T.J.

Beam

The Yankees are keeping Sidney Ponson as a middle reliever, so Beam loses his roster spot. He had an 11.70 ERA over 10 innings in two stints with the club.

Beam, 25, will be making his major league debut after amassing a 0.86 ERA in 42 innings for Double-A Trenton and a 3.72 mark in 9 2/3 innings for Columbus. Between the two levels, he had a 47/14 K/BB ratio in 51 2/3 innings. He’s probably not going to be effective enough against lefties to develop into a true setup man, but he should be useful if he gets the chance. The Yankees could decide to send him back to Triple-A when they activate Octavio Dotel.

The Yankees wanted another fresh arm for the doubleheader today after Jaret Wright was able to last just three innings on Thursday. Beam has an 11.70 ERA over 10 innings in two stints with the club.

The move opened up a roster spot for Cory Lidle, who was on the bereavement list before starting Monday. Beam has surrendered 14 runs in 12 innings this season.

It was a surprise when Beam was kept over Matt Smith earlier this week, but he heads back to Triple-A now. He had a 10.13 ERA in eight appearances for the Yankees, though six of the nine runs he gave up came in a game against Cleveland that was over before he entered.

Beam has surrendered 14 runs in 12 innings for the Yankees this season. He’ll go back into a mop-up role.

Beam has given up five unearned runs, but his 15/2 K/BB ratio and 14 hits allowes suggests that his actual performance is fairly well in line with his ERA. Beam, 25, had a 1.99 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 77 innings between two A-ball teams last season. Perhaps the Yankees have been slow to promote him because they view him as nothing more than another Colter Bean, but he generates enough velocity to be considered a prospect.

That’s one way to take care of the 40-man roster crunch. Rasner might end up being the Yankees’ cost for Carl Pavano’s refusal to accept a minor league deal. Of the four players here, he’s the only one with much chance of making the Yankees miss him. Beam might not be completely useless out of the pen, but the Bombers had at least 10 guys in front of him.

The Pirates are just announcing some deals that were agreed to weeks ago. Chavez is strictly insurance against a couple of injuries to catchers.

Beam, who was non-tendered by the Pirates, has a good fastball and a somewhat deceptive delivery, but neither his slider nor change is much of a strikeout pitch. Perhaps he’d be an adequate middle reliever if given enough of an opportunity.