Wang returns to form at the right time
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For all of the hand-wringing about Chien-Ming Wang, he’s 15-6 with a 3.95 ERA and I suspect he will match the 19 wins he had last season. He made a major adustment tonight, speeding up his delivery to create more momentum forward and drive his sinker down.
It seemed to work as he threw a fairly economical 107 pitches over eight innings and got 12 outs on the ground.
He was thrilled afterward.
“This is like last year,” he said. “I feel much better. More confident.”
Remember that pitch that Posada missed in the fifth inning? It was a split-finger fastball. I didn’t even know Wang had that pitch.
“I threw it in the minors,” Wang said with a smile. “I still throw it sometimes.”
Said Posada: “That thing moved like a knuckeball. It wasn’t a bad pitch, I just didn’t catch it.
So for all of you fans checking in from Taiwan (and I know you’re out there), rest easy. Your guy is back. CMW was on his game tonight.
Here’s Joe Torre after the game:
The “Matty” he’s talking about is Hideki Matsui.
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on Saturday, August 25th, 2007 at 11:07 pm by Peter Abraham.
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iTunes
Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Now if he could only start having these consistently, he’d truly be back to form.
FIRST!
ARRRGH I mean second.
If we can take the next two and hope for Boston to lose tomorrow I would be happy going into Tuesday 5 games back considering the teams we just played and the fluff that Boston played. 4-3 after playing in Anaheim and Detroit would be good with me.
Pete,
You are killing me with his win totals. I know it is important for pitchers to win games, in fact that is the whole idea behind pitching. However, a pitchers win total is influenced heavily by the performance of his team. 34 wins, to me, means a lot of run support and decent starting pitching. If you want to prove that he is a good pitcher, point out the fact that his ERA+ for his three seasons with the Yanks is a very respectable 113, including +121 last season.
Oh by the way I know a lot of you were wondering and yes Arsenal did win today. 80’s minute strike from my main man Fabregas.
come on texas, close this out…
I think that Wang did what the team’s wish. He’d found his way to help the team won. He brought us a good game! Thanks to you, Wang!!!Keep going!!!
Texas doesn’t want to win. I think they are scared to win.
Booya! Double play. 2 back.
2 games aint no thing.
Pete, my first time to post the message.
Thanks for the encouraging note of Wang. My sister just brought me a copy of your book from Taiwan. I read it in one sitting and it was very inspiring.
Way to go Wang! Take the Yankees to Playoff!
For the welfare of both sides, I say the Yankees should just let go of Wang:
1. For the sake of the Yankees, they don’t really need Wang. Just look at their rotation, filled with either the future Hall-of-Famers, the old Rocket and the young Phil (with The Joba looking to be a young Rocket looming in from the bullpen), or elite veteran starters, Pettite and Musina, who have already proved their values in records, in fame, as well as in their pockets. And let’s wait and see, Pavano may jump out of where he’s hiding now, and give us a big surprise comeback next year. Then, down in Yankees farms, a troop of young, promising studs are getting edgy for the launch shot, a number of whom have already been rated, at one time or the other, the world’s no. 1 prospect, and the new, exciting names just keeps piling up. If these are still not enough, Mr. George Steinbrenner would not save a penny in his pocket, according to The Rocket, anytime he covets a player whom he truly values.
2. For the sake of Wang, he may not be a treasure in the eyes of the Yankees, but he still have enough talent, work-ethics and character that can be precious to some other teams in the league, which hopefully would not take him for granted, and would pay him due respect he deserves, and would not exploit him, would not abuse him, but play him with decency and humanity, and appreciate and enjoy the contributions he brings to the organization, both on and off the mound. Wang is a simple man, who doesn’t ask too much.
Above all, unleashing Wang would result in little loss to Yankees’ book, if merely counting a total of 42 wins he’s given them since he joined the Yankees rotation in 2005, it should still be well enough to cover every penny they’ve spent on him since they brought him over from Taiwan in 2000.
So, for both the best interest of the Yankees, and the better happiness of Wang, I say, Yankees, let go of Chien-Ming Wang, and peace be with those who want nothing but the best for the organization.
Wang is a good and young pitcher.
It helps yankees a lot
Thanks to his nice work. Keep it!
GO!GO!Yankees!! GO!GO! Yankees!
NO, PETE! JOE WAS TALKING ABOUT ME!! MEEEEEEE!!!!
