If Chien-Ming rights himself he can easily slot in as a very serviceable, or better, # 4 starter. The pluses in such an instances are abundant. Lets not forget that he won 19 games twice in his career, as has Yankee Ace Sabathia. AJ Burnett has topped out at 18 wins in a season once.
When WANG was RIGHT he was able to two-hit the Red Sox. As referenced in the photo above where he is fist bumping Jeter, he did just that in April 2008.
The biggest game Kei Igawa ever contributed to was Phil Hughes final start at AAA Scranton this past season. I had a great seat front row right behind the plate, and there was Kei Igawa, about 12 rows back and up holding the radar gun. In the photo above taken at a different game, seated a few rows in front of benefactor Brian Cashman Havisham, Igawa can be seen charting pitches, like soft dainty armed pretty cheerleaders do for H.S. baseball teams.
Chien-Ming is rehabbing from injury and won't be able to pitch until April at the earliest. Here are a few names to remember Jon Lieber, Andrew Brackman, Humberto Sanchez, and most recently Sergio Mitre. Those are names of players whom the Yankees traded for and/or signed to contracts while they were injured and would not be able to play until completing rehab.
Oh - and now rumor has it that Cashman is looking to add yet another arm from the recent injury/surgery stockpile, either Ben Sheets or Justin Duchscherer. It also pays mentioning that Duchscherer suffered from a bout of clinical depression this past August. Hopefully Duchscherer is all right, wherever he ends up playing - but honestly, how intelligent is it to bring a guy who's working to get back on his feet into the cauldron of NY Yankee baseball.
This is the handywork of coupon clipping Brian Cashman, he of the $150million plus perennial payroll. He's not well enough equipped to discern between the "good" bulk buy products, and the bad ones, so he tries to beat the system and unncecessarily make lemonade out of the lemons.
Kei Igawa. He is so far beyond bad that I don't even need to put a question mark after his name, there is no question anywhere - by anyone - except for delicate genius Brian Cashman who signed him in feeble reactionary desperation to Dice-K going to Boston. I'd have preferred him to go all 'ROCK STAR' and tear a hotel room to shreds a la Theo Epstein reacting to the Yankees nabbing Jose Contreras in 2003.
"KEI - YOU DA MAN!!
Yes,of course theres an "if" there with WANG, he was just beyond awful last year, I was there, I saw it. But really, c'mon. None of the pitchers named above were EVER as good as a RIGHT WANG. When he is right, this is a low maintenance guy who give you his 6 or 7 innings and gets people out. Considering how mundane it is to mention the difficulty in finding starting pitching how can Cashman not take a chance on Wang?
An added plus here - is that IF Wang can start, you can gain a few things: primarily, more options in how to continue baby-step developing Phil Hughes and/or Joba Chamberlain. Essentially you are asking yourself the following question: As the Yankees, is it worth $5million of risk to potentially gain the following upside?:
1st: Either Phil or Joba OR BOTH - could stay in the bullpen. Chad Gaudin matches up quite well with most other #5's around the league.
2nd: -this is my "looney" idea, but it is based on some of the looney-ness with which they handled already mentally fragile JOBA, they could consider putting each or 2 of the 3 of the JOBA-PHIL-CHIEN group on extended rest between starts and alternate between 2 or 3 of them. AGAIN - not MY idea, but based on the here and there inconsistency of what they did to JOBA last year it pays mentioning.
3rd:If Andy Pettitte does not come back in 2011 and Wang is solid you should be able to re-sign him for no more than the same $ that Pettitte was getting, and probably even less.
4th:If Wang is "right", even for the 2nd half of the season who is going to beat this team? If the healthy Wang was on the 2009 team they may have topped the 114 wins of the 1998 team.
5th: More merchandising money from the Asian Market.
6th: You keep him from the Red Sox who could sign him for the same $5 million that they gave Brad Penny last year. Fatty Brad Penny, a Penny a Pound, who's never won more than 16 games in a season spending his entire career previously in the N.L.
I don't want to hear that bullshet about $5 million being too much for Wang, and "lowering the payroll". $5 mill is a blip for this team.That place was filled to the gills last year. People just walked in there and couldn't wait to spend money, and oh how they did spend.
If this is a team with a $90 million payroll maybe its a different story. But for the Yankees? - At $5million Wang is well worth the risk considering what the upside is.
COMING SOON: BRIAN CASHMAN's UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
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