Results tagged ‘ Chien-Ming Wang ’
Bruney back tomorrow; Wang decision looming
Brian Bruney will be activated from the disabled list tomorrow, Yankees manager Joe Girardi has confirmed. The Yankees will lose a reliever as Girardi said it was unlikely they will carry a 12-man staff.
Bruney had some interesting comments pre-game in which he blamed Major League Baseball’s use of instant replay for his strained flexor tendon. He attributes it to the April 19 game at Yankee Stadium, where a Jorge Posada home run was reviewed by umpires.
The original call on the field stood, with Posada credited with a two-run dinger off Cleveland’s Jensen Lewis, but the review took 8 ½ minutes to complete and Bruney said that he continued throwing throughout the delay.
“I turned around to see the replay, and it was obvious to me by the first replay that it was a home run – which is what they called it anyway,” Bruney said. “I don’t know what the 8 ½ minutes was all about.”
Bruney appeared two days later on April 21 but felt weak, allowing a run on two hits to the A’s, and was subsequently placed on the disabled list. Bruney said he lodged a complaint with the MLB Players Association about the delay and was told the play was reviewed from a remote location.
“I don’t know if somebody was on a lunch break or what, but something went wrong,” Bruney said. “That’s a long time for any pitcher to be throwing. That’s a long inning, plus another long inning. But I’m back.”
Chien-Ming Wang will come to New York for “a change of scenery” tomorrow and throw a bullpen, after which the Yankees will make a decision about his next start, but it does not sound like it will come with the Yankees. There are still concerns about command, as his sinker was high in the zone. His velocity was OK, averaging between 88-92 mph, Girardi said.
Additionally, Brett Gardner has a contusion of his right rotator cuff after his slide into home plate yesterday. He had an MRI today and Girardi said he is day-to-day.
Starting over again
Interesting factoid in today’s Yankees game notes:
Tonight’s Yankees starter, Chien-Ming Wang, will be facing former Yomiuri Giants
pitcher Koji Uehara for the second time in their baseball careers. They previously started against each other in the 2004 Olympics in Athens during round robin play, when Wang was a member of Team Taiwan and Uehara was a member of Team Japan. Wang recorded a no-decision in the 4-3, 10-inning, Team Japan victory.
More from Camden Yards later today…
Closing thoughts from Clearwater
Just finishing things up here in Clearwater, where the skies are still overcast and it’s beginning to look like a good thing that I’ve been keeping a fleece sweater in the trunk of my car since … oh, say, February 11.
It appears that Derek Jeter has taken to the friendly skies after Team USA’s loss, hoping to make it back for the Tuesday night game against the Red Sox.
“He’s planning on being here tomorrow night,” Girardi said. “Are we surprised?”
Girardi said that he’s planning on accommodating Jeter and re-writing his lineup card. They don’t necessarily have to do anything special with Jeter for the rest of camp – all things considered, Girardi said Jeter should be able to have had close to 60 at-bats this spring, which is enough.
Chien-Ming Wang took Brett Tomko’s innings today, so the Yankees will stretch out their long relief candidates on Saturday against the Braves. Tomko and Dan Giese will both get a lot of work while Wang stays behind in Tampa … weather permitting. The Yankees didn’t take a long reliever out of camp last year, but this year one may be more crucial because of the limitation on Joba Chamberlain’s innings.
Brian Bruney (7.42 ERA) is having a rough spring. He was half-joking today when he said that he hopes he can still make the team, and Girardi said that he doesn’t need to worry about that – they still want him to be the eighth inning man. But they’d also like to see him not give up two-run bombs to Matt Stairs.
Girardi said the Yankees need to find a way to get him going. If they don’t (me talking, not Girardi), imagine how quickly the ‘Joba needs to be in the bullpen’ crowd will take it to the next level?
Wang in the Win-dy city
There was a funny moment last night in the Yankees clubhouse, when Chien-Ming Wang was conducting his postgame interview session with reporters. Wang is lockering next to Joba Chamberlain here in Chicago, and Chamberlain literally climbed inside his locker while Wang spoke, staring over Wang’s shoulder, making faces and doing almost anything he could to try and distract Wang. It didn’t work and Wang got through his interview fine.
Later, the conversation turned to how Wang is now the quickest pitcher to reach 50 career wins since Dwight Gooden did it with the Mets. Wang said he didn’t know who Gooden was, listening attentively as someone recounted Gooden’s early days with the Mets and later his no-hitter for the Yankees.
Then, someone dropped the name ‘Doc Gooden.’ Now, that guy, Wang knew.
“He does know!” Chamberlain yelled, calling back all of the reporters who had left the conversation.
The Yankees were pretty giddy all around last night. Jason Giambi was asked something about seeing his batting average on the scoreboard and Derek Jeter started hollering, “Don’t do it, Jason, don’t look at it! Just don’t look!”
