喜王建民的球迷，相信”NYYFans”洋基球迷站不陌生，Dan McCourt算是站很威的作家，王建民15登板在主率洋基1-0止四的演出，也Dan McCourt 激且一篇在王建民的好文：[Chien-]Ming the Merciless。
另外也要跟友和球迷分享的文章，也於非主流的文章，”太”於15日刊登了STEVEN GOLDMAN的一篇有王建民的文章：The Rub on Chien-Ming Wang，面有提到王建民面再往上提升的障，算是很不的分析，STEVEN GOLDMAN了不少有洋基的，也在YES有站主持Blog，站要收，所以特地以球迷和友。
以下”NYYFans”文章
[Chien-]Ming the Merciless
By Dan McCourt
NYYFans.com Staff Writer
June 14, 2006
Although the whispers questioning the Yankee offense continued apace Tuesday night in the Bronx, the doomsayers trumpeting the decline of the 2006 pitching staff were forced to take a game off. Not only did righthander Chien-Ming Wang turn in a splendid performance, the big crowd at the Stadium got a peek at a pretty decent pen, once it was asked to post five outs, rather than the all-too-often 10 or 12.
With low humidity and a gametime temperature of 81 degrees, the night was custom-made for baseball, with breezes hovering around 10 mph keeping the crowd cool, even if their frustration with the struggling hometown club was causing a few tempers to flare.
Cleveland righty Paul Byrd got off to a bad start with a 31-pitch first, but once he survived it with no score, he matched Wang inning for inning. Thankfully, the early struggle took its toll, or the two teams might still be out there trying to push across a run. Although Byrd walked two around a Derek Jeter single in the first, he kept the Yanks off the board through five by putting them into bad counts early. On the one hand, he never did fashion a 1-2-3 frame, but on the other, he pounded 16 of 18 first-pitch strikes his first two times through the Yankee order.
Mr. Wang, thankfully, is familiar with this pattern. He eked out a win against Boston six days earlier under eerily similar circumstances. On June 6, the Yanks reached young David Pauley for one hit an inning through the first six, just as they did against the Tribe Tuesday. In fact, it wasn’t until the Yanks finally failed to put their leadoff man on for the first time all game in the sixth that Robinson Cano took things into his own hands. His one-out jack 10 to 12 rows deep into the short porch in right gave the Yanks a hard-fought 1-0 lead.
Before that, the Yanks had wasted a one-out, first-and-third setup in the first, both a leadoff Bernie Williams double in the second and single in the fourth, and a reached-on-an-error and single by Melky Cabrera starting the third and fifth, respectively. Byrd began to miss more often as his count mounted, and when Cano turned on his 88th throw, it was the fifth at bat in six where Byrd started a batter off with a ball. Byrd’s fastball flirted with 90, and no more, but he kept the aggressive Yankees off balance with a mid-70s change of pace. He struck out one Yankee every inning but the third, nailing both Alex Rodriguez and first baseman Andy Phillips, in for a banged-up Jason Giambi, twice apiece.
Of course, if the game had a subplot, it was the growing anger and frustration Yankee fans are venting against Rodriguez. He did not help matters by almost dropping Grady Sizemore’s infield popup leading off the game. In four at bats, Alex fouled off a pitch, flied to short left, took five strikes, and swung and missed four times, for three K’s and an 0-for-4. Truth be told, he did not look as overmatched against Byrd as Phillips, just out of sync, but he makes the big bucks, and he takes the loud lumps.
My naive (I suppose) question to the fans would be, ”What exactly are you trying to achieve?” My section was dominated by ”fans” who never uttered a peep the five straight times the Yanks got the leadoff man on; they were saving their voices to send a message to Alex. To each his own.
The superb Mr. Wang faced the Indians order three times, throwing 18 of 27 first-pitch strikes, and missing the plate just 28 times in 89 tosses. He had just one intentional walk and struck out three, but although he throws hard, he’s better hitting bats. He coaxed three popups and survived five hits, and got 14 of his outs on the ground. If there was a negative to Chien-Ming’s performance, it was that he appeared incapable of allowing a routine fly.
