Re-examining Wang, Part IV

Sorry for the belated posting about Wang's performance last night (Wednesday). Two excuses: 1) I was at the game (see pix below) so I couldn't post after I got home; 2) My company reported earnings today and I just didn't have the bandwidth to get to really diving into it.

Now, I was there last night, but as you can see, I was nowhere close to seeing how good or bad Wang's stuff was. What we could tell from our height and distance was that it seemed that he was having trouble with the zone. Walking leadoff guys really stung him. That was not what I would have expected.

So, where is he after last night? No longer undefeated, that's where.

His line: 7 IP, 5 H, 3 walks, 4 K, 3 ER, 99 pitches.

On any given night, that's a fairly solid outing. If your starter can give you 7 IP with just 3 ER, you'll win a bunch of games. But, against a nuclear hot Cliff Lee, it just wasn't good enough.

Ground ball/Fly ball

ESPN.com shows Wang's GB:FB ratio down to 1.84.

Again, there were a few hard hit balls but no HR. Surprising that he's only surrendered 1 HR so far, given the rotation of his GB:FB ratio.

Wang's ERA took a slight bump up from an even 3.00 to 3.12, below his career average and one the Yanks are no doubt ecstatic to see.

K-Rate

Wang only K'd 4 in seven IP last night. Last year, that'd be a great outing. This year; not so much. It's not the 4 K's but the 3 walks that I found disconcerting. You could just tell he didn't have his best stuff, even from the upper left field stands. His season K-rate now stands at 6.23, down a smidge from the 6.40 after his last outing. No major issues here. Still well above his career rate prior to 2008.

Pitches per inning

Wang needed 14.1 pitches per inning, a bit below his season average of 14.6. Considering the walks and early game struggles, he still managed a few 1-2-3 quick innings. Had he been able to get out of some of those AB's that he ran to 2 strikes and gave up a hit or walk, it would have been a different result.

It was a tough luck loss since Wang pitched well enough to win. And, I'm guessing here, that his agent should be contacting Cashman soon to see if they can't work out a multi-year extension before he gets into the heavy arbitration years. I'll maintain that signing younger players to longer term contracts can be a risk, but I'd surely take that risk with Wang. His demeanor, professionalism, his dedication to his craft and his seemingly endless desire to improve are worth investing in.

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I've gotten some good feedback with this "series" about Wang. So long as no one is getting bored with it, I'm happy to keep it going. Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see. I can assure you that I'll be watching closer (like my living room!) next time and be able to give a bit more of a "seen it" review.