Phil Hughes, lookin' sharp

I don't do daily game recaps; you can get them everywhere else. Not to mention, I don't get to watch every inning of every game.

But, I did watch much of the game last night and wow did Phil Hughes look sharp. I'll try to temper my enthusiasm as I'd be beyond excited to see one of our own emerge again. It was a long time between Pettitte to Wang and Joba and the expectations have hounded Hughes for years. It's hard to remember that Hughes is just 23 years old.

Phil Hughes wasn’t just good tonight, he was great. Six scoreless innings, two hits, two walks, six strikeouts. He threw 59 of 99 pitches for strikes and never cracked in a scoreless duel with Edwin Jackson.

If you were watching closely, Hughes had to fight to get command of his curveball. It was all over the place in the first few innings, even when he threw it for strikes. When he struck out Placido Polanco in the first inning, it was on a curve that wasn’t where he wanted it.

I saw that curve and Polanco's knees buckled. I thought that pitch was perfect, but what do I know?

Here's to hoping Hughes develops into everything we want him to be. Of course, that will only mean that the cries to "move Joba back to the pen" will get louder.

Thinking...bad. Just get ball, throw ball

Seems that Wang is overthinking. Just pitch.

“He knew,” [pitching coach Dave] Eiland said. “He was taking a lot of time between pitches. He was holding the ball longer than he normally does with runners on base. So that tells me he was doing a lot of thinking.”

Wang acknowledged he was probably thinking too much on the mound, and he seemed rattled by walking the first batter and hitting the second.

“Maybe I go into the game and try to throw hard,” Wang said, adding later, “Every time I try to hit the perfect spot, and every time I’m behind in the count.”
[...]
“A lot of things were going through his mind, and he wasn’t trusting himself,” Eiland said. “You’ve got to be mentally stronger than that. You’re in the big leagues; you can’t go around feeling sorry for yourself. I’m not saying that’s what he’s doing, but you’ve got to lace it up a little tighter and get after it.”

And that sucked

Sorry, Shysterball, but I'm gonna butcher your daily column header.

Last night's pitching effort by the Yanks flat out sucked, except for Swisher's, naturally. Here is the play by play, detailing the destruction that the Rays wreaked on Wang:

• 1st C Pena doubled to deep right center, B Upton and C Crawford scored. 2-0
• 1st P Burrell doubled to deep center, C Pena scored. 3-0
• 1st G Gross singled to left, P Burrell scored, D Navarro to third, G Gross thrown out at second attempting to advance on play. 4-0
• 2nd E Longoria walked, J Bartlett scored, B Upton to third, C Crawford to second. 5-0
• 2nd C Pena homered to right, B Upton, C Crawford and E Longoria scored. 9-0
• Wang's line: 1.0 IP, 6H, 8ER, 3BB, 1K

It got so bad for the Yankees that first baseman Nick Swisher pitched a scoreless eighth inning, the first New York position player to take the mound since Wade Boggs used his knuckleball in 1997.
[...]
Swisher may have been New York's most effective pitcher. After giving up a walk and Tampa Bay's 17th hit, he struck out Gabe Kapler and got Pena and Pat Burrell to fly out.

Wang's ERA after his first two starts: 28.93. Seriously? Wang has as many strike outs in TWO starts as Nick Swisher has in 1 inning?!?!? UGH.

At least the Sox are 2-5.

Yanks in win column, meet me in Times Square

Get out there and celebrate, folks! Our long suffering season of discontent is finally over!

Some live-blogging updates from Pete Abe, including two well-placed jabs at Pavano:

UPDATE, 1:50 p.m.: Hey, a Yankees starter struck somebody out.

UPDATE, 2:04 p.m.: Wow, Burnett is just so good with the action on that curveball and how he spots his fastball to both sides. He has already had three swing-and-misses, six fewer than Sabathia and Wang had in eight innings.

UPDATE, 2:42 p.m.: Carl Pavano allowed five runs in the first inning in his first start for the Indians. What were the Indians thinking?

UPDATE, 2:49 p.m.: The Idle just gave up two more as Kinsler homered. Hilarious.

UPDATE, 4:06 p.m.: The All-Star version of Robbie Cano has shown up this season, not the half-asleep version of a year ago. He is 5 for 10 with three walks and four RBI in three games. He just homered and the Yankees lead 9-2.

