Chien Ming Wang

Chien Ming Wang, our most reliable stater over the last 3 seasons, has had some issues to start the season. The most notable that come to mind are the 23 runs, 23 hits, and 6 walks he has given up in a mere 6 innings. In short, it's bad. Real bad. To be honest, this is probably the worst 3 consecutive starts of any pitcher I've ever seen, except (maybe) Mike Mussina in 2007. According to Wang (quoted in The Daily News), he "felt fine" during his last start, a 8 ER, 1.1 inning outing. His ERA as of right now is 34.50. His ERA alone brings the team ERA from 3.38 to 6.39  According to ESPN's Matthew Berry, he would need 46 consecutive shutout innings to get his ERA under 4. Berry also urged fantasy owners to "drop Wang as quickly as they could". On the fantasy front, the only somewhat positive advice I read about Wang was from Eric Karabell of ESPN, who told fantasy managers to "put him on the bench. He belongs there, not on the free agent wire". Other people in the media are "sure that Wang is injured", but Joe Girardi is insisting he isn't. Wang believes that he "might be leaning to the left during his deliver", which could very well throw off his mechanics. RAB posted a bunch of interesting graphs examining the deliver points and pitch elevation of Wang's pitches thus far. I mostly looked at the pitch elevation one, but the others are not hard to find. According to the graphs, close to 70% of Wang's pitches has been middle to high, which for a sinker baller, is a death sentence. Wang will have his next start skipped, which will give him 10 days to work on his mechanics and hopefully get this all sorted out. I think the great Nick Swisher had the best attitude regarding this whole situation. According to PeteAbe, just as he was leaving the clubhouse "good ‘ol Nick Swisher walked through the clubhouse and tore off the covers of all the Daily News sitting on a table. They read “22-4!” on the front and “You Stink” over a picture of Chien-Ming Wang on the back. “New day,” Swisher shouted. “It’s a new day, brotha.” 

Personally, I think Wang will figure it all out. He has shown over the last few years that he is a very very good pitcher, and probably a front of the line starter. I think that the media and fans are blowing it way out of proportion. Is he having a horrible start to the season? Absolutely, but that in no way means he can't and won't bounce back. I have all of the faith in the world that he will return to form rather quickly.