After a Casey Blake single with one down in the first, lefty DH Travis Hafner placed a soft liner the one place the Yanks could not readily defend, the left field line. Melky Cabrera seemed to cover the whole outfield as he raced from left center to the line, and even then seemed too late. But somehow he snatched the falling sphere just before it hit dirt, while running full speed. It was probably a better play than the homer he stole from Manny Ramirez six days ago.
Wang managed to get Indians batters to swing and miss seven times, but that that is not his game can be illustrated by the top of the fifth, when Cleveland came closest to soring. Wang started Sizemore with strike one on a big swing leading off, then got another after a ball. Grady swung at pitch four too, only he didn’t miss, thumping a liner high off the wall just right of dead center. Two fly balls, two dangerous threats. Casey Blake made it three-for-three when he lined the very next pitch deep to right toward the old Yankee bullpen adjacent to the bleachers. But Kevin Thompson sprinted and nabbed the ball over his head just before the wall, as Sizemore tagged and sped to third (although I felt the Yanks may have gotten the call had they challenged at second). Wang gave Hafner the aforementioned intentional pass after falling behind 2-0, then got Victor Martinez to bounce into a 4-6-3. Thankfully, there were no other fly balls to report on.
Cleveland third baseman Aaron Boone, who still gets some applause in the Bronx thanks to one loud at bat in 2003, hit a high hopper over Wang leading off the eighth. It glanced off Chien-Ming’s glove on a leaping try, and the Indians were in business as Aaron reached. Shortstop Ramon Vazquez failed to sacrifice twice, but he successfully moved Boone to second on a two-strike bunt back to Wang. That was the second successful two-strike sac bunt against the Yanks at home this year, a risky play one rarely sees in the AL these days.
Joe Torre was booed as he removed Wang, but the young righty was cheered lustily as he marched off the field. Southpaw Mike Myers and righty setup Kyle Farnsworth were both asked to retire one batter, and they performed their tasks well. Each stared with a ball, got two fouls and retired their respective batter on the fourth pitch, Myers getting Sizemore on a short fly to center, while Farnsworth erased Blake on a bouncer to second. Mariano Rivera mastered the ninth in just 12 pitches, even though Phillips bobbled a leadoff knuckling grounder. Mo put a cap on it with back-to-back K’s in a game that was completed in a fly-by 2:31.
If a great (and much-needed after losing four straight) win on a beautiful night in the Baseball Cathedral is not enough for you, the following should be. On this day in 1948, the baseball immortal Babe Ruth made his last appearance in Yankee Stadium, in its 25th year after it opened. The Yanks retired the Babe’s number 3 that day, and he would succumb to illness just two months later. And the team would go out and win a game that day too.
It was a 5-3 win, against who else? The Cleveland Indians.
以下”太”文章
The Rub on Chien-Ming Wang
By STEVEN GOLDMAN
June 15, 2006
On Tuesday night, Chien-Ming Wang threw 7.1 shutout innings in Cleveland, holding the Indians to five hits and one walk. He struck out only three, but since he kept the ball on the ground, getting 14 ground outs and only five fly outs, it didn’t matter. Opponents can’t hit home runs if they’re pounding the ball into the dirt.
Sometimes, though, the lack of strikeouts can be a problem. Over the last three seasons, the typical American League pitcher has struck out about six batters per nine innings. In 2005 it was 6.16, and this season it’s 6.21. Despite possessing a fastball that can reach the mid-90s, Wang has only whiffed 3.24 batters per nine innings this season. This is a slight decline from his rookie year, when he fanned 3.64 batters per nine.
This relative lack of strikeouts leads directly to Wang’s inconsistent results. His prior start, against the Red Sox, was another strong outing, with only one run allowed in seven innings. The three previous starts, against Boston, Kansas City, and Detroit, were less successful, with 16 runs allowed in 17 innings.