Wang is awesome! Every time Wang pitches, the Yankees have a good chance of winning. He brings more than just a great sinker, he brings an intangible.
lumiel taipei – lay off the liquor big fella. what you’re saying makes absolutely no g0d@mn sense, ya hear?
lumiel taipei – lay off the liquor big fella. what you’re saying makes absolutely no g0d@mn sense, ya hear?
LOL I don’t know what you are talking about, Lumiel Taipei. Wang and Yankees works great for both sides:
From the Yankees standpoint: Yankees need the youth and consistency from Wang. I don’t know why you think Moose or even Pettitte plus Ian Kennedy can “replace” the contribution from Wang. I think Moose looks like he’s about to retire after this year with the performance he’s putting up so far this year. You must be nuts to think Pavano can possibly “bounce back” – baseball career for the Rajah of Rehab is OVER.
From Wang’s standpoint: No teams pays better than Yankees. No team can give Wang better run support than Yankees – run support means more wins for him. He’s still the ace of the staff, with all the minor leaguers looking up to him and Cano as the starter of the “youth movement.” Moving to another team won’t do him any good.
wang is the ace, and he’ll be a major part of the yankees success for years to come.
you are going down seatlle…down look in the rearview mirror because the new york yankees are breating down your neck you pathetic bastards
Thanks Pete! Your blog is an awesome source for us fans outside of the states.
agree with whoever said wang will be “back” when he does this a couple more times.
EY,
I think lumiel taipei was trying to be sarcastic.
first time post something here…
i’ve been reading all the posts, from pete, from yankees fans for a while (whether bad or good comments)
thanks pete for the encouragement~
i am from taiwan , also from the US..
for those who appreciate wang’s efforts, THANKS!
oh yeah…Wang is a simple man,
all he wants is to help the team to win!!
we love cuz not just cuz he is a good pitcher..
also cuz of his personality when he is out of the mound (many ppl can prove that)
he signs every signle ball (if you mail him) and read fans cards by himself…
anywayz…we love him cuz of his decent human being!!
LETS GO YANKEES, LETS GO WANG!
It’s not only what Wang or any percieved Ace or quality pitcher brings to the mound, it’s also the frame of mind that the team has when these individuals take the mound….It’s a belief that they have a solid shot at winning without the need to hammer 12 hits and score 7 runs….The entire mental makeup is different from a Igawa, or when Karstens toes the rubber….Now this could be the case now adays for the Moose, it’s a heavy burden to play that way every 4 or 5 day…..But I think Wang may have the most W’s since 06, and he’s missed the month of April…..He’s an Ace, maybe not the conventional 10 k guy that is the industry standard….Glad he’s in pinstripes…..
Sarcasm, unless blatantly obvious, doesn’t really fly on the ‘net.
“agree with whoever said wang will be “backâ€? when he does this a couple more times.”
Kasey – That would be me! (However, I think I angered Pete just a wee bit when I said that.
)
Do you like a talented pitcher who doesn’t give a lot wins (coz he doesn’t have run support)rather than a stable pitcher who give lots wins?
We need to keep winning.
The Wins is the only ticket to postgame, isn’t it?
com’on, what is ur choice?
Maybe I am not a good fan, but I just want Yankees win this year.
More Aces, greater chance!
So Andy and Wang both did the good jobs, Joba is gotta be a superstar.
Whatelse you can complain? Moose? he will be fine.
ya, if santana can be traded out to yankees, how lovely it is! it might happen in the future, but not right now.
you know, We should be jealous of what we have right now!
just checking the box scores…Romine and Angelini debuted for the GCL Yanks.
And Wang didn’t even start his first game until April 24th.
Wang always has that split-finger fastbbal. Last year with Twins,he used that pitch to create a career high 8 strikes,but he didn’t keep it often,some people said that pitch hurt yous finger or soomething,though I am not sure if that’s true or not,but he seldom uses it.
Anyone sweating the Mariners should turn in their Pinstriped longjohns. There is no way a team that lets Batista, Ramirez, and Jeff friggin’ Weaver start 60% of its games, and has Jose Guillen batting 3rd, will finish with a better record than us. No chance.
Their magic carpet ride is about to plow into a mountainside, and when they leave the Bronx on September 5th they’ll be minus their lead, their dignity and quite possibly their wallets. That’ll leave us 22 games to concentrate on running down Boston, another team with a painful reckoning coming its way.
By the way, who slipped the Red Bull into Joe’s teapot? First the unprecedented public vote of no confidence for Excusina, then the team meeting, and now he’s rolling his eyes at his little buddy’s absurd “Joba Rules?” Even if it is about 3 years overdue, it’s nice to see him refusing to go gentle into that good night.
