Wang, the former Yankee workhorse who is coming off shoulder surgery and a lost season, appears to be close to deciding where he will sign. And while there are some conflicting reports floating around, Jon Heyman says the following:
what i'm hearing on chien-ming wang is that he's going to decide between #nats and 1 other team within 10 days.
#dodgers have pulled out of wang derby. if it was indeed 2-team race, he's headed for #nats. @PeteAbe said nats this morn.
If you can pardon the Twitter-speak, the take-home message is that, if Wang was deciding between Washington and LA, he seems to be headed to the former. The Boston Globe's Pete Abraham reported that Wang already decided on the Nationals this morning.
Wang is an unquestionable risk, and if the Dodgers pulled out after watching him throw, that implies that he wasn't very impressive. However, he's probably looking at a small incentive-based contract, and with that in mind, he could be a good risk for a team whose current 1-2 is John Lannan and Jason Marquis. When he's going well, Wang is an extreme groundball pitcher who eats up innings, and while he's never been able to strike anyone out, keeping the ball down helps him avoid the home run. Avoiding the home run is pretty critical. Wang's only allowed 41 dingers over 670.2 Major League innings for a rate of just 0.55 per 9, roughly half the AL average.
If Wang never recovers, he'll be a lost cause, but at a small commitment, he's a low-risk acquisition with a fair amount of upside. You can follow the story at Nationals blog Federal Baseball.
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Strike Outs
Its not that he can’t strike anybody out. It’s that he throw’s his sinker at almost the same speed as his fastball (mid 90’s). So why bother throwing the fastball when you can be more efficient just throwing the sinker? If he wanted to be a strike out pitcher, he could, but he shouldn’t because his sinker is just to good when he is healthy.
All he needs is a good defense behind him and he will give you tons of efficient innings. Let’s hope he can recover from sugery, b/c this is a great steal for the NATs if it works out.
by testudo4lunch on Feb 16, 2010 5:23 PM EST reply actions
better than webb
just think of brandon webb with a faster sinker.
by testudo4lunch on Feb 16, 2010 5:24 PM EST up reply actions
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