And this should be fun

So Wang was terrible last night. What better way to end a season-starting 0-2 hole than to run up newcomer AJ Burnett? Nothing could possibly go wrong, could it?

Sabathia, Wang and Burnett were supposed to be a one-two-three combination that knocked out opponents. Two games into the season, and it's the Yankees starters who are leaving the mound bowed and bloody. Burnett gets the start against the Orioles today. He'd better be throwing lightning bolts or the Yankees will be looking foolish before they get back to their new billion dollar palace in the Bronx next week.

It's still early and there's no need to panic. Joe Girardi and his players said as much, over and over, following the Yankees' 7-5 loss to the Orioles at Camden Yards Wednesday night. Remember 1998 when the team went 1-4 to start and finished with 114 wins, they say.

At 0-2 with 160 to play, no one is jumping off a bridge. But considering the Yankees spent $161 million for Sabathia and $82.5 million for Burnett and not to mention the $180 million for Mark Teixeira, who is 1-for-Baltimore in two games, this is past disappointing. This is embarrassing.

Holy crap, guys. Seriously? Do we need a refresher course in both history and perspective?

Sabathia was dreadful last April and Teix is a notoriously slow starter. Expecting CC to roll a complete game and Teix start 5-8 with 2 HR and 5 RBI is just not fair. Deep breath, fellow Yanks fans. Cleansing breath. Leave the panic to the lame writers.

But since the writers and some overly zealous fans seemed to have forgotten:

• Sabathia
  (March/April 2008): 1-4 record, 7.88 ERA, 6 HR allowed, 1.94 K/BB ratio.
  Highest monthly ERA rest of the year: May, 2.44.
  K/BB ratio May-Sept 2008: 5.19.


• Teixeira
  (March/April Career): 130 games, 0.254 BA, 0.344 OBP, 0.438 SLG, 19 HR (1:26.3 AB)
  2008, by Month:
  March/April: 0.273/0.333/0.464
  May: 0.268/0.379/0.412
  June: 0.287/.0424/0.617
  July: 0.307/0.430/0.545
  August: 0.386/0.479/0.663 (holy crap!)
  Sept/Oct: 0.333/0.417/0.631

So, let's not get too crazy just yet. If Burnett gets hurt while serving up a grand slam tonite, I will get the pitchforks and torches, of course.

All for one....

The Yanks' persona the last half dozen (or dozen, whatever) years has been very sterile, corporate. Or, in other less-flattering terms: BORING and FRACTURED. What this will mean when the games count I am not sure, but I am sure happy to hear that it's changing, even a little:

On a suggestion from A.J. Burnett before a Feb. 28 game at Steinbrenner Field, the members of the Yankees' projected rotation went to watch Joba Chamberlain warm up. And a habit was born.
[...]
The fraternity in the Yankees clubhouse has been noticeably stronger this spring, and no place has that been more overt than among this re-shuffled rotation. The five starters have committed to each other in a variety of ways, including going to watch each other's pre-game warm-ups.
[...]
It is difficult to measure what fraternity might mean within a rotation. The act of pitching, after all, is mostly a solitary act. But it is clear that big-time weight is on this rotation for a variety of reasons, notably that a quarter of a billion dollars was invested in Sabathia and Burnett to make starting pitching the backbone of the team and without Alex Rodriguez for a while this club is going to need its rotation operating at peak efficiency. So having an internal support system, especially in New York, should be valuable.
[...]
Sabathia arrived with the reputation as one of the game's best teammates and has only burnished that image.
[...]
But the surprise of the group has been Burnett. His reputation was as prickly and different. However, he has belied that, so far.

I continue to believe that Burnett will thrive since he can simply draft behind CC's wake. And that will ripple down the rotation. Of course, if Sabathia gets off to a dismal start or Burnett gets hurt.... all bets off. But if they succeed and the Yanks have a solid April, we can look forward to the "this team is better off without ARod" slop-slinging.

Pictures from Spring Training

Some of my pictures from Spring Training last week. Enjoy.

Sheets an option?

If the "cost" to the Yanks is merely a 4th round pick plus salary/bonus to land Ben Sheets, I continue to say that's a worthwhile risk.

