My Take on Wang: Send Him to the Bullpen

We are 12 games into the seasons Yankee fans. We are 6-6. With our new improved rotation we all expected better. However we start off slowly every season. Pettitte and Sabathia are second half pitchers, and we don't yet have A-Rod. It can't surprise us this much. However, one thing does surprise me. Chien-Ming Wang has 3 of our 6 losses.

Wang has been one word. Awful. Call him whatever you want, but they will all be synonyms of that word. Through 3 starts, he hasn't finished the second inning twice, given up at least 7 runs in each start (8 in his last two), and is 0-3 with a 34.50 ERA. Something isn't right.

This is supposed to be the same pitcher that won 19 games two years in a row. The same pitcher that started last season 8-2. Before this season he has lost two starts in a row just once (beginning of 2007). And now we come into this season, he had a nice spring, and we feel that we have a potential ace on most teams as our number 3 pitcher. Then he comes out and gets bombed for 3 straight starts. The crowd at Yankee Stadium really let him hear it yesterday as he walked off the mound with the Yankees already essentially out of the game. Almost 50,000 fans booed him off the mound as he came out of the game with his ERA somehow higher than when he came in.

Something is going wrong with him. I don't know what it is. The Yankees need to figure that out. He's leaving pitches up in the middle of the plate. His sinker isn't sinking. Whatever "adjustment" the Yankees made between this start and his last one did nothing. They need to figure out what is wrong. However, they can't afford to keep sending him out to get destroyed while he's trying to figure it out. That will cost the Yankees games. They are .500 now because of him. 

He can't be sent down to the minors. He is out of options, so he would have to pass through waivers where he would almost certainly be claimed. Whatever work he has to go through, it has to be here.

So, they can't send him down, and they can't keep sending him out there. That leaves one option. Bench him. Demote him to the bullpen to figure it out. Send him up against real hitters like before, but more than just one time. I don't know how they are going to solve his struggles, but they need to. He's a big part of this rotation. The Yankees are counting on him for 15-20 wins. They can't afford him to pull an Ian Kennedy of last year, or an August Mike Mussina of 2007 for an extended period of time. 

Now that I come to think of it, Mussina was demoted to the bullpen. He figured out his problems there, had one relief appearance, got some confidence back, and came back to be the Yankees best pitcher in September of that year. I think that is what needs to be done with Wang (despite the fact that his ERA is almost twice as bad as Mussina's in August of 2007). Bring up Hughes or Kennedy from the minors (both are pitching great!), and put Wang in the bullpen. Have him figure it out there.

I know that he's capable of turing it around. He's a two time 19 game winner and only 29 years old. Last years injury can hardly be considered as a "career threatening injury." However, the way the Yankees have to do it isn't to keep sending him out there. His next scheduled start is against the Red Sox. Don't let him make it. There is an off day in between the end of the Oakland series and the beginning of the Red Sox series. You can skip Wang and go right to Burnett. Use the bullpen time to figure him out. Use Hughes and Kennedy if you have to. Do whatever it takes. Just don't send him out there unless you feel confident he has his problems solved.

Also, like I said in my last article, I'm visiting Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. I'm sitting in Field Infield seats. Anything on what the experience is like or how the seats are would be appreciated. Thanks!