Yes, Peter. We are here to watch CMW, and thank you for putting in the good words for him.
Pefect example of why wins are overrated. Tim Wakefield won his 16th game of the season tonight. Tim’s ERA+ in 2007 is, a slightly above average, +104. He has been a slightly above average pitcher, yet he is tied for the league lead in victories. Pretty easy to understand why I could NOT(doreen) care less about a pitcher’s win totals.
yeah so the 300 win plateau thing… officially overrated…
I’m glad someone else see’s the Mariners for what they are…..They’ll be laboring over the Labor Day Weekend…..The team that nees to be concerned with the Mariners are the Angels…Since the Yanks left town, the Halos are struggling…..They have 7 games vs. Seattle…..Angels prevail…..Pitching, pitching and solid defense…..
Today’s was a strong outing by Wang, but by no means brilliant, and certainly shouldn’t be considered as an “ace” outing. So, please do not call him an “ace” and thereby insulting our fans’ intelligence and demeaning the reputations of the true aces around the league (e.g., Webb, Young, Peavy, Santana, Beckett, Wakefield, Escobar, Lackey, Haren–all are a stratosphere or two above Wang).
300 wins means you were lucky enough to not suffer a major injury, played for decent teams throughout your career, and most importantly kept your team in most of the games you pitched. Obviously, it takes a good pitcher to do this. I didn’t say wins were useless, they are simply overrated when judging a pitcher’s performance.
Peter-I’m surprised you didnt know Wang had a splitter. He has a good one. He just never uses it. I wish he would use it more because with his downward moving fastball and his sinker if you add a splitter to it he’ll have another ground ball pitch that will lead to more grounders and more double plays.
godhelpus, i think you can’t ignore wins when evaluating a pitcher. it is certainly not a pure statistic, it’s infuenced by your health, the quality of your team, spot in the rotation etc. but i believe some pitchers handle the pressure of pitching to win better than others and are able to successfully to keep their teams ahead in competitive games, whereas other slip. If Andy Pettite’s win total hadn’t been hurt by poor run support earlier this season I think he would have been a good example of this. Two bad outings have inflated his era, but he has given the team a good chance to win every game but two. Also, there are other things pitchers wang does aside from strictly the pitches he makes that i believe help him win games. For instance, he works quickly and throws a high percentage of strikes, which keeps fielders alert and (along with luck) is why until today the defense hadn’t made an error behind him in several games.
I think statistics can be really enlightening in evaluating a player, but I think relying solely upon statistics to evaluate a player without considering the qualititative aspects within and outside the statistics is a very incomplete way of evaluating a player
Can Wang throw a four seamer at the knees? It seemed like some of the Tiger hitters were laying off of the low two-seamers, but if he could throw a four-seamer for a strike, hitters will swing more of his two-seamers that are below the strike zone.
Great performance when we needed it!
. Let me get this straight, Wang is not an ace but Beckett is? The same Beckett who had an ERA over 5 last year? Last year also being the first year he ever pitched 200 innings. No doubt he’s having a very good year this year but I still wouldn’t call him ace material. All that matters are results and 8 innings, 2 runs is ace worthy. Even if Wang is having a subpar year this year, he’s never had anything as bad as Beckett had just last year.
“Joe Torre said that he doesn’t quite understand why Joba Chamberlain needs a day of rest when he throws only 10 pitches as he did last night. It’s something “we’re talking about,� he said.�
Enter Tanyon Sturtze, Scott Proctor, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon and Dr. James Andrews. If the Yankees let Torre ruin Joba I will never forgive them. I hope we never see Joba on back to back days.
., you’re a sox fan, and Beckett is top shelf this year, but Wakefield? He’s one of the Sox that I actually like, but sorry he doesn’t belong in that list.
To: ‘.’
Why don’t you just s**t up!
You are insulting most of Yankees Fans!
Please give us a break!
Time will prove you Wrong!!!
Pete,
Thanks for the updated news about Wang. So glad to know that he feels more confident now. When Wang smiles, that definitely means something as he is a person who usually doesn’t show his feelings.
I knew Wang had a splitter. He has it in MLB 07: The Show. I use it as a put away with him……wow, that’s a terrible post.
Carmine: LOL, yes it is. But kind of makes me want that game.
Good win by Wang and saved the bullpen too. Hopefully, we can take tomorrow’s game and pray that Mussina does something useful Monday.
phil hughes is going to come up aces tomorrow, i can feel it.