While the Rangers have met twice with Sheets, the Yankees are one of a few teams considering the talented righthander. Sheets has provided a second medical report for teams to review but it isn't known how it differs from the first. His market has been slow despite a career full of accomplishments.

If Sheets would take a "prove it" contract (say $5m guaranteed this year plus incentives with a $12m team option for 2010), that'd be a great thing for the Yanks. It's not dissimilar to the Smoltz/Penny contracts the Sox just signed. Or, as I have referred to them, "Lieber contracts". The Yanks are already eyeballs deep in risk; Sheets' risk would add little more at little financial burden.

If you told me that Sheets and Joba would combine for 300 good innings behind CC, Burnett and Wang, with Hughes and others filling in the rest, I'd be pretty excited.

I remain disappointed in Pettitte. I'm not riding him out of town on a rail, but I am disappointed in his stance. The only thing teams "owe" its players is the number on the contract. The other stuff (respect, etc.) must be earned from both sides. Pettitte was hugged by the organization last year, right after the Mitchell Report was released. And despite his claims, he did have a mediocre year and a lousy 2nd half. For him to say last year that he was only interested in signing with the Yanks and it wouldn't be about the money and to now have him holding out due to money is just disappointing.

The party's over

This hurts. This is not fun. This makes Sox (and everyone else) happier. This is disappointing. Most of all, this is not a surprise.

The Yanks (version 2008) are done.

I guess I knew it was coming. I felt it going into this year (and truth be told, last year, too, but I wasn't officially blogging a year back). This team is not built to win it all this season. I mentioned more than a few times that I'd be OK with a missed post-season if the Yanks kept the farm system intact and a major part of their future, and I think that's precisely where we are headed.

The road to disappointment is paved with a thousand if's. The Yanks have plenty of what if's to ponder. Here are a few of mine, feel free to add your own.

What if...

• Wang didn't get hurt
• Posada didn't get hurt
• Hughes didn't get hurt
• Matsui didn't get hurt
• Joba didn't get hurt
• Damon didn't get hurt and could still throw the ball (not a 16-hopper to 2B)
• Cano didn't regress so badly
• Cano gave max effort all the time
• Melky didn't get exposed as merely a 4th outfielder rather than a starting CF for a contending team
• Abreu showed any fire (yeah, I know it's not his style) and could catch a ball near the fence
• Hughes and Kennedy combined for more than 0 wins. ZERO?!?
• Giambi was able to show some semblance of consistency
• Ponson was merely the answer to a bad trivia question, rather than our nominal #3 right now
• Dan Geise wasn't needed to help keep a rotation afloat
• Rasner didn't turn into a pumpkin so quickly
• Jeter didn't look so old at the plate
• ARod didn't chase every ball that was low and away
• Pettitte didn't look so hittable
• Justin Christian wasn't your starting LF in a critical game against the team just in front of you for the wildcard
• Moose hadn't found the Fountain of Youth

Buddy Shysterball noted it today in his always excellent "And That Happened":

Yesterday morning I read a story in one of the New York tabloids -- not unlike stories I've read in the New York tabloids for the past, oh, six or seven years -- in which some putatively ballsy New York writer tells Yankees fans how it really is: the Bombers are no longer the class of the league. The party is over. Get used to looking up at Tampa or Boston or Anaheim or Chicago or whoever. It's always styled as hard truths and tough love, and it's always ridiculous. It's especially ridiculous this year, in that Yankees fans -- who are rightly, I think, reputed to be among the most knowledgeable in baseball -- are well aware that any team trotting out a squad consisting of Justin Christian, Xavier Nady, Richie Sexon, and Sidney Ponson in mid August is not a contender, let alone the class of the league. They don't need a writer to tell them this. Instead, maybe they need some writers who can help them analyze this new reality as opposed to dwell on the end of a party everyone left hours and hours ago.

I have promised those of you who are kind enough to drop by and read that I'd always try to give you the straight dope on the team I grew up rooting for. I haven't, for one second, thought the team was the class of the league. Haven't thought so for years. We've been merely competitive the last few years, nothing more. Our shortcomings have been obvious and this is the year that it all finally came to roost.

Frequent reader and poster themarksmith noted this on his quiz, presumably about the Yanks: Karma finally comes back to bite you for winning too damn much. Karma? Maybe. I don't think karma plays much of a role but I do think age caught up with the Yanks (too old, too young). The lack of balance was painful.


