Good Day at Scranton for Wang - 棒球

Good Day at Scranton for Wang
By Tyler Kepner

You’d have to believe Chien-Ming Wang is headed back to the Yankees after
his second consecutive shutout performance for Class AAA Scranton
Wilkes-Barre. Wang fired seven scoreless innings today against Columbus,
the Indians’ Class AAA affiliate. His spot does not line up perfectly with
that of Phil Hughes in the Yankees’ rotation, but there would seem to be
little point in keeping Wang in the minors any longer. His earned run average
at Scranton is 0.00 after two starts. That’s a bit better than the 34.50 he
posted in three April starts with the Yankees.

“You wonder at some point how much you’re going to get out of this stuff
after a period of time,” General Manager Brian Cashman said, according to
Chad Jennings, the Scranton Yankees’ beat writer for the Scranton
Times-Tribune. That would seem to be a hint that Wang’s work in the
minors might be over.

In any case, here is the rest of what Cashman had to say:

“Performance-wise he was terrific. This was a much better hitting club.
Columbus is a much better offensive club than the team he was facing last
time, but his stuff was better last time to be honest. Although he
performed great in both outings. He didn’t have the slider that he had
last time. His changeup was better today than last time. His fastball
velocity was a little bit lower this time than it was last time. At the
same time, he handled the lineup and got a lot of ground balls. Facing
guys like (Travis) Hafner kind of tells you a little something you want
to know. I think he had some groundouts and that broken-bat single to
center. I know Hafner is on a rehab assignment and he’s a guy who can
really do some damage if you’re making mistakes, not making some pitches,
and he made his pitches. That tells you a lot.”

“What you’d love to see are all pitches working at optimal levels,
but that’s not always realistic. Obviously the most important thing
is performance and he has performed in his two starts here, there’s
no doubt about that.”

“He was actually pitching, before this injury, in the end, he was
pitching close to his velocity. Ultimately, with him, as long as he’s
getting sink, he can pitch and be successful, there’s no doubt about
that. And he feels good about himself. I had a chance to talk to him
in the trainer’s room, so these are two trips well worthwhile for me.
Our team is winning in New York and we are getting closer to being healthy
and adding guys like a Bruney and a Wang and that’s a great thing for us.”

Brian Bruney worked the first inning of the other game of Scranton’s
doubleheader, throwing 17 pitches and allowing two hits and a run.
As long as Bruney’s elbow feels strong, he will probably be back
with the Yankees by Tuesday.

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/good-day-at-scranton-for-wang/

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