To .
I don’t think being an Ace is that important to Wang. He repeatedly tell the Taiwanese media that the only thing he really want and care is helping the team to win WS and get the WS ring for himself. I think that make sense to me. And, seriously, without the team Wang is nothing. He knows that better than anyone. Man, baseball is all about team work. Didn’t you see the pictures in Taiwanese news paper that Andy, Clement and Moose try to help Wang in his bullpen session? Don’t you know that Yankees’ gold glove defense help Wang get out of trouble all the time?
To LUMIEL TAIPEI
I don’t really get your point and I remember reading the new from Taiwan indicating that Wang only wants to play for Yankees. And, I believe him.
As for Wang’s performance today, I think he did ok, just enough to get a win for the team. Glad to see Wang regain the confident he need after today’s game. However, he looked nervous and shaky when runner on the base and he throw wild pitch to almost gave up the lead. If he wants to be a more mature pitcher then he need to deal with it and learn how to be more effective in those situations. One good signed is that he induced some double plays today which were missing during his resent slump. I am happy that he can locate the ball well this time and find the rhythm to throw sinker for strike. To my surprise, he strike out more hitters recently and mix more off speed pitch to confuse the opponent. I know he used to know how to throw several off speed pitch before he play in big league. Wang deliver what the team ask him to do; give them a chance to win.
This is only Wang’s third year. I think he is still in a process of learning to become a better pitcher. Wang can be a more consistent and more dominant pitcher in the near future with Yankees. He is not an Ace type pitcher now which is ok since he is still learning. He is already on of the best Asian pitcher ever play in big league. He has the potential and I believe he will become one of the best in the league. I wish him the best to win that ring he die for. And, hopefully he will be able to fulfill his dream this year.
To LUMIEL TAIPEI
One more thing. You need to give Yankees credit for giving Wang a chance to shine, teaching him all the knowledge he need to know, and protecting him from injury. Seriously, how can you love Wang but not the team he is playing for? After all these things Yankees has done for Wang, we as Taiwanese fans should at least show some appreciation and gratefulness to the people who work in the organization and the fans in New York. Because of their support, Wang say that he feel like he is pitching at home to Taiwanese media.
TO E-ROC and Paddy R
I can’t wait to see tomorrow’s game since Hughes and Joba may be pitching another great game for our second wins in this series. I really pray that Moose will come live again, locate his curve ball, challenge the hitter, and throw strikes. I still believe Moose can deliver a quality start to give Yankees a chance to win a game. It has been a tough year for Moose and for his fans but I think he will make a great come back after all. Let’s cross the finger and cheer for the best team in baseball, Yankees. Let’s Go Yankees!!
I am a Taiwainese.
Thank you very much
you are the best.
go go Yankees!
wakefield is an ace, and a stratosphere or two above wang? wow! let’s poll a GM or two and ask who they want for the last two months of this season, wakefield or wang? give me a break i can’t believe i just responded to that.
I completely disagree with godhelpus. It’s ERA that’s overrated, not win #. Do you truely believe that Wang and Wakefield can win 15 and 16 games thus far by giving up ~4 ERA in EVERY game they started this season?
It’s meaningless to look at the ERA number without considering the standard deviation (SD) of the ERA. A valuable starting pitcher can easily win 6-7 out of 10 games with an ERA of 4 or higher if he only got blown away in 2 apperances.
A pitcher with high ERA and high SD maybe less “consistent” than the ones with lower ERA, yet contribute to more wins. In the game of the baseball, WIN is the #1 and the most important objective.
Another critical value for a good starter is the # of inning he can chew up to keep his team to stay in the game. Wang has at least one complete and multiple 8+ innings games in his most recent 2 seasons – any intelligent person will take that over a “lower ERA” pitcher that can only throw 5-6 inning and puts heavy burden on his bullpen.
Let’s not feed the redsux troll called ‘.’
For someone who consistently stifles the 2006 ALCS team Tigers, I think it’s pretty obvious that Wang is ace caliber.
Wakefield’s an ace? How about his ERA? LOL. Or how about his match-up against the same team Tigers? Not sure what game you’re watching, but this is baseball.
I think Wang’s great, but when Joba starts pitching next year in the rotation, he’ll become our new ace. Wang’s a good #2.
averaged innings pitched per game:
Wang: 6.6 (6.8 excluding the 8/8 Toronto game)
Petite: 5.9
Clemens: 5.5
IPPG — that’s a VERY important stat. Thanks for sharing. Wang is also a fighter out there on the mound. Who wouldn’t love to have him on their team?!!?
