So, what is next for Wang?

Yankees has decided to skip Wang's turn at Fenway park. A move I agree with because Wang and Yankees need to fix his problems before making another start, not because of first series against Boston Red Sox and Wang's bad statistics against them.

So, what is next for Wang now? Girardi is supposed to announce how Yankees deal with Wang's next step today. This is my take. Let wait and see whether we agree with each other or not.

Let me say this first. It is not easy to replace No.3 starting pitcher who usually wins at least 19 wins at AL East when he is healthy with 200 innings and sub 4 ERA. You don't give up this kind of pitcher after three terrible starts when you consider he is young and just comes back from injury. Not to mention, Yankees still can control three more years at relatively low price. Yankees can't just throw him away that a lot of short-sighted Yankees fans want to do now.

Yankees will need Wang eventually. Pettitte is not young anymore. Joba has innings limited and had his own minor injury last season. We all know A.J's rich injury history. Even for CC, he hasn't been himself yet. Yankees need to fix Wang and get him right as soon as possible. Wang actually shows signs of improvement during his last start against Indians. He throws more good pitches with more movement and velocity at good location.

Yankees needs to figure out ways to let Wang keep pitching in order to get his mechanics right and build up his arm strength. Because Wang has no option left and hasn't had long enough service time in order to get his permission to send down. There is no way Wang can clear the waiver before sending down to minors. The only way is to make up "injury". However, the way Girardi, Eliand and Wang acts, it will be difficult to come up and suddenly say Wang is injured because no one will take Girardi, Eliand and Wang seriously any more. Assuming Wang doesn't find out he is injured suddenly, Wang will be on the big league team. Because of that, we need to fix him as soon as possible. But, don't send him out to the mound before he proves he corrects problems.

This is what I will do.

Firstly, Wang usually throws two bullpen sections between starts. I will let him ready to come in game if the situation is called for. First bullpen section will be around 50 pitches while second bullpen section will be around 25 pitches. For example, Andy will start tonight game which will be the day Wang throws his second bullpen section.

Secondly, let Wang start a minor league game on Thursday(April 23th)which is off day. If Wang corrects his problems, let him start April 28th against Tigers. At the same time, get a long man ready. If Wang pitches decently that game, he should be back to rotation. If Wang is not able to correct his problems after starting on Thursday, get Hughes or whoever pitches best on AAA now to pitch April 28th.

At that point, Girardi, Eliand and Wang may have to bite the bullet and then make up "injury" in order to get on DL. Or, going few more turns in the minor leagues to see if Wang improves his start. Or, let Wang be a long man to get his work in when someone get knocked out of game. Among these three options, I will prefer to put Wang on DL in order to get someone up to help Yankees in the bullpen while Wang can get his regular work in at minor league.

Let Wang get his work in at minor league games until he corrects his problems. Yankees should be able to solve Wang's problems on way or the other.

8 in a row, Our bombers play like a championship team

When you look at the way Yankees play since All-Star break, are we going to lose game? I am just kidding. We are going to lose some games eventually, but I like to sweep Red Sox in their ball park if Ponson can put up another magic show tomorrow night. Of course, I won't be upset if Yankees lose the final game of series since we have already taken a series from Boston in their ball park.

However, think about it. If we sweep Boston, we will tie with Boston at second place of AL East and wild card leader, specially when you consider Boston is going to face Angels while we are going to face O's at home.

Back to the game, Andy is the man. Andy was in trouble from get go, but I know he will battle out to give us a chance to win this game which is very important when you consider the matchup of final game of this series.

The only time gets me nervous is 7th innings when Veras puts two men on with one out and Ortiz and Manny are coming up. I don't have problems with the performance with Kyle and Veras these two days because you can't expect them to be perfect all the time even though our bullpen have been closed to be perfect. Guess what? Marte came out to strike out Ortiz and Edwar got Manny to fly out. Well done, guys.

Of course, Edwar and Robertson pitch well the rest of game. Mo will be well rest if we need him tomorrow. I think Yankees fans no longer get nervous when we get into the bullpen. Joe Girardi and Dave Eliand deserve a lot of credits the way they handle the whole pitching staff.

I feel we have a special and championship team and we may be able to witness some special thing happen this year, not because we are winning now. The pitching we get from starters and bullpen, the amazing defense and the fundamental sound offense that does a lot of little things right. Our bombers play like a championship team.

Let's pray Wang and Hughes come back soon. Can't wait.

What make of a good coach?

In New York, or in any sport, we always feel there must be something wrong with hitting coach or pitching coach when hitters or pitchers are struggling. For example, a lot of Yankees fans feel Gator is not a good pitching coach. Moreover, more Yankees fans question how well pitching coach Dave Eiland is when Wang, Pettitte, Hughes, Kennedy all struggle at some point this season. In addition, we wonder what kind of impact Larry Bowa bring to the table when we see Cano struggling this season.

In Taiwan, we come up with tons of different opinions from all kind of sources on what is wrong with Wang during this past 6 weeks. Taiwanese media actually interview Dave Eiland, Mussina and Pettitte a lot about Wang's struggle. One interesting article from the same great Taiwanese reporter I cite her article earlier let me understand one thing. An old Chinese saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink". I hope I don't use the wrong idiom. Please let me know if you know the right one.

A good coach only can tell you what is wrong with you and identify the problem. Only players can figure out how to fix that problem by themselves. Mussina said, the biggest problem Wang has is he doesn't know how to fix himself. Wang agrees with this statement. When his sinker doesn't sink, he know there must be something wrong with his delivery that causes him to fly open. But, he can't tell what causes him to fly open. He needs someone else to tell him. Dave Eiland said, one thing coach can help him is to tell Wang his shoulder fly open, but he have to find out why and fix that by himself.

After Oakland game, the most important quote I think is this one from Dave Eiland,

There were a couple of pitches where he didn't get to that slot-his arm was slowing down- and he self-corrected himself in the middle of the inning.

I said this on the preview post regard of Wang. I don't think Wang totally gets his command back even though he pitches a good game against Oakland. I hope Wang has another great outing to prove he can fix himself.

Throw Strikes

It's funny how things work out. During the past winless 6 weeks, Wang hadn't pitched as bad as his line. Of course, Wang didn't pitch well during this stretch, but he also ran into some bad lucks. When Wang finally won his 7th game yesterday, I think he was not pitching as good as his line. But, I know one thing for sure. Even though his strike-ball ratio is not good, he only walks 2 and gets the out when he needs it. This is the step to the right direction. Hopefully, Wang can command his sinkers better while he mixes other pitches well.

I said this at the beginning of season. Since the end of last season, this is Wang's transition period. Wang may go through some rough time when he tries to use all his pitches and learns how to mix them well, such as this past 6 weeks. But, we certainly can see what Wang can do from the first month of season. Glad to see Wang making adjustment. This is the photo below from Taiwanese newspaper(apple news) when they break down Wang's delivery. Of course, I translate Mandarin into English.