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We all know that Chien-Ming Wang utterly dominated the Red Sox when the two teams met last week in Fenway. I pulled up the results of the last 10 plate appearances that each member of the Red Sox had against Wang and the statistics are amazing! Have a look:
- Sean Casey: 0-10 w/ 1 K
- Alex Cora: 1-10 w/ 1 HR
- Coco Crisp: 1-10 and is zero for his last 9
- J.D. Drew: 1-9 w/ 1 HR & 1 BB
- Jacoby Ellsbury: 0-1
- Julio Lugo: 0-10 w/ 2 K
- David Ortiz: 0-9 w/ 3 K & 1 BB
- Dustin Pedroia: 0-10
- Manny Ramirez: 0-10 w/ 3 K
- Jason Varitek: 0-8 w/ 1 K & 2 BB
- Kevin Youklis: 0-7 w/1 K & 2 BB & 1 HBP
- Team totals: 3-94 w/ 2 HR, 6 BB, 1 HBP, & 11 K (that's an average of .032!!)
Wow! I'm almost speechless at how dominant Wang has been against the Sox in his last few outings. He's allowed 10 baserunners in 101 plate appearances. 94 at-bats would equate to about 31.3 innings. 3 hits in 31.3 innings! Yowza. In his last 2 starts against them he is 2-0 w/ 16 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 8 K. He last faced the Sox at the Stadium on 8/30/07. He picked up the W in 7 innings of work. He gave up 1 hit, walked 4, and whiffed 5. Again, wow! How people don't consider him an ace is beyond me? I understand he had 2 horrible playoff starts, but consider the stats above along with these tidbits, and I don't know how people don't give him the credit he deserves:
- The best winning % in the majors from 2006-2008 w/ a minimum of 30 starts belongs to Chein-Ming Wang with a winning percentage of .759 (41-13)
- Wang has the best winning percentage by a Yankees pitcher at Yankee Stadium since 1976. He's 28-9 (.757) at the Stadium.
- Wang leads the majors in wins from 2006-2008 with 41 total wins. Josh Beckett and Brandon Webb are 2nd with 37.
- Over his last 26 starts, Wang is 19-3 with an ERA of 3.27. He has a winning % of .864 over that stretch which is the best in the majors.
- Wang has allowed an average of .5 HRs per 9 IP. That's the 4th lowest total among all Major League pitchers with a minimum of 75 starts since 1973, the year the DH was introduced.
I'm not sure what those stats tell you but they tell me that Chien-Ming is one of the best pitchers in the game today. He doesn't get close to the credit he deserves. Those numbers against the Red Sox are unreal. I'd like to see another pitcher who is even close to that type of domination of the last 10 plate appearances against them. I doubt their is one.
Quite simply, Chien-Ming Wang is an ace. Plain and simple.
J-Boogie
2 comments:
astonishing numbers indeed. especially the winning % at the stadium since 76.
here is an article that came out on wang today that might interest you
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/albert_chen/04/15/wang0421/index.html
Disregard the winning %/wins, he had the best offense to go along with it. But his ERA has been good. The way I feel about Wang is that he is an ace, but not one of the best as far ace's go. He does rely on the defense a lot. I think the knock on him is that the Yankees have such a high payroll that if he were the number 2 they would feel much more comfortable. But how is ace defined? Are each of the 30 best starters defined as number 1 starters? Or is it just a feel. Beckett seems like an ace or Santana is an ace, etc. Wang feels like an ace, but there are some I would want ahead of him. Peavy, Beckett, Santana, Webb, Sabathia probably. Some others are right there with him that I cannot separate necessarily. He is a number 1, no doubt. And he is an ace in my opinion. It just isn't as clear to some. Did any of this make sense?
http://statisticianmagician.mlblogs.com/
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