Chien-Ming Wang

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Chien-Ming Wang

New York Yankees — No. 40
Starting pitcher
Bats: Right Throws: Right
Major League Baseball debut
April 30, 2005 for the New York Yankees
Selected MLB statistics
(through 2006)
Record     27-11
ERA     3.77
K     123
Groundouts     627

Chien-Ming Wang (Chinese: 王建民; pinyin: Wang Jianmin; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ong Kianbin) born March 31, 1980 in Tainan City, Taiwan, is a starting pitcher for the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball. He was initially signed as an amateur free-agent for the 2000 season, playing for the Staten Island Yankees.

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[edit] Taiwan

Wang was actually the biological child of his uncle and aunt and was given to his current parents. Due to the media frenzy created in Taiwan over this, Wang briefly refused to give interviews to Taiwanese media. [1] Wang has also learned basic English and is able to give interviews to American media without an interpreter.

Wang pitched for the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) national baseball team in the 2002 Asian Games. In 2004, as the apparent ace of the staff, Wang led the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) team to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Against Australia, he allowed just three hits with no walks, and at one point retired nine batters in row, to earn the win. He also limited Japan to just five hits in the first six innings; however, the Japanese rallied in the seventh inning against Wang to tie the game with three runs. Japan won the game, preventing Taiwan from advancing to the next round.

He is the third major leaguer from Taiwan, following Dodgers outfielder Chin-Feng Chen and Rockies pitcher Chin-Hui Tsao, and is by far the most successful. Since being called up to the majors, Wang has been idolized in his native country where all of his games are televised nationwide, many on big screens to large audiences. This is still true even though he decided not to pitch in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

[edit] Minor Leagues

Wang rose through the Yankees' minor league system, including the Staten Island Yankees, who retired his number 41 in 2006. Wang posted a 1.75 ERA in Staten Island, second-lowest in franchise history.[2]

[edit] The Yankees

In 2005, Wang was called up from the Yankees' AAA affiliate, the Columbus Clippers. Wang pitched in 18 games, though an injury kept him sidelined for part of the season. He went 8-5 with an earned run average of 4.02. On September 19, 2005, Wang tied a record for assists in a game by a pitcher with nine. In the playoffs against the Angels, Wang pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one run. Despite his efforts, the Yankees lost the game and the series.

In Wang's second season, he established himself as the Yankees' ace. Wang won 19 games (tied for the most in the majors along with Johan Santana), posted a 3.63 ERA and even picked up his first save on June 3 against the Baltimore Orioles. Wang threw two complete games, though the first, on June 18, was bittersweet: against the Washington Nationals, he allowed a 1-out, 2-run, walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman to lose the game 3-2. His first complete game win was on July 28, 2006, a 2-hit, 6-0 shutout of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Yankee Stadium. In his next start, he threw eight shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays, in which he got an outstanding 18 ground ball outs. Wang started the first game of the Division Series against the Detroit Tigers. Wang earned the win as the Yankees beat Detroit 7-4.

Overall in 2006, Wang limited batters to a .211 batting average while games were tied, and a .205 batting average in games that were late and close. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays batted just .159 against him, losing three out of four games to the Yankees that Wang pitched. Wang was effective despite the lowest strikeout rate in the majors (3.14 strikeouts per nine innings and 76 strikeouts overall) [1], thanks in part to his allowing the fewest home runs per nine innings (0.5) [2]. Wang also led the league in ground ball percentage (62.8%) [3] and allowed 2.84 groundouts for every fly ball out.

At the end of the season, Wang finished second to Santana in voting for the Cy Young award. Wang collected 15 second-place votes, and 51 points. He also received a ninth-place vote, good for two points, in the AL MVP balloting, won by Justin Morneau. In MLB.com's This Year in Baseball Awards, he was chosen as the top starter in 2006 season with more than 47% of the fan vote. [3]

Wang began the 2007 season on the disabled list, having injured his right hamstring during spring training. He is expected back in late April.[4]

[edit] Pitching Style

Wang throws a sinker and four-seam fastball combination, along with a slider and forkball. He can hit speeds up to 97 mph. Wang's pitching style is characterized by efficiency, command of the strike zone, few walks, few home runs allowed and very few strikeouts. Wang works quickly and uses his ground-ball inducing sinker to produce many double plays. This efficiency often allows Wang to maintain a low pitch count deep into games.

In Taiwan and the minor leagues, Wang threw a more conventional assortment of pitches, including a four-seam fastball, a changeup, and far more splitters. The sinker, which has become Wang's signature pitch, was developed during his minor league career with advice from former Yankee pitcher and pitching coach, Mel Stottlemyre.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sports hero takes media to task over intrusive reports
  2. ^ Wang's Number Retired. SIYankes.com. Retrieved on January 23, 2007.
  3. ^ 2006 This Year in Baseball Awards result
  4. ^ Yankees put Wang, Karstens on DL ESPN.com, 01 April 2007, Retrieved on 03 April 2007

[edit] External links

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