OK, the wallowing in regret portion of our posting is now over. We need to get started on the rebuild portion. Email/post your thoughts on what the Yanks need to do for 2009 and beyond. I NEED YOUR HELP! Full credit given if you post your name/location. I want to make this an audience participation event.

Seriously, what do the Yanks need to do?
Who should they keep?
Who should they target (and who will realistically SIGN with the team)?
Who should they trade/dump?

A weekend lost

I woke up and saw that the Yanks are 8.5 games back in the AL East and three games behind the Twins (4.5 behind the Sawx) for the Wild Card. We just got swept in LA. As Tyler Kempner puts it, "It’s Getting Late Early for the 2008 Yankees" and he's right on.

The Yanks rotation consists of a rejuvenated Moose, an eminently hittable Pettitte, a profoundly frustrating Ponson and then a hodgepodge of guys including Dan Giese, Darrell Rasner, a recently sent-down Kennedy (foot-in-mouth disease). Generation Trey, as some had called them, imploded rather than "was here to stay". Kennedy and Hughes have yet to win a game. The vets are not happy with Kennedy's comments. Joba's on the DL after what had seemed to be a seamless transition into a top tier starter. Heck, we might even see American Idle Pavano back before Joba. Wang will be ready just as the regular season will come to a close.

With the bats, ARod's still slumping (despite a HR yesterday). Jeter's looking lost. Abreu and Damon are still hitting [I am totally on board with keeping Abreu another two years, for whatever my vote's worth]. Melky has been passed. Cano remains an enigma, with the bat and the glove. Matsui's been out for ages. Nady has been great, though.

What can I say? The best part of my baseball weekend was that I missed the end of every game. Too tired Friday. Hanging with the kids Saturday. Dinner with the extended family Sunday. Missed a lot of the games. Not upset in the least.

More importantly for me was that my older son's catching the ball better. We had a good long catch on Sunday morning and he's catching better. And my younger one (age 5) now knows how to throw from a full windup. Not sure where the ball is going to go, but he'll call out "two seamer" or "four seamer", go into a windup and hurl the ball in my general direction. Yes, he tries to put his little fingers across four seams. And that's why I had a good weekend even though my team didn't.

Ugh

Not much more I can say about Wang's injury and the possible scenarios than "ugh". I've chronicled many of his starts this year and he's established himself as the ace of the Yanks' rotation. Losing him for any extended period of time will certainly hurt the Yanks chances (even further) of catching the Sox/Rays.

feh.

Re-examining Wang, Part VII

It's been a while since I took a game-specific look at Chien-Ming Wang's performance, but after posting Jason Grey's analysis yesterday, it was as good a time as any to reprise this thread.

Here's where it starts: Wang's first inning scared me. Hit the first batter with the first pitch. The next three batters had well-hit fly balls to the OF. The kind of shots that lead you take a deep {gulp} and wonder how bad a night it's going to be.

Except that's not what happened.

Wang came out in the 2nd and was coolly efficient there on out, throwing just 83 pitches in 7-1/3 innings. I didn't make it that far, but I have no idea why Girardi felt Wang should come out of the game with so few pitches thrown. The bullpen has been taxed lately (Joba stretching out, Pettitte's lousy effort last time out, Farnsworth hurting and generally maddening, etc.) so why go to the whip when the horse seemingly was cruising along?

So after allowing three fly ball outs in the first, Wang reverted back to his "old" self, going 15-2 in GB:FB. Finishing the game with a nifty 3:1 GB:FB ratio is hopefully a nice harbinger of things to come.

The strikeouts were again down at just two, with two walks. He needs to have a better ratio than just 1:1 for K:BB. Wang's historically around 1.5 (up to 1.76 last year) so even if he's not back up to the K/9IP of 6+ like he was earlier, he does need to boost the K's a bit. But, after the last month of very uneven (being kind here) performance, this is just nitpicking and I know that.

