03/15: YB Community Projection: Chien-Ming Wang
Posted by: James
Chien-Ming Wang - Starting Pitcher
Age: 25 Years Old (Turns 26 in a couple of weeks).
Three-Year History and splits:
Outlook: All right dude. You're 26 and a front-line starter for the greatest team in baseball: move out from your parents' house already! (though he does make a great point-no one cooks like Mom!) Seriously though, I think fans in general have a tendency to overvalue their own home-grown products and for a team that hasn't produced a solid pitcher from their farm system in a long time, Yankees fans are very susceptible to this with Wang (especially since he has so many cool nicknames: Obi-Wang, Wanger, Tiger Wang, I could go on). Let's keep in mind that he is young, has a history of injuries and his career high in innings pitched is 150, which he pulled off last year.
Still, while I might be buying into the hype, I really believe that Wang is the goods, with that one big injury caveat (though you could probably say the same with any young pitcher). I don't believe that he is a No. 1 pitcher but I think he can project to be a good #2 and very soon. The lack of Ks that people seem to worry about aren't really that much of an issue. First, and this may sound too simplistic but he doesn't necessarily need to "miss bats" as often since he's a predominantly a groundball pitcher (2.90 G/F ratio in 2005), he just needs to miss the fat part of the bat. Second, I fully expect his K rate to rise substantially this coming year, from 3.64 K/9 in 2005 to around 5 in 2006. If you factor in Wang's added experience and his track record in the minors (career 3.28 ERA and a 7.16 K/9 in 439.2 innings), I don't think that's much of a stretch. The only caution flag is his health - if he can just stay healthy, I think that Chien-Ming will give Yankees fans a lot to cheer about.
Please post your predictions for the following stat line in the comments section:
Age: 25 Years Old (Turns 26 in a couple of weeks).
Three-Year History and splits:
| SEASON | Level | G | GS | CG | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | W | L | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | AA | 21 | 21 | 2 | 122.0 | 143 | 71 | 63 | 7 | 32 | 84 | 7 | 6 | 4.65 |
| 2004 | AA | 18 | 18 | 0 | 109.0 | 112 | 53 | 49 | 6 | 26 | 90 | 6 | 5 | 4.05 |
| 2004 | AAA | 6 | 5 | 2 | 40.1 | 31 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 35 | 5 | 1 | 2.01 |
| 2005 | AAA | 6 | 6 | 0 | 34.0 | 40 | 16 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 4.24 |
| 2005 | MLB | 18 | 17 | 0 | 116.1 | 113 | 58 | 52 | 9 | 32 | 47 | 8 | 5 | 4.02 |
Outlook: All right dude. You're 26 and a front-line starter for the greatest team in baseball: move out from your parents' house already! (though he does make a great point-no one cooks like Mom!) Seriously though, I think fans in general have a tendency to overvalue their own home-grown products and for a team that hasn't produced a solid pitcher from their farm system in a long time, Yankees fans are very susceptible to this with Wang (especially since he has so many cool nicknames: Obi-Wang, Wanger, Tiger Wang, I could go on). Let's keep in mind that he is young, has a history of injuries and his career high in innings pitched is 150, which he pulled off last year.
Still, while I might be buying into the hype, I really believe that Wang is the goods, with that one big injury caveat (though you could probably say the same with any young pitcher). I don't believe that he is a No. 1 pitcher but I think he can project to be a good #2 and very soon. The lack of Ks that people seem to worry about aren't really that much of an issue. First, and this may sound too simplistic but he doesn't necessarily need to "miss bats" as often since he's a predominantly a groundball pitcher (2.90 G/F ratio in 2005), he just needs to miss the fat part of the bat. Second, I fully expect his K rate to rise substantially this coming year, from 3.64 K/9 in 2005 to around 5 in 2006. If you factor in Wang's added experience and his track record in the minors (career 3.28 ERA and a 7.16 K/9 in 439.2 innings), I don't think that's much of a stretch. The only caution flag is his health - if he can just stay healthy, I think that Chien-Ming will give Yankees fans a lot to cheer about.
Please post your predictions for the following stat line in the comments section:
| G | GS | Innings | W | L | BB | K | ERA |
|---|
Kyle wrote:
32 31 175 14 7 30 125 3.85