Funny what winning can do. The Moose is on the loose tonight, with first pitch at 8:11 p.m. ET. Here’s a great stat courtesy of SNY.tv’s Michael Salfino (full article here):
“Mussina has generated swinging strikes 11 times this year on 319 pitches. That’s five percent of strikes. At his peak, his rate was over three times that and it was 13 percent as recently as 2006. Last year, it was nine percent.”
Mr. Wang-derful
You couldn’t ask for much more than that if you’re a Yankees fan, watching the pitcher maligned as not being a “true ace” rifle through the Red Sox, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. Chien-Ming Wang may never win a Cy Young Award but the Yankees can definitely do with him as their No. 1, especially when he pitches like he did on Friday at Fenway Park.
Setting aside Bobby Abreu’s missed catch for a second — an outfielder, particularly one who won a Gold Glove just three years ago, really should make that grab — the thing about Wang’s a complete game two-hitter was that it wasn’t especially all that pretty. Wang gave up some very hard hit balls, particularly in the fifth inning, but he made the dimensions at Fenway work for him this time, having struggled there against the Red Sox in the past.
It all works off Wang’s sinker, but he got some strikeouts with his slider and threw his four-seamer quite a bit to give Boston a little bit of a different look. By the time Coco Crisp legged out the bunt single in the ninth inning, it seemed to be pretty much a foregone conclusion that — no-hitter, one-hitter or two-hitter — this night was going to belong to Wang.
Meanwhile, I’m sitting in a Beantown hotel lobby at a Starbucks, pounding away on this new wireless card MLB sprang for. How trendy!
Some notes from Sunday
The Yankees improved to 3-3 to start 2008, their final season at the current Yankee Stadium…matches their start from 2007…won their third game when scoring three runs or fewer in 2008…were 6-36 in such games in 2007…have scored fewer than five runs for the sixth consecutive game to begin the season…is the most since the first seven games of 1989, when they began the season 1-6.
The Yankees’ shutout victory was their first in April since a 2-0 win on 4/10/03 vs. Minnesota…the Yankees last eight shutouts have come at Yankee Stadium (dating back to 2006)…RHP Chien-Ming Wang has been the winning pitcher in four of the last five Yankees shutouts.
RHP Chien-Ming Wang allowed 4H and 2BB in 6.0 scoreless IP…allowed a single to Willy Aybar in the fifth inning, snapping streak of 18 batters faced without allowing a hit (including the last three batters of his start in the 4/1 season opener)…has now gone at least 6.0IP in 68 of his 82 career starts, compiling a 47-10 record in those games…has not allowed a run in his last 20.0 IP vs. the Rays at Yankee Stadium.
Sunday at the Stadium
The Yankees will try, try again to get the rest of their slumbering bats going this afternoon under cloudy skies in the Bronx. They haven’t looked much like a lineup to be considered a 1,000 run threat, but hey, it’s five games. So far Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez have been the main guys. We’ll also see how Jason Giambi responds after tweaking his left groin while running the bases in yesterday’s 6-3 loss.
The headline of this post is somewhat misleading (sorry!). I have my first day off of the regular season today, as Anthony DiComo will be bringing you all the coverage on yankees.com. Chien-Ming Wang gets the start for New York opposite James Shields.
It’s a whole new world
Mike Mussina was grumbling sarcastically as he walked through the Yankees’ clubhouse this afternoon, munching on a can of peanuts.
“There’s nothing to eat in this place,” Mussina said.
Joe Girardi’s new movement to banish sweets from the players lounge may hit Mussina, a self-professed sugar junkie, the hardest. You’re talking about a guy whose blood type is practically Mountain Dew. Mussina is making more than $11 million this year, so you’d think he could supply his own ice cream and M&Ms, but it’s the principle of the matter.
Meanwhile, here’s something Joe Torre wouldn’t have approved of. Johnny Damon lugs a portable white karaoke machine everywhere the Yankees go now, and it has a jack to put anybody’s iPod in and crank up some tunes.
Brian Bruney was the guest DJ this afternoon and, in a completely random succession, we were all treated to Young Jeezy’s ‘Go Getter,’ the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘Under the Bridge,’ Kid Rock’s ‘Devil Without a Cause,’ and Seven Mary Three’s ‘Water’s Edge.’
Chien-Ming Wang is still the coolest kid in school. None of this bothered him as he sat at his locker, silently (what else?), flipping through an exotic car magazine.
Greetings from Yankee Stadium
It’s been months since I sat down here in the basement at Yankee Stadium, and it certainly doesn’t seem to have gotten any warmer (but there is a nice new carpet down here!). The building is open for business and the Yankees are filtering into the building for a Sunday workout. Opening Day is really here and, after seven weeks of Spring Training, it’s about time.
The Yankees may or may not take live batting practice on the field this afternoon — it’s pretty cold as of now. The clubhouse will open to reporters at 12:25 p.m. ET and Chien-Ming Wang leads off the interview parade 20 minutes later, to be followed by Joe Girardi, Roy Halladay and John Gibbons. Should be a busy day at the old ballpark.
By the way, the new Yankee Stadium looks absolutely spectacular. I had to be careful not to rear-end the car in front of me checking the place out.
Bryan Hoch
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