zito in reverential tones. They marvel over his experience.
“Do you think he ever pitched to The Babe?” Haren asks.
Only on the Athletics would a 26-year-old Zito seem ancient. He will be surrounded by youth in a promising and interesting rotation.
The next three starters — Joe Blanton, Harden and Haren — are younger than 25. If 23-year-old Dan Meyer does not open the season as the fifth starter, he will be there during this summer.
General manager Billy Beane has assembled the most impressive collection of young starters in the major leagues.
Beane started the youth movement last December. In a three-day span, he traded Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, who formed with Zito the Big Three of Oakland’s rotation.
Beane got the arms he wanted: Haren from St. Louis; Meyer from Atlanta. Beane also kept the Athletics from an inevitable lengthy downturn had Hudson and Mulder left as free agents.
Zito was suddenly all alone.
“I have all the faith in the world in Billy, because he’s always been able to pull something out of the hat,” Zito said this spring.
Ponson dropped in rotation
Sidney Ponson was dropped to the fourth spot in the Baltimore Orioles’ rotation, a decision manager Lee Mazzilli says is not a disciplinary measure for off-the-field behavior.
Ponson spent 11 days in an Aruban jail after he punched a judge in a Christmas Day brawl, and was arrested in Florida less than a month later for driving under the influence of alcohol.
Then, on Tuesday, the right-hander hurt his pitching hand in a scuffle that Ponson contends was started by an intoxicated man in a restaurant.
After he returned to Aruba to stand trial on assault charges, Ponson’s spring training debut was delayed while he waited to obtain a work visa. He is 0-1 with a 7.88 ERA in eight innings, numbers that led Mazzilli to put Ponson behind Rodrigo Lopez, Daniel Cabrera and Erik Bedard in the starting rotation.
“One, he’s missed a little bit and I want to make sure he’s stretched out,” Mazzilli said Saturday. “I looked at the matchups, and that the other kids got past what they need to get past, innings-wise.”
Around the majors
Top pitching prospects Jose Capellan and Ben Hendrickson won’t break camp with the Milwaukee Brewers, who optioned them to Triple-A Nashville on Saturday along with fellow right-hander Jeff Bennett. Capellan, acquired from Atlanta in the off-season trade for All-Star closer Dan Kolb, and Hendrickson, the organization’s minor league pitcher of the year last season, had hoped to crack the Brewers’ rotation but struggled through the spring. … The Colorado Rockies reassigned outfielder Reggie Taylor to minor league camp. Taylor was in the mix to land one of Colorado’s five outfield spots, but couldn’t keep up with Cory Sullivan’s hitting.