Wang Placed on D.L. With Hip Problem - 棒球

Wang Placed on D.L. With Hip Problem

By TYLER KEPNER
Published: April 24, 2009
BOSTON —


There was a locker for Chien-Ming Wang at Fenway Park on Friday, and his
name was on the roster sheet posted by the dugout tunnel. But Wang, the
struggling Yankees right-hander, was in Tampa, Fla., and after the game he
was placed on the disabled list.

The reason, the Yankees said, was weakness in the abductors of both hips — a
direct result, they contend, of the torn Lisfranc ligament Wang sustained in
his right foot last June.

“That’s what’s preventing the power,” General Manager Brian Cashman
told reporters after the game. “It all has to do with the Lisfranc issue.”

Wang threw 91 pitches in extended spring training on Thursday, when he was
examined by Dr. Mark Lindsay, a specialist in lower-body injuries who was
there to work with Alex Rodriguez. Cashman said Wang would work with Lindsay
for the next 10 to 14 days while continuing to throw.

Wang is out of minor league options and could not be sent to a farm team
without clearing waivers. Even through last Saturday, the Yankees said
repeatedly that Wang was healthy, making a trip to the disabled list hard
to justify. But Lindsay’s examination found a plausible reason to take
him off the active roster.

“We’re in that laboratory mode,” Cashman said before the game. “Anybody
can have an opinion; I have a personal opinion, in my mind, that there is a
relationship from his Lisfranc fracture to what he is now, and it’s somehow
connected.

“The fact is that the architecture of that foot is changed, and if you
believe in that kinetic chain — I believe in that stuff — then because of
the changes there, it could rear its ugly head somewhere else in the body.
And now, all of a sudden, he’s off. He’s a little bit different.”

Reliever Brian Bruney sustained the same injury last April and was fully
recovered by September, when his velocity returned and he pitched well.
But Bruney said Wang’s injury was much more severe — black and blue on
the top of his foot — and Wang has not regained the occasional
96-mile-an-hour pitches he threw.

Only recently, Cashman said, did Wang acknowledge that there might be a
physical explanation for his 34.50 earned run average.

“A few days ago, I told you, ‘Listen, he says he feels fine, but you
see what the results are, you see the arm angle, the velocity’s down,
the command’s off,’ ” Cashman told reporters. “Those are indicators
that something’s not right. Whether it’s mechanical, whether it’s
health-related, that’s what we’re trying to find out. We’re plugging
all aspects in.”

Reliever David Robertson was called up to give the Yankees an extra
bullpen arm with Bruney needing tests on his elbow. The most likely
candidate to take Wang’s place in the rotation in Detroit on Tuesday
is Phil Hughes, who is 3-0 with a 1.86 E.R.A. at Class AAA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/sports/baseball/25yanknotes.html

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