Wang's current "indicator" stats stand at:
K/9 IP: 5.10
K:BB: 1.46
#PC/9 IP: 14.9 (more than the 14.2 in 2007)
BAA: .246 (career low, by a lot)
GB:FB: 2.23 (career avg: 2.79, including this year's average)


UPDATE: The smart brothers manning the "Pride of the Yankees" blog over at NJ.com had this to say about Girardi's (ahem) pulling of Wang {it's impossible to avoid the double entrendes sometimes!}:

In general, we try not to question the manager too much. It's never really worth it, it doesn't accomplish anything, and it just looks like you're trying to be negative. But last night, Chien-Ming Wang was, as we said, efficient and on the mark; he had thrown 83 pitches over 7.1 innings. To us, that's complete game territory. But instead, Joe Girardi risked the game by bringing in Jose Veras to finish off the eighth inning -- he promptly allowed two baserunners while it was still a 2-1 game, and the game almost went spinning out of control. (Just imagine what damage Kyle Farnsworth would have done, had he been available. On second thought: don't imagine that.)

Unless Wang told Joe G. that he was tired -- which is entirely plausible -- there was really no reason to pull Wang. It wasn't overly hot in Oakland (it was 67 degrees, unlike here in NYC where it was 100), and Wang registered the first out of the eighth inning quickly.

Anyway, like we said, there's no use being overly bitter, because the Yanks came away with a win last night. But that move just didn't make much sense.

A scout's look at Wang

I had been doing a review of Wang's starts though as he's struggled, there's been less to be really interested in. Biased, you betchya! Well, that's half the story. The other half is that I don't have the trained eye of a scout to tell you if he's "flying open" or where else he could be messing with his mechanics.

That said, here is part of ESPN's Jason Grey's dissection of Wang (insider access required for full article, sorry):

With a sinkerballer such as Wang, the first thing we want to do is take a look at his groundball numbers and his average on balls in play to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. His groundball-to-flyball ratio is 2.37, which is lower than the past two seasons, but still a very healthy number. His average on balls in play is .284, a number that is also not out of line in any way. He hasn't always been helped by his bullpen this season, which inflates his ERA slightly, but that doesn't explain how the baserunners got on in the first place.

When he was running well, Wang was walking fewer than three batters per nine innings. In his past four outings, that number has risen to almost five and a half, with his strikeout rate dropping from close to six per nine innings down to almost four. His strikeout-to-walk ratio in his first seven starts was 32-to-13. In his past six, it has been 17-to-20.
......
So why has his strikeout-to-walk ratio gone awry lately?

To answer that question, I went back to the video of a number of Wang's starts this season, both when he was running well and his recent outings.

Nothing has really changed about the actual way he's been pitching. He still has the same plan on the mound and is still getting his groundballs by the truckload as he usually does. He's throwing the same pitches, roughly the same amount of times, and his velocity isn't down.

The raw stuff is still there.

Therefore, the answer is likely that he is struggling with his mechanics. But how? He told the team's Web site he feels "he may be overthrowing" lately, but he simply has not been repeating his delivery well. There are two issues:

1. Sometimes his arm is getting out of sync with rest of his body on his fastball, so he can't hit his spots consistently.


2. Tipping his secondary stuff with his arm angle.

Well, there ya have it. I promise I will revise my reviews and try to take some of the things that Jason looked at and see how Wang fares.

Moose impresses but not an All-Star

I'll be the first to admit it: After his dismal 2007 and his first few starts of 2008, I thought Moose was done. But, he's taken a page out of the Maddux Pitching Manual and has evolved into a different pitcher.

Let that be the lesson: It's not the speed, it's the location and the CHANGING of speed.

Without a fastball that can reach 90 mph any longer, Moose has gone the opposite direction, going slow, slower and even slower (that looping 63 mph eephus-like knuckle-curve or whatever it is).

Moose had a good night last night, lasting 6 IP, surrendering 5 hits while striking out 6 and walking just one. He looks confident, calm. Now, the YES Network guys, mostly Michael Kay, are claiming that Moose is an all-star this year, but with all due respect to his 9 wins, Moose is not an AL all-star pitcher. His ERA (4.01) ranks just 25th in the AL. Yes, his 9 wins has him tied for first but most sane minds can recognize that wins are not the single best barometer.