Pete Feng,
No doubt, Yankees is a great organization, but please don’t talk about the Yankees like they are a charity. Yankees is all about business (just look at Myers and Nieves), and Wang earned his chance not given to. If you want to talk about given a chance, that is igawa and such…
People like Wang, Hughes, Joba, Duncan, they earned it, so please give credit where credit is due.
Glad to know Wang’s return.
Thanks for Peter’s sharing.
“With a win tonight he will he 34-12 with a 3.79 ERA and 377.1 innings pitched in the last two seasons. What is it you want him to do? The only other pitcher with those numbers is Johan Santana.”
I completely agree that Wang has nothing more to prove. He’s the Yankee I want on the mound in a do-or-die game, and he is the Yankee ace. But there are a few other pitchers in the 350+ IP, 30+ Win, sub 4.00 ERA club over the last 2 seasons besides him and Santana.
Webb: 426.6 IP, 30W, 2.89 ERA
Halladay: 397 IP, 30W, 3.49 ERA
Penny: 362 IP, 30W, 3.53 ERA
Zambrano (not Victor…): 387.3 IP, 30W, 3.65 ERA
So Wang is in some pretty good company.
But let’s also keep in mind that Wins for a pitcher is a stupid stat (at least for judging how “good” a pitcher is) and there are plenty of other other pitchers that have been at least as good as Wang over the last 2 seasons that are not on this list. If Wang was on a team with a mediocre offense he definitely wouldn’t have 30+ wins. Look at Jake Peavy. Over the last 2 years he has a 3.23 ERA over 373 IP, but his record is only 25-19. Does that mean he has been worse that Wang or Penny or Zambrano? Of course not, because Wins is a stupid stat.
And look at CC Sabathia. He is on a team with a pretty good offense, and yet he is only 26-18 over the last 2 seasons, but with a 3.30 ERA over 389.6 IP. This is because Cleveland’s bullpen blows chunks. He doesn’t have Mariano hanging around to Save all his Wins.
So my point is that Wang is in the perfect situation for getting Wins. He is a solid pitcher with a great offense behind him and has the best closer of all time in the bullpen. If you throw Haren, Peavy, Smoltz, etc on the Yankees over the last 2 years they would also have 30+ Wins.
So I think comparing Wang to Santana is a bit unfair. Santana is clearly the best pitcher in baseball, and nobody is even close to him.
Dapper Dave,
I agree with you. Just like Jeter always says that “you don’t play this game on paper…”
but I think Pete is just trying to make a point to those people who still wouldn’t give Wang the respect that he deserves.
Hi…Peter ..
I am so happy to see Wang’s good performance last night ..
Being a Taiwanese ..I am so proud of Wang…
I bought your book about Wang this April,,,
You record many things about Wang ..I also like your article for Yankees Baseball ..
Yes..Now I am in Taiwan …I can sleep very well…
^_^ Tim Chen
wang will get into hall of fame someday.
let’s see.
Comparing Wang to Santana is indeed a tad unfair but credit to Wang where its due. He’s shown that he deserves to be mentioned when we talk about top notch pitchers in the league. I mean what more do the detractors expect from him? Complete games shutouts every time he pitches?
What have we yankee fans been saying through the dynasty years? Good teams find a way to grind it out. At the end of the day the only stats that matter are W’s and L’s. Every other stat can be manipulated to show whatever you want it to show. Guarantee Seattle’s not losing sleep over their ERA or run differential.
lumiel taipei is being sarcastic~ well put though…
Just as an aside, Peavy’s two years numbers are skewed by his great year this year. Last year he was 11-14 with a 4.09 era in the NL West, which didnt hit at all last year on a team that won the division. Definitely would take Wang’s 2 year, AL east numbers over that.
Ace Material: Great post. It helps to balance so many factors, so many variables into judging what makes a good pitcher. The point about Standard Deviation is excellent and not one you often see mentioned. An ERA is also obviously affected by a team’s defense. A relatively immobile infield can badly hurt a groundball pitcher just as a good infield can help. A bullpen that doesn’t let runners inherited from the starter score would be another in ERA.
I like you point, too, about the added value of pitchers that eat innings, save the pen and ultimately help the other starters in doing so!
Chien-Ming Wang is part of [thee] rising pitching rotation in all of baseball. He continues to learn and get better.
to tw-yankees fan
Of course! Totally agreed your point. Wang earn it other wise Yankees would not give him a opportunity. Thanks for your kindly remind.
