Eiland and Wang break it all down
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- March
- 7
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Chien-Ming Wang was at Legends Field early today to watch video of yesterday’s start with Professor Dave Eiland.
The Cannes Film Festival it was not. But CMW figured out quickly what was wrong.
As he started his delivery, Wang was in a bit of a crouch instead of standing up straight. As he finished, he was swinging his front leg out too far. His changeup was fine but his sinker stayed up in the strike zone and got hammered by the Reds.
“I need to stand straight,” said Wang, who got out of his clubhouse chair and gave me a little tutorial of his proper mechanics. “I was starting wrong.”
Wang slowly went through his delivery the right way and then showed me what he was doing wrong. Basically, his arm was starting lower than it shold have been. So instead of throwing straight down, he was coming in from the side.
“That’s why you have spring training,” Wang said.
Much of what pitchers do is muscle memory as they try to repeat their delivery. That’s one of the reasons spring training lasts as long as it does.
Phil Hughes and Jeff Karstens look so good because they have been throwing off the mound since mid January. Wang, Mike Mussina and the others got started later.
Why don’t they start earlier? Because there are only so many bullets in the gun. Older pitchers learn how much time they need.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 1:02 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Thanks for the tutorial, Pete. I think it’s interesting, anyway.
i love insight like this. thanks.
Thank you Pete. That was very reassuring.
Wang had a game or two last year where he just didn’t have it. But in general he has been a very consistent winner.
What will be interesting to watch this year is; Can he come up with another pitch? The league knows to lay off the sinker. If he can come up with another pitch he can throw for strikes, it will make the sinker more effective.
Thanks Pete, it’s great that you are able to follow up with CMW and find out what went wrong. I think having a few bad ST games is a blessing in disguise for all players. Better to work out the kinks in March rather than May.
Great job, Pete… but Wang is an “older pitcher” like Pettitte?
Very fortunate that he lapsed into a mechanics flaw in a ST game against the Reds, rather than when it counts. Great job by Eiland to diagnose the problem so quickly, too.
Peter, Doesn’t it concern you that Phil Hughes will flame out towards the end of the season since “There are so many bullets in the gun” and Hughes has already started throwing mid-Jan?
What was his excuse for the ALDS.He wasn’t in flying Mantis style.
[ McLovin:What was his excuse for the ALDS.]
Wang was just telling what makes him wrong during this game (I mean this spring training game)and trying to make adjustment on it. And you are calling it making “excuse”?
Well, excuse me, may I remind you that he never tried to shirk his responsibilities for the loses of ALDS! He kept that on mind so long, so hard, that it took him a full month to get out of the shadow.
Come on, he’s a good guy who always works hard and keep improving his pitches. Why don’t you just show some encouragement instead of sarcasm?
Here’s one guy’s theory on why people hate or don’t respect Wang.
It’s because for the last two years, he’s been our “ace” and he’s not what is generally considered an “ACE” type pitcher in that he does not dominate / strike out people.
When people look at our “ace” and don’t see an “ACE”. That disconnect causes the hate. Every mistake or bad outing he has gets amplified because of that.
If / when Hughes, Joba, Ian, etc…develop and Wang slides into the #2 or #3 role he will finally get respected as top notch pitcher.
At least that’s my thinking.
The “ace” title is what fans game him. Wang was great in the post season game against the Tigers in ‘06 and in my opinion the 2 games in ‘07 when he choked was due to arm fatigue. 19 wins back to back is not a fluke.
I was at the final game of the ALDS, no one hit for nothing. Blame Wang for the loss but blame Jeter, Giambi, & A-Rod too.