If I had to pick six-seven starters for the all-star game, my choices would be:

1. Cliff Lee (9-1, 2.45 ERA) *starter*
2. Dice-K (8-0, 2.53 ERA)
3. Roy Halladay (7-5, 2.94 ERA)
4. Joe Saunders (9-2, 2.63 ERA)
5. Ervin Santana (8-2, 3.02 ERA)
6. Shaun Marcum (5-3, 2.63 ERA)
7. Javy Vazquez (5-4, 3.43)

Data source: ESPN.com

Interesting that the logical big-name guys (Beckett, Sabathia, Verlander, Bedard) are not having great years. Beckett's doing well and I think he could easily be on this list (6-4, 4.07 ERA, 80 K in 73 IP) but his ERA ranks him one behind Moose. I also think King Felix, despite a poor 3-5 record, albeit with a nice 3.29 ERA, could be on the team if Ichiro is not voted a starter. I would have also pegged Wang an all-star but the last month has not been kind to him. Go figure.

Who would you put on this list and who would you take off?

The Delicate Sound of THUD

Shhhh. Listen. Hear that sound last night? That was the delicate sound of thud. The sound of the Yanks hitting (what I hope is) a new rock bottom.

Moose, who had been cruising lately with his new slow, slower, slowest approach, got torched. He walked the first batter --never a good sign-- then got to two outs before Jeter threw the 3rd out high to Giambi and the inning ran off the cliff after that.

So let's review where the Yanks are, now that we are past the quarter-pole:

1. Posada remains on the shelf and Molina, a solid defensive catcher, can't hit his weight. When Posada returns, will he be able to throw or will he be relegated to DH? If so, which of the OF loses time?
2. Jeter took one flush on the wrist. Thankfully x-rays are negative but it didn't look good and sounded worse. He might not be perfect but he still comes to play night in, night out.
3. ARod is back but sort of galloped to first in his first AB. Not the long gait we are used to seeing.
4. Giambi is sporting a moustache, and an ugly one at that. I guess it's better than a wearing a gold lamé, tiger-stripe thong. He's not hitting his weight, either.
5. Cano might be hitting his weight, but barely. Still just above .200
6. Damon, who was off to a nice start in April, has gone ice cold. For all his warts, he's still the sparkplug to this team. When he's going, the offense is going.
7. Matsui is producing. No complaints.
8. Melky is solid, unspectactular. If there's a way to get an upper echelon SP talent either this season or in the off-season and the other team demands Melky, I would not be against it. You can always find an OF like him.
9. Abreu is still a bit of an enigma. Now I know why the fans in Philly tired of him: he always looks tired. He's patient. I think he's a very good player (overpaid, but so what) who's still capable in the OF, even if he has no idea how to go back on a ball near the wall.
10. Moose has been better, last night not withstanding, than I expected. I like his new approach.
11. Pettitte has been about what I expected, given his tumultuous off-season. He's not an ace but a capable #2-#3.
12. Wang, as I've written about often here, has been excellent. He still lacks the elite K-rates of other #1's, but I like his demeanor and approach. I'd try to lock him up in a long term deal ASAP. No need to introduce him to free-agency and incur that risk. Post haste.
13. Hughes: Get well soon. I have NO idea what to expect when he returns and that bugs me. All of us Yankee fans are rooting so hard for him to succeed, the stumbles this season hurt that much more.
14. Kennedy: I have no idea. None. Supposedly a cerebral, control artist. A solid #3. But where is the kid that was so good (in limited innings) late last year?
15. Mo & Joba: You guys are the ones who blew the curve. Grade: A
16. Hawkins & Farnsworth: If you miss an intentional attempt to exact payback from one of your teammates getting plunked, don't try it a 2nd time with that batter. Getting ejected and insighting a brawl is useless and only serves to get your teammates hurt further. And for the love of all things holy, stop throwing near a guy's head.
17. Alberto Gonzalez: I have no idea if this kid can hit, but it seems to me that --right now-- he's a better defensive SS than Jeter. But I've been down this road before.
18. Shelley Duncan: Where have you gone, Shane Spencer?

Last year, the Yanks were equally dismal at this point in the season (20-25) and they went on a great run to make the playoffs out of the WC slot. Will it happen again? At some point, you can't make that run any longer. You can't flick the switch like you used to. You just get old. That's where this team LOOKS to be heading right now. If we see Jeter dating Brittany or Jessica Simpson, well, pack up shop and call it a season.

Can it be fixed? Sure. How? We can get into that in a bit. If you have ideas, email me or use the comments below and I'll run 'em later today.

Re-examining Wang, Part VI

You'll have to pardon the abbreviated version but work calls.