However, lots of Wang’s fans ignore the fact that baseball is all about team work and come to the board focusing and talking only about Wang. Even Taiwanese media has that habit. That is just wrong and annoying. I just feel that we need to cheer for both Wang and Yankees. After all, it is just my opinion.
These two weeks are critical to Yankees. Let’s cheer for them no matter what! Capitan and Cano seems tired to me today in the game. We need their bats. I will pray for Moose. With Gator’s help, Moose might finally get it right. He really needs to step up. Hope Yankees will win the wild car race and challenge Boston at the end. Well, in my perfect dream, Yankees win the division. Anyway, Let’s go Yankees!! Let’s Hughes!!
“So my point is that Wang is in the perfect situation for getting Wins.”
to Dapper Dave
I totally agreed with you. Great post. Thank you for pointing that out. I may not know baseball well enough to defense my point with lots of stats but at least I know baseball is not one man show. Wang’s stats may be totally different if he is not with Yankees, for sure. That is what I hope most Taiwanese fans can understand. It is all about team work. I am happy that Wang is on the right team, the wining team.
Peter Feng,
Yeh, I got your point, but I think in general it’s the media from Taiwan (such as UDN.com) that is worshiping Wang to a really sickening level, making him almost god-like. When Wang is pitching bad, they would say because others play bad defense behind him or something like that… it’s really stupid.
That being said, I think Wang deserves to be respected just like Pettite.
To Pete Feng,
“without the team Wang is nothing.” That`s right. But you forgot the other words~”what is the team without good players?”. I got your point. But Wang is good enough for this game. I saw some mistake too.
Actually, that is normal. Everyone in field always miss serval times.But Wang handled the game. That is the most important of the game. I don`t expect Wang always to have the perfect game or to be a perfect pitcher or to get zero mistake games.That was a joke.
I like Wang focus to control the situation of games, and forgot mistakes.
To Peter F. & other,
As a Taiwanese myself, i do not find Taiwanese media trustworthy and there is no need to see every Taiwanese fan as professional fan!
We all know Wang is a hero in Taiwanese people’s mind. (as the first every in history) and we all wake up early try to see live games. Yet, give i t a break, not everyone is a professional baseball fan and should judge everything by hard figure.
When i see my old man asking if Wnag wins or lose (he never follows any sports in last 3 decades), it just feel Wang’s work has made us a bit more together and sense a bit of pride as being a Taiwanese.
We just like to see Yankee win with Wang and HAVE FUN.
to ET
I am right there with you, dude.
to tw-yankees fan
I do think Wang is a good pitcher now and will be even better in the future. I can’t wait to see him pitch in the WS and win that first WS ring for him , his family and the fans in Taiwan.
to Laughter
Yes Wang is good enough but can still be better. I know I am not asking too much because I see the potential in him. I guess I just really like him and Yankees. I hope them will win the WS together this year and in the future.
> So for all of you fans checking in from Taiwan (and I know you’re out there), rest easy. Your guy is back. CMW was on his game tonight.
Yeah, Pete, right, we are out here. I don’t worry about Wang, though. There are many Asian people like that. When you need them, they will be there, carrying everything on them. When you do not need them so much, they are quiet and you do not see anything special from the surface. Somehow I think Wang lost his focus in the past few games because he did not have a heavy burden to carry. Everybody else in the club is carrying the team in the way he should. That’s when Wang turned back to the shy boy who always felt that there are more to improve in him.
The guy who said that Wang is not an Ace only dared to use ‘period’ as his name on the post. What a coward. Well, I don’t care if Wang is an ace. Baseball is a team sport. The best baseball player plays together with his teammates as a seamless whole. Wang was expected to induce ground balls most of the time. When there is a ground ball, the whole team moves. That’s when the game is fun to watch. Wang is fun to watch because he often had the whole team works together to win. (For the same reason, I do not really worry if he allows 2 or 3 runs every game. For if he allows 3 runs, the team has to bat in more than that to win. Again, the whole team has to work to win.)
In Taiwan, the word ‘ace’ is literally translated as ‘King card’ (poker card), and the Chinese character ‘Wang’ is exactly the word ‘King’. So for us Taiwanese, he is the ace whatever people say. What we care the most is whether he shows his best stuff all the time. We wish that he is always in the best condition and has the best luck. That’s it. Looking at him, we believe that we Taiwanese are as good as anybody else in the world, given the proper chances and luck.