someone who has espn insider...

[selftitled85]

can you copy and paste the article pertaining to chien ming wang.

[mikeford]

sorry its written in chinese.

[selftitled85]

sorry its written in chinese.

haha touche.

[fcknazisympathy]

sorry its written in chinese.

korean*

[mikeford]

same thing.

[selftitled85]

isnt he from taiwan?

[Brownpants06]

taiwaneese? i have no idea what language they speak there.

[selftitled85]

taiwaneese? i have no idea what language they speak there.

i think chinese.

[mikeford]

About 80% of the people in Taiwan belong to the Holo (ºÓÂå) or Hoklo (¸£ÀÐ) ethnic group and speak both Mandarin and Taiwanese. Mandarin is the primary language of instruction in schools; however, most spoken media is split between Mandarin and Taiwanese.

[xbrokendownx]

Here's a sampling of the adjectives used to modify Chien-Ming Wang's sinking fastball …



hard


powerful


devastating


filthy


nasty


electrifying


heavy



Got it? We'll return to Wang's super-sinker in a moment.

On April 30, 2005, Wang made his major league debut, starting for the Yankees against the Blue Jays. And in a game that proved exceptionally prophetic, Wang pitched seven innings, allowed only two runs … and didn't strike out a single Toronto hitter.

At the time, this seemed exceptionally anomalous; in nine Triple-A starts, Wang had struck out 51 batters. It wasn't, though. As a rookie last season, Wang's strikeout rate was low. This season, it's been exceptionally low.

How low?

This season, 87 major league pitchers have thrown enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. Of those 87, 86 have struck out at least 3.5 batters per nine innings; the No. 86 slot is held by Twins sinkerballer Carlos Silva.

And No. 87? Why, our man Wang of course, at 2.96 strikeouts per nine innings. Now, it should be said that 2.96, while low, is not historically low. In 2004, Kirk Rueter -- a perennial "leader" in this category -- struck out only 2.65 batters per nine innings. And in 2003, Detroit's Nate Cornejo managed only 2.13 K's per nine innings. But those are the two lowest figures of the last 11 seasons, and generally the MLB "leader" is in the 3.5 K/9 range.
And about those guys: Rueter's 2004 stat was easily the worst of his career. He posted a 4.98 ERA that season, was worse the next season, and this season he's spending a lot of time with his family. Cornejo posted a 4.67 ERA in his low-K season, spent most of the next season on the DL, and hasn't pitched in the majors since. So you might say the recent history of low-K pitchers hasn't been really encouraging (and the runner-up in this category is Carlos Silva, who's had problems of his own this season).

What's amazing about Wang isn't how few batters he's struck out. What's amazing is that he's been able to strike out so few batters and post a 3.81 ERA, 11th best in the American League and wedged between up-and-comers Dan Haren and Erik Bedard. Way back in February, Peter Gammons predicted that Wang would be one of the 10 best pitchers in the league this season, and as strange as that prediction might have sounded to those of us watching Baseball Tonight, it might come true.

So how is he doing it? Wang's control has been good, but not great; four of the five American Leaguers with more innings have issued fewer walks, and a number of other starters have issued fewer walks per nine innings. The real key, as you might expect, has been Wang's pronounced ability to make batters hit the ball on the ground. He's given up only 11 home runs in 179 innings, and his 3.13 ground-to-fly ratio is tops in the league.

That said, Wang's groundball stats aren't that impressive. They're not as good as Brandon Webb's or Derek Lowe's, and they're just a bit better than Aaron Cook's and Jake Westbrook's (all of these pitchers are noted sinkerballers and groundballers).

When people in my line of work write about Wang's low strikeout rate, they have an easy explanation: "He's not trying to strike anybody out. He's trying to make them hit the ball on the ground." Perhaps. But couldn't the same be said of Webb and Lowe and Westbrook, the three top groundball pitchers of this century? Here are G/F ratios and K-rates for the aforementioned hurlers (counting Lowe's numbers only since his return to the rotation in 2002):


G/F K/9Webb 3.79 7.22
Lowe 3.32 5.28
Westbrook 2.74 4.76
Cook 2.71 3.37
Wang 3.06 3.23
If there's a comparable pitcher to Wang, it's Aaron Cook, statistically and also stylistically. A few months ago, a scout told The Sporting News, "Cook has a great sinker -- absolutely great. He is kind of at the stage where Webb was at a couple of years ago. He's just finding enough consistency and command with it, but he can really just pound you with that sinker." Cook's not getting the acclaim that Wang is, because he's just 9-12 and he plays in Denver. But Cook's 3.99 ERA over the last three seasons (including 2006) is pretty impressive. And his strikeout rate last season was even lower than Wang's this season.

So it can be done. A pitcher with an exceptionally low strikeout rate apparently can thrive, at least for a while, if his groundball rate is exceptionally high. Is it a winning formula, though, for long-term success? A certain well-known sabermetrician of my acquaintance, using tools beyond my reach, came up with a list of starting pitchers younger than 30 (Wang is 26 this season) who recorded seasons with exceptionally low strikeout rates and exceptionally good ERAs, all relative to their league. Here are the top 10 on the list, with their stats in the particular season and their career stats afterward:


Year Age During After Randy Jones 1975 25 20-12, 2.24 65-83, 3.54 Joe Horlen 1967 29 19- 7, 2.06 42-59, 3.63Randy Jones 1976 26 22-14, 2.74 43-69, 3.80Steve Kline 1972 24 16- 9, 2.40 9-17, 4.62M. Stottlemyre 1969 27 20-14, 2.82 67-66, 3.11Al. Anderson 1988 24 16- 9, 2.45 29-39, 4.36Randy Jones 1978 28 13-14, 2.88 24-43, 4.00Ricky Bones 1994 25 10- 9, 3.43 29-46, 5.27Jim Barr 1974 26 13- 9, 2.74 68-75, 3.74S. McGregor 1983 29 18- 7, 3.18 42-51, 4.81
Randy Jones -- who specialized in a slow sinker -- is the big star here, with three solid seasons in four years. But the single best predictor of future success has always been strikeout rate, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that not one of these eight pitchers won even 70 games in the majors after his special season. We would expect some regression to the mean, of course, but these are the best low-strikeout pitchers.

That doesn't bode particularly well for Chien-Ming Wang's future (or for that matter, Aaron Cook's). Yes, Wang throws a nasty, heavy, power sinker, which just might be the most devastating and electrifying pitch in the game. But if it really is that devastating, where are the strikeouts? Brandon Webb throws a filthy sinker, and strikes out five or six batters per start. Kevin Brown used to throw the vilest, grubbiest, scuzziest sinker in the world, and he would strike out six or seven batters per start.

Maybe there's something different about Wang, or maybe there's something different about the game today. But if he builds a long and productive career on three strikeouts every nine innings, he'll be the first of his kind that most of us have ever seen.

[mikeford]

derek lowe > this asshole

[fromwithin]

same thing.


racism.

[mikeford]

shut the fuck up. that was so obviously a joke.

[fromwithin]

funny thing, so was mine.

[MrMet]

everything mikeford says is a joke... ;)

[selftitled85]

derek lowe > this asshole

no way jose.

[The Matt Kaufman]

is wang better than jose lima?




(obviously he is WAY better)

/lame joke

[bigmike]

funny thing, so was mine.
Why do you insist on coming back in here when you clearly have nothing worthwhile to offer about sports?