The Yankees have signed 31-year old righty starting pitcher Sidney Ponson to a minor league contract but they added him to the 40-man roster. That way he is much easier to bring up to the majors. The Yankees hope that he only needs a couple of starts in the minors before he’s ready to join them. Ponson started 9 games for the Rangers this season and he was 4-1 with a 3.88 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP. He has now pitched in 268 games (254 starts) in his major league career and he is 86-102 with 1 save, a 4.90 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP. The Yankees hope Ponson is better than he was in 2006 for them as he pitched in 5 games (3 starts) that season for the Yankees and he was 0-1 with a 10.47 ERA and a 2.02 WHIP. The Yankees will need someone much better than Ponson to replace Chien-Ming Wang if they want to return to the playoffs in 2008.