In at least one of those starts, Wang’s June 1 outing at Detroit, he struggled with his usually strong control, walking three batters in four innings - this against a team that, despite it’s great success this season, is as resistant to talking ball four as any team in the circuit. But for Curtis Granderson, the Tigers don’t have a single player who, whatever their other offensive qualities, could reasonably be described as ”patient.”
That accounts for one poor Wang start, but not for the seven other starts out of 15 in which he failed to record a quality start (six innings or more pitched with three runs or less allowed.)
The answer lies in Wang’s low strikeout totals. Pitcher strikeouts aren’t just a positive because they look good in the ”Baseball Tonight” highlight packages or because of their ability to prevent things like sacrifice flies or advancing a runner on a ground ball (strikeouts prevent double plays too), but because they eliminate the role of luck in the outcome of an at-bat.
It’s a relatively new concept in sabermetric thinking, but it should have been obvious all along: Almost everything that is commonly thought of as the result of pitching is actually the province of defense. A pitcher can affect just a few aspects of what the batter does in any given at-bat. He can prevent him from making contact by striking him out, he can prevent him from making contact by walking him, and he can serve up a fat pitch and give up a home run.
Everything else that results from the batter-pitcher confrontation comes from the complex interaction between bat and ball. The pitcher supplies part of the equation in the same way the father provides half the DNA that goes into making a baby, but can’t be accorded the full credit or blame if the child goes to the White House or to Leavenworth (admittedly a thin distinction these days).
The batter supplies part of the remaining impetus for the outcome and the defense supplies the rest. Imagine two hitters, one batting against the Reds and the other against the Braves. Batter A hits a sinking liner to center field. The Reds’ center fielder is Ken Griffey Jr., whose legs just aren’t what they used to be, so the ball dunks in for a clean hit. Maybe Junior never even came close to it, so that no one watching the game has reason to suspect that, under different circumstances, the ball might have been an out.
Batter B hits the same sinking liner to center, but Andruw Jones is patrolling the big pasture for the Braves. He has better speed and reflexes, and perhaps he has the batter positioned better as well. The ball falls neatly into Jones’s glove. He doesn’t have to sprint or dive, so no one watching the game has reason to suspect that, under different circumstances, the ball might have been a hit.
In both cases, the outcome goes on the pitcher’s record.The pitcher for the Reds gives up a hit, and eventually, perhaps, a run or two. The pitcher for the Braves gets credit for having induced an out. It would be asking a lot of either pitcher to expect him to pitch to his defense to the extreme of directing the ball away from the poor fielders and toward the good ones.
Chien-Ming Wang can sink the ball better than most pitchers, so he has an inordinate say as to the results of each at-bat, but even given that power, he’s limited to getting grounders. He can’t induce grounders to Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez but not to Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi - not that Rodriguez and Cano are the standards for defense at their positions. It might be more fair to Wang to say that his control isn’t so good that he can escape being a ground ball pitcher in front of the Yankees infield.
That, as they say, is the rub. In a bestcase scenario, Wang is vulnerable to luck. On many days, the grounders induced by his sinking fastball will roll neatly into the fielders’ gloves. On some days, for reasons including the quality of his defense and just plain old disagreeable swings on the part of the hitters, they won’t.This is true for every pitcher, but Wang suffers more because he’s nearly half as likely to get a strikeout as the avrage hurler. That pitcher can diffuse a potentially disastrous situation by getting a batter to swing and miss. Wang’s only recourse is to try to get another ball to roll into the infield,which is tantamount to rolling the dice.
Until the day comes, if it comes, when Wang develops a strikeout pitch, he will continue to have good days and bad almost at random. Because the sinker limits the opposition’s best scoring weapon - the home run - he will sometimes have very good days, but very good seasons will remain beyond him.
Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for
www.yesnetwork.com and is the author of ”Forging Genius,” a biography of Casey Stengel.
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