Saturday, July 08, 2006

Ground Control to Major Wang

Our boy, Chien Ming Wang is on a roll. He throws in a poor start on occasion, but he's been one of the best pitchers in the league since the start of May. In fact, after his disappointing start against Boston on May 1st, Wang has done this:

8-3 record, 1 save
91 IP
3.66 ERA
1.22 WHIP
2.93 to 1 GO/AO ratio

Among pitchers who have made 15 or more starts, Wang has the lowest home runs allowed total(7 in 19 starts) of any pitcher with the exception of Jeremy Bonderman(6 in 18 starts)and Brad Penny (7 in 18). He's efficient too. He's 3rd among Major League starters in pitches per inning at 13.84 P/IP. Only Roy Halladay and Greg Maddux throw fewer pitches per inning than Wang. That's good company.

Just think. Last year Chien Ming Wang started the season at AAA and now he's as important a player in pinstripes as anyone on the entire team. Where would we be without this "homegrown talent"? Think about this. In 36 starts for the Yankees, which amounts to roughly a full season of healthy pitching, Wang is:

17-9 with a 4.01 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and a .267/.317/.366/.683 batting line against.

Thanks for competing every time out CMW. Keep it rolling. Literally. By the way, while I'm on the subject of East Asian pitchers, Daisuke Matsuzaka made his latest dominating start on Saturday and pitched a 10 inning complete game for the victory. Read the details over at Matsuzaka Watch. See you tomorrow. Go Yanks.

3 comments:

RollingWave said...

Ouch... 10 IP ...CG...

Shame that Wang seem to ran out of gas in the 9th today, was really just 1 pitch away from a CG shutout.

Mike Plugh said...

True indeed. Good to see him take it that far though. That's about as good as it gets.

1 run allowed in two games.

Sweet.

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike-thanks to you, I've caught Matsuzaka fever. I'm not well versed with the Japanese rules, so can you explain to me 1) what needs to happen this off season for this guy to be a free agent/sign with the Yanks and 2) what are the chances of this happening ? I'm dying to see him in pinstripes!

Love your Yanks blog-keep up the great work over there.