. . . and his name is Chien-Ming Wang. Yes, its OK to start panicking now.
Now the question is what to do about him. His next scheduled turn is Friday, in Boston vs Josh Beckett. There’s zero chance he makes that start. He has trouble with the Sox under normal circumstances, and these are anything but. We have an off day on Thursday, that will give Girardi and Cashman a chance to skip his turn while they figure out what to do next. I still doubt they will take the drastic move of taking him out of the rotation, but it has to be on the table at this point. If they skip him, his next scheduled turn will be Tuesday, April 28th against Detroit with Edwin Jackson going for the Tigers. His career numbers are good against Detroit, but I’m not sure that they mean anything at this point.
What troubled me most about today’s start was how deflated he became after the 3 run HR. He made a good pitch, the batter simply did a good job of going with it. It was as much a product of the count (3-1) as anything else. But Wang simply lost it after that, and that tells you that mentally all of this is weighing on him, heavily. Pitchers with his amount of big league experience should be able to bear down and get the final two outs, but he just gave up. That is a very, very troubling sign.
Options right now include sending him down to Tampa to work with Nardi Contreres or “finding” an injury and putting him on the DL. Sending him to AAA Scranton to regain his confidence isn’t going to happen. Wang is out of options, so sending him down would mean he would have to ckear waivers, which he wont. Of the choices, I would send him to Tampa and see if Nardi can reach him. Girardi may not like it, but Eiland has tried and tried to get to him and nothing has worked. They keep saying his bullpens between starts have been good, that he’s just not taking it out on the mound with him. They even tried a simulated game between starts, where he pitched to Ransom and Melky. Once again, to no effect. They need to try a different voice, a different approach to see if they can get him past this rough patch. But one thing that can’t be considered is to keep doing what they’re doing now. That, as Einstein once said, is the definition of insanity.
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TIQ IQ
Reason I would not panic:Yankees starters ERA: 6.39
Yankees starters ERA minus Wang: 3.38.
For the first time in forever, this is the kind of thing we can weather. Eiland is stating very clearly that he is not hurt. If so, I have faith that he will eventually figure it out. Players dont just forget how to play overnight.
Dontrelle Willis says Hello.
Just because it happened to one guy doesnt mean anything. He’s the exception that proves the rule. And WIllis’s awful mechanics were a disaster waiting to happen.
Obviously he wont be this bad, but he has been regressing for a couple years now, plus he was never better than a solid #2, maybe a good #3. This is the danger when it comes to sub-2 K/BB rates. If you can’t keep the ball down, you have nothing to fall back on.
Hughes and Kennedy have both been lights out so far at AAA, but as you said Wang cannot be sent down. Maybe he can get some tips from Carl Pavano on how to land yourself on the DL.
We have had this discussion, but there is only one stat that shows him regressing for three seasons, I think it was xFIP. Everything else has him improving over the last few seasons.
You asserted that “Players dont just forget how to play overnight.” So then explain Dontrelle to me.
Just because there is one guy doesnt suggest that it happens. However, extreme overuse combined with bad mechanics thrown off by some minor injuries looks like Willis’ problem.
Does it hurt us option wise to bring up Hughes for a few starts.
Wang is just not the same pitcher and is showing zero signs of figuring it out. He needs to rehab his foot with nardi for 15 days.
You cannot send Wang down, though. And what does his foot have to do with anything- he is not hurt.
‘Zero signs’ is overstating things. He looked very good in the first inning, and even the pitch that was hit for the 3 run HR was down, where he wanted it.
There’s an element of psychology on both ends here. Hitters know Wang is struggling, so their swings are extra aggressive. Wang knows his results have been bad, so he’s not attacking the zone like he should be.
Moshe, the foot has nothing to do with it except to provide pretext for DL. I was being funny
I’ll go with what Earl Wevaer did with Mike Flanagan the year he started 0-7 and looked bad doing it. He kept running him out there. (Flanagan won 20+ that year if I’m not mistaken.)
Anyone else still bugged by yesterday’s game? To the point where its beginning to ruin the season for you?
Its one thing to have a laugher here and there, those are easy to put out of your mind. But to have them once every 5 days is really throwing a wet blanket over this team for me. I know it shouldn’t, but it is.
Could you imagine if Wang was like this to start 2008 along with Hughes & IPK’s beginning to 2008… How would that have been for a wet blanket… lol. Gotta have faith he can come out of this.
I’m really not going to panic over Wang. I do think it is more than mental at the moment. His pitches just do not break like I remember.
Was that the case in ST? I missed a lot of his starts so I don’t know if this is just three bad starts or if he has never had it this year to begin with.
My bigger worry is this bullpen. We need to have someone that can go long. I don’t care if they rotate a starter from the triple A club (i.e. Igawa/Kennedy)- we need someone that will pick up five or six innings if a guy gets knocked out early. It’s a little ridiculous that we haven’t figured this out already.
I’m not worried either, he will get it together, I also agree with the not having a long man statement, 2 weeks into the season and Girardi or Cashman still has not figured out that we need a longman, this is going to kill the bullpen, poor Claggett, wrong time to make his first appearance, hopefully he does not get the Chase Wright treatment and get banished to the minors forever