When you are asked to name the top pitchers in the Majors, who would you name? Johan, Jake Peavy, Josh Beckett, C.C. Sabathia etc. It would be hard to find someone who would name Chien-Ming Wang in their top 5 or 7 pitchers. A Yankee fan, maybe, but then some Yankee fans don't trust him because of his post season performances.
If we dig a little deeper, you will find that from Opening day to the last regular season game, over the last two to three years, few, dare I say any, are better then Wang.
Since 2006, no pitcher has won more games then Wang. Think about that, all the guys I named above and Wang has won the most. You may say that's a credit to his offense. To that I would say that the other 4 arms on the Yankees rotation obviously have not fared as well and they have the same offense. In addition, the Yankees Bull Pen has not exactly been reliable in the last few years. Anyway, are you saying the other pitchers mentioned above don't have an offense backing them? Take a look at the Cleveland and Boston batting order. Those are some heavy bats!
In these two seasons that Wang has been the winningest pitcher, he has had back to back 19 win seasons. If you think about that, that's amazing. Guys get a ton of credit for winning 20 games in one year, but how about winning 19 two years in a row? Oh, and how could I forget, he missed the first three weeks of 2007 with an injury, which is roughly 4 starts. I think its safe to say he would get his 20 win season had he been healthy at the start of the season.
Wang's career numbers since coming up in 2005 (as of April 8, 2008) are, 48-18 with a 3.69 ERA. I think that ERA, which is in the AL EAST, shows that its not all run support that attributed to those wins.
So why do we not think of Wang as that top tier guy? Well first off he doesn't do it with power stuff like say Johan does. He doesn't woo people with a 98mph fastball. People love home runs, and people love strike outs. That's what we pay attention to. Well Wang doesn't over power batters, he just gets them out.
Wang also does not have that charismatic personality. Wang kind of goes under the radar because he is not loud and does not pump his fists. He walks off the mound with his head down and just does his job.
The final thing is probably because Yankee fans themselves don't trust him. Well why should they? His post season numbers are 0-4 with an ERA of 7.58. That number includes his 19.06ERA in the 2007 post season against the heavy bats of Cleveland.
But this is his post season stuff, for now. This does not mean he is an unreliable regular season 19 game winning pitcher. Alex Rodriguez is still considered the best player in baseball even if his post season numbers aren't always there! Why can't Wang be the best pitcher in baseball for the same reason?
Hell, even Johans numbers drop in the post season. He is 1-4 with a 3.97ERA vs his 3.20 career regular season ERA. Both are young and have time to improve their post season stuff. In the meantime, their regular season stuff is still great.
When I say this last statement, lets drop our "fantasy baseball" world tiers and think about the real world baseball stats for a minute.
When we judge the best pitchers in baseball, the facts say Wang is a top tier pitcher in the majors.
Yankees Chien Ming Wang Should Be Thought of As Top Tier..in the Regular Season
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9 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Anonymous about 1 year ago
Wang did won a playoff game against Tiger in 2006 and pitched fair well for his first playoff appearance against Angels in 2005.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
^^ thats exactly wat i have been saying. If i remember correctly, he pitched game 2 against the angels in 2005 and pitched 6 or 7 innings giving up 1 run, but got a no decision. I no for a fact that he gave up 3 runs in 7 innings to the tigers and got the win in the yanks only win of that series in 2006. 2007 was his only bad playoff appearence.
Furthermore, he can throw hard. He is regularly clocked at 94 or 95 with movement and has been clocked at 97. He has obviously 1 of the best sinkers: a hard 92-93 mph sinker with great movement. This year he has developed his slider and is working on his changeup. If his slider and changeup pan out, I think he can rly be a dominant pitcher.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Wang has pitched two great post season games and two bad ones. Don't make it sound like he can't pitch well in the post-season. He just temporarily lost his sinker at the worst possible time last October.
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hardy h about 1 year ago
alright i guess there's no need to say more that the stats were wrong. i think he's 1-2. two decent starts with 2 horrible ones... and i think you are right. he just lost his touch at the absolute worst time. i dont even think it's the nerve.
As his countrymen, I am a huge fan and i do not mind him being under the radar. I am proud that he's doing so well with grace, class, and that quiet confidence. Top tier or not, ace or not acen't, he's getting the jobs done. Sure, he's not your typical pitcher, and isn't that interesting to see a different kinda of personality in the game?
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Paul Salman about 1 year ago
Please check your stats: http://www.baseball-reference.com/w/wangch01.shtml
Wang is 0-3 per baseball-reference.com.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
Are you serious? You don't check the MLB official web site for player stat at all?
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_player_postseason.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=425426&statType=2
Wang is 1-3 for post season.
The issue with Wang is just he is lazy. If you can get groundball out with one pitch, why you want to waste energy to get a strike out with 3 pitches :P
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Paul Salman about 1 year ago
Baseball reference is a great site. However I think you are missing the point of my piece here. I am trying to say he is an amazing pitcher. Playoff record, which we can agree is not great, is a side bar.
To claim he is lazy is just ignorant and unjustified. You have no grounds for that.
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Anonymous about 1 year ago
"To claim he is lazy is just ignorant and unjustified. You have no grounds for that."
I was just joking. Did you see my face :P
being lazy= being efficeint
A lot of people complaint that ground ball pitcher is not as good as strikeout pitcher. I am just pointing out that goundball out is more efficient than strikeout ( 1 pitch out vs. 3 ptches out). That is one of the reason he can pitch more innings.
Theoretically, strikeout pitcher get a perfect game by throwing 81 balls. But for a goundball pitcher, 27 pitches is all he need.
WA
Houston
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qbug c about 1 year ago
Does every great pitcher need to be a strikeout pitcher to win credit when credit is due? Wang is great pitcher and has the most wins in the past two seasons. Sadly, he doesn't win much credit from Yankee fans. Why? I was surprised when Cashman didn't give him a long-term contact, but now I think it's not a bad thing after all. Wang is calm, reliable, stoic, and most of all, he wins one game after another. There should be other teams who are eager to sign him long term now. Go Wang!
QBug
AZ
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