Wang is seriously out of whack, obviously.
He's been here before (2007 ALDS, and occasionally during the regular season), but not quite this bad. The underlying things are the same, though: his mechanics are borked and as a consequence, his sinker doesn't function. It is instead a BP fastball, if it's even in the zone (lots of his fastballs tail hard right, missing the strike zone badly - that's supposed to be downward movement, but it's lateral right now). Given that his only other pitch is a mediocre slider (and given his mechanical problems goodness knows where that pitch would go), when he's like this he's totally screwed.
In the past, he's worked it out. The current theory is that he's subconciously favoring the foot he injured last season. I'm not sure about that, because the pitching coach has said that Wang's fine in the bullpen. Then he gets into the game and promptly implodes. That points rather strongly to the problem being between his ears. I do think he'll get it fixed, but in the meantime...
... enjoy it while it lasts, fellas.
-Arrian
He's been here before (2007 ALDS, and occasionally during the regular season), but not quite this bad. The underlying things are the same, though: his mechanics are borked and as a consequence, his sinker doesn't function. It is instead a BP fastball, if it's even in the zone (lots of his fastballs tail hard right, missing the strike zone badly - that's supposed to be downward movement, but it's lateral right now). Given that his only other pitch is a mediocre slider (and given his mechanical problems goodness knows where that pitch would go), when he's like this he's totally screwed.
In the past, he's worked it out. The current theory is that he's subconciously favoring the foot he injured last season. I'm not sure about that, because the pitching coach has said that Wang's fine in the bullpen. Then he gets into the game and promptly implodes. That points rather strongly to the problem being between his ears. I do think he'll get it fixed, but in the meantime...
... enjoy it while it lasts, fellas.
-Arrian
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