Wang was at home, facing the also-struggling Mets, a place where Wang has excelled over his career. The result: his worst outing of the year, but also rather Jeckyl & Hyde-ish.

Innings 1-3: Perfect, but no K's.
Inning 4: Disaster, benefitted by a blown HR call which would have made it look even worse. Molina called it pretty succintly: "He kept the ball up a little bit and couldn't get it down. He got a couple of pitches up and just got hit. It's not pretty usual [for Wang] because he's a sinkerballer. He gave us a chance still, throwing [7 2/3 innings] to give us a chance. We couldn't score anyway." Giambi had a half decent game in the field, but his inability to make the throw to Jeter opened the floodgates.
Inning 5: Perfect.
Inning 6: Lead-off HR surrendered, his 2nd of the season. Then three straight outs.
Inning 7: Perfect.
Inning 8: [Note to self: why on Earth is Wang back in this game in the 8th?] Double, Out, IBB, Sac fly. Wang out. IBB scored later, charged to Wang.

Ending line: 7.2 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, 104 PC, L.

Again, another low-K outing where Wang wasn't able to put away the hitter. Nearly two HR's surrendered, though Wang benefitted from the blown call on Delgado's shot.

I'm not worried or concerned about Wang. It happens. But, his control of those "out" pitches seems to be gone from earlier this season. If he reverts merely to his 2007 form, so be it.

But.... this Yankee offense is so asleep right now. Jeter batting 3rd? Molina and Giambi below Mendoza. Cano not much better. Yes, a lot of it can be attributed to ARod and Posada's injuries, but how 'bout a little personal pride, fellas? At least look like you care. I'm not always one to harken back to the 90's teams but where's a bit of the Paulie fire? Someone throw a freakin' bat, get ejected, bust a water cooler. Anything. Damon, who was off to a nice start this year, looks lethargic and he's the spark plug. Giambi is still waving at pitches. Abreu remains catatonic. Cano looks like he can't wait to swing at every pitch so he can sit down earlier.

I hope they wake up soon. Otherwise Hank's going to do something rash.

Prelude to Wang's outing

Caught this earlier today as part of the previews to Wang's outing later tonite:

"He's becoming like Brandon Webb," said Al Leiter, who pitched for both the Mets and Yankees and is now an analyst for the Bombers' YES Network. "He's always had the great sinker like Webb does. But Webb learned a couple of years ago that he needed a second out pitch for those times when he didn't have the good sinker. And he developed a good changeup as well as a pretty good slider. So now he has more than one weapon, and look at how good he's become.

"I see the same thing with Wang. He's still going to throw that great sinker 85 percent of the time. But now he has improved his slider to the point where it's become a legitimate second out pitch. Plus, he's throwing some good changeups to left-handed hitters. And he will at times throw a four-seam pitch up and in to left-handed hitters, and that pitch has got him some easy fly-ball outs."

Good to hear that from a guy who knew a thing or two about pitching. Helps me justify what I have been seeing thus far.

I'll try to get a review of the game done tonite or early tomorrow (got a busy day on tap on Monday).

Re-examining Wang, Part V

Fifth in a series of reviewing Chien Ming Wang's performances. Click here for Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV.

So how'd our favorite subject do last night? Pretty well, just looking at his stats. But I saw a few things that concerned me. We'll get to all of that...

His line: 7 IP, 1 ER, 7 hits, 3 BB, 2 K, 101 PC, no-decision

Wang gave up just one run over seven innings, pitching effectively and fairly efficiently. His pitch count was right in line with his season/career averages. However, what seemed obvious to me was Wang could not muster his " kill" pitch. In prior starts, he's been able to put away batters with two strike counts, helping him boost his K rates to levels we had not seen from Wang prior. Last night, Wang struggled to put away those same hitters. It was most obvious in the Hinske at bat in the 4th inning.

Wang had allowed a Pena double in the 4th and with 2 outs, Hinske was up. Wang ran the count to two strikes, but failed to put Hinske away, leaving a splitter high over the plate, which Hinske knocked into right field for the only run Wang would surrender.

Now, I know this probably reeks of nitpicking; how could I criticize a pitcher who lowered his ERA to 2.90 after giving up just one run over 7 IP? Well, I'm not, really. What concerned me is the 3 walks and Wang's inability to harness the same repetoire that helped him boost his K rates significantly this year. Maybe it's just a blip; maybe he's just tired. Maybe it's just that the Rays had a good approach against him.

