Then again, who among us isn’t? After waiting the past two seasons for Chien-Ming Wang to make it back to a Major League mound, the Nationals were finally “rewarded” with the former Yankee All-Star finally toed the rubber for Washington in 2011. While he’s hardly having a stellar season, with more walk than strikeouts and a 4.43 ERA, Wang has apparently impressed Washington team officials with his diligence and work ethic. It’s also a dramatic improvement from his last big league season (2009) in which he went 1-6 with a [gulp] 9.64 ERA. Phew. It’s nice to see progress, but is gumption alone enough reason to simply throw away money?
Baseball is a results oriented game. If you’re not first, you’re last and so on. Considering his 2011 season stats, wherever they end up., there’s no way in hell that Wang has earned a spot on the Nationals team for 2012. Has he? Considering the direction in which the team seems to be moving (see: Jayson Werth), it looks like they feel they’re looking to contend in the near future. A pitcher like Wang is hardly in a position to move them in that direction—not now. In fact, there has never really been a point in time when Wang was good as the accolades he received.
Believe it or not (and only a Yankee fan would), Wang actually finished second in American League Cy Young voting in 2006 after going 19-6 with a 3.63 ERA. Meh. He pitched 218 innings that season and retired just 76 via strikeout, a miserable 3.1 K/9. In fact, Wang’s career K/9 (4.1) is the lowest of any Major League pitcher with two or more seasons with at least 19 wins. No, that’s not a real stat, but without looking, it seems logical to assume it to be true. For all the wins he amassed (largely as a result of playing for THE New York Yankees), Wang is viewed in some circles as a solid pitcher because he’s a “winner”. Sure. Right. Werth came from a culture of winning in Philadelphia too, and everyone has seen how is winning ways have translated to on-field success in and for Washington.
