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The Yankees right-hander Chien-Ming Wang won 19 games in 2006 and 2007, then after a 5-0 start last year, he injured his right foot, went to the DL and has not been the same since when pitching. This season, he got hammered in his three starts, giving up 23 runs in just six innings. Is he going to recover or have we seen the best of him? Adam Adkins and Daniel Paulling debate.
Wang will be OK at Season’s End
By Adam Adkins
Is Chien-Ming Wang done?
Command? The most important of the three, the ingredient that separates Mo Rivera from Kyle Farnsworth, Ollie Perez from Johan Santana, Tim Lincecum from Matt Cain. Chien-Ming Wang does not have it, and he has been downright awful, as bad as any pitcher has been for three starts that I can recall. And it's not the walks, (6 in 6 innings); it's the inability for Wang to pound his sinker down in the zone.
A sinker up is not like a high four-seamer or Rivera's cutter up and in, because in order to have a sinker hit the top of the zone, Wang would need to aim for the eye balls. But that's not the point. A sinker is not a strike-out pitch; it's a groundball-generating-machine of a pitch. And if it's up, those ground balls turn into line drives. And if it's flat and up, those line drives turn into moon shots.
Let's look at this start by start. In Wang's first game, in Baltimore, he threw 73 pitches (40 for strikes, a terrible rate) and faced 21 batters. 3.2 Innings. Wang gave up 9 hits, walked 3, K'd no one and gave up 7 runs. He was terrible, all over the zone.
In Tampa, 1 inning, 6 hits, 3 walks, 1 strikeout, 8 earned runs. Absolutely awful. No command, but the ball was over the heart of the plate and the Rays murdered him for it.
Same story in the New Cathedral to Cash. 1.1 innings, 8 hits/earned runs, no walks and a strikeout. His first inning was great, and that attributes to luck.
His movement is there and so is the velocity. But this run, this awful run Wang has been on, is a testament to the power of command. It’s even more paramount for what is essentially a one pitch pitcher, because even though Wang throws a slider, it’s about 15% of the time, and that’s probably a bit optimistic. He needs great command of his sinker, and he needs that consistently.
Without it, he’s not a major leaguer and he’s not much of a Quad A guy either.
That’s the bad news. The good news is, he’s likely to correct this. Those performances reek of bad luck. These things do happen in baseball, the Game of Randomness. Only in 162 games and more can we know the true ability of a player; 6 innings is not greater than 400. We can take lessons from Wang’s struggles so far, but to assume he is done without injury concerns (arm angle is okay, so is velocity, the Yankees are adamant that he is not hurt) is foolish and totally reactionary.
Calm down, Yankee fans. The safest bet here is that Wang will be fine. But it might not be pretty until then.
By the end of the year, don’t be surprised if Wang throws 200 innings, allows his usual 205 or so hits, walks hardly anyone, strikes out like 80, and has an ERA of about 3.9 to 4.1.
Push the Panic Button
By Daniel Paulling
Chien-Ming Wang has been an excellent No. 2 pitcher throughout his career, but this year hasn’t gone so well for him. Three starts isn’t a great sample size, but we can learn a lot from his first three games.
First, let’s take a look at the statistics. Wang’s ERA stands at 34.50 (23 earned runs over six innings), his WHIP is 4.83 and his BAA is .622. Considering Wang has been a pitcher of excellent repute previously, there must be something wrong with him if he’s posting statistics like this.
The key to Wang’s success is his sinker, which, according to hitters, is like trying to hit a bowling ball when it’s on. His sinker hasn’t been that good this season. Wang can’t control it and doesn’t have the same break on it, either leaving the sinker up in the zone, which, at 90-92 mph, major league hitters should hit.
And these putrid outings will continue until Wang regains his sinker. He has never been a strikeout pitcher, which means he relies on hitters putting the ball into play to record outs. When they’re hitting the ball hard and not necessarily on the ground, extra-base hits are sure to follow.
What’s keeping Wang from regaining his sinker?
Part of the reason is that he missed the majority of last season after hurting his foot while running the bases in Houston. It may be that Wang is taking a while to regain his form, working himself back into baseball playing shape.
This is purely speculation, but it may be that something is physically wrong with Wang. Plenty of reports have said that Wang is perfectly healthy, but reports usually say that. If there still is something wrong with his foot, which is entirely plausible, or Wang thinks something is wrong with his foot, which is also entirely plausible, he may not be relying on his base as well as he could. That could be throwing off his sinker.
No matter what is bugging Wang -- whether it be bad luck, his needing to regain his form or overcoming injury -- the Yankees need to worry. The American League East figures to be the hardest division to win this season. The margin for error for the Yankees is too thin not to look at Wang’s first three starts and push the panic button.
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