Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Wang 2, Wright 0

After last night's win, the Yanks had a good full-rotation through their starting pitching for the first time all year: in the last five games, each starter has pitched no less than 7 innings and given up no more than 3 earned runs. The latest sharp outing: Chien-Ming Wang (say: shen-meeng wong), the Yanks' rookie and former star of their farm system before arm injuries delayed his progress for about two years before he got back on track last year. Wang is a groundball pitcher with a funky delivery who has not really been whacked hard, even in his one loss (the DRays ran wild on him because he's notsogood with preventing stolen bases and the DRays have much speed). He has two quality starts in three outings, that's two more than Jaret Wright had in four starts and Wang costs about $6.65M less this year than Wright.

In other words, the Yanks should take a lesson from this and consider using their young arms . . . especially in 2007 when at least a couple of the best ones should be major league ready (Jeff Karstens [starter], Ben Julianel [reliever], Tyler Clippard [starter], TJ Beam [starter/reliever, possibly '08 ready], Philip Hughes [starter in low A ball who's tearing it up]). And stop trading the boys for dross (Claussen in Aaron Boone deal, Brazoban in Kevin Brown deal; I won't criticize trading Jake Westbrook in '00 -- that netted David Justice who keyed the '00 World Series run and Westbrook again seems clueless on the mound).

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