What the (insert explicit term here) happened to Wang?
Three consecutive pitiful outings, and a shaken self-esteem, has done no good for the Yankees thus far.
It appears the ball is up, and his secondary pitches are hanging. The sinker is sinking into the batter's wheelhouse, with the slider and splitter just turning into batting practice fastballs.
It appears to me that Dave Eiland has been stressing this body before the arm thing too much. Look at the photo above, Wang is getting under the ball via this new mechanical philosophy, not on top.
Most pitcher's do follow Eiland's mechanical philosophy, but I don't think everybody fully understands what Wang needs to do.
Wang isn't in there to blow away hitters or get fly balls. He is a ground-ball sinker pitcher. His goal is to get a pitch low or out of the zone so that it is beaten into the ground.
He was doing all of this the last few years.
It appears to me that Wang needs to stop listening to what other people are telling him, find his confidence and try to fix the problem.
There are many differences, I know, but I compare him almost to that of a knuckleballer, in that his pitching style and delivery are completely different from a conventional pitcher.
The only issue with a pitcher like this is that most coaches can't coach it. The pitcher needs to find himself and pitch, instead of over-emphasizing getting out in front of his arm.
We all know what Wang is capable of; over the 2006 and 2007 seasons he had a total of 38 wins—that's back to back 19 win seasons, folks!
The best thing to do right now would be to put Wang back on the DL, making a claim at the foot injury, and give him rehab starts at AAA and AA—and bring Phil Hughes or Alfredo Aceves up to start in Wang's place.
The reason I say we can't just send him to AAA is the risk of somebody snagging him off of waivers, you don't want that to happen.
There can't be anymore fooling around, too much patience with a pitcher can be a terrible thing (he hem.. Grady Little).
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