So let's take a look at Wang's key performance indicators:

Ground ball/Fly ball
According to ESPN.com, his GB/FB ratio now stands at 2.06, up from the 1.84 after his previous game. Sounds like the sinker was working last night, eh?

Again, his ERA improved to 2.90 with the outting. No complaints. None. Wang's been a consistent arm during what's quickly becoming a "that year" that Yanks fans have been fearing.

K-Rate
Wang K'd just two batters last night. I mentioned how he seemed unable to put hitters away so here's the "proof". His K-rate on the season fell from 6.23 to 5.80, still a notable increase over 2007's 4.70. This bears watching.

Pitches per inning
Wang averaged 14.4 pitches per inning, in line with his season average of 14.5. He traded K's for BB's in terms of pitches used so obviously we'd like to see him use those extra bullets for K's rather than BB's.


Conclusion
Again, I am not nitpicking or criticizing Wang. He's been marvelous this year and I am enjoying watching him. I'm trying to identify the KPI's for his success the year and when I see a diversion from what's worked so far, I just want to point it out. Will he revert to his career norms with K's or will he pick it back up as he was doing earlier? It's too early to tell as we're dealing with ultra-small sample sizes here. That said, we'll keep watching. Tell me if you are seeing something different or have a different.

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.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

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.

Re-examining Wang, Part III

My newest favorite subject, Chien Ming Wang, ran his record to a league-best 6-0 last night. He gave us a bit of a scare when he had a cramp in his hand, but at the time, we weren't sure just how serious it was. Turns out it was just that, a simple cramp. Good news.

So how'd he do?

Pretty darn good, again. His line: 6 IP, 90 pitches, 3 hits, 1 ER, 5 K's, 2 BB.

Let's continue the examination:

Ground ball/Fly ball
Wang's GB:FB rate continues the slide from the 3's to now under 2.0 (1.92, per ESPN). The chart to the right captures the ratio with the blue line. What to make of this? Well, clearly Wang's evolution from primarily a sinkerballer is in full bloom. Again, if he was just losing his ability to control the sinker, leaving everything up, would be a concern. But that's not the case.

The proof is the fact that he's only surrendered one HR this year. He's notoriously stingy with giving up the long ball, giving up just 9 last year and 12 the year before. (Bronson Arroyo does that every few weeks.)

K-Rate
Note, using the orange bars, the spike in K-rates for Wang this year. He's now at 6.40 K/9 IP. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not insignificant. This is not an aberration. This is a pitcher who has won 19 games each of the last two years, his first FULL two years in the league, getting better. This is the evidence of a person who is driven to be better, every day. When I first started following Wang this way, he was at 5.06 K/9. Now, after his 9 K performance last week and last night, he's bumped to 6.40. Very impressive. [Caveat: yes, it's still a small sample size but we've got enough to chew on.]

Pitches per inning
Wang got thru the end of the first inning on just 9 pitches and needed 90 pitches to get thru six innings. That's 15 pitches/inning for those without a handy calculator, which is right in line with the 14.6 P/IP he's averaged all year. It's still a bit higher than in the past but that's going to happen with the higher K rates.

Repetoire
I mentioned in earlier postings that the reason for all this is his new additions to his repetoire. Seems that the MSM (that's blogger-speak for 'main stream media') is catching on, too:

In the past, Wang relied heavily on his sinker most nights. This year, he's shown a more varied repertoire.

"We don't even talk. That's probably the good thing about it. I don't know if he likes me, anywhere," joked [Jose] Molina, who sported a Wang T-shirt. "Now you have to look for the slider, maybe change, maybe split, and still have the sinker there."

Wang's a better pitcher this year. He won 19 games last year after winning 0 until May 5th last year. Think about that for a second. He missed the first few weeks due to injury and didn't win until the second month of the season, yet still won 19. He's got 6 wins on May 2nd this year. Where's he going to end up?

No matter what the number is, he's a better pitcher and still getting better. Scary thought. And the Yanks certainly need him to keep it going given the struggles of their young guns and all the injuries.

I'll be watching.


Related posts:
Re-examining Wang
Examining Wang