POTD Chien-Ming Wang
=== Stealth Signings ===
Question arose, could the M's be the mystery team supposedly about to land Wang.
If that were the case, we'd all find out about it simultaneously. :- ) Which is what I love about this Royal Brougham crew... hey, lemme sneak a digression in here second paragraph. Thath high-quality H20 writin', ain't it...
Shawn Kelley was asked on the radio last month, do you guys find out about all these signings before we do? To which Kelley responded, probably later. We find out about it on MLB.com or ESPN.com and you guys are local.
There's also the fact that players need to decompress from the 24/7 pressure cooker that fricasees their brains on the shell, for 8-9 months a year. Eric Byrnes was talking on the radio about why he came to Seattle... he needed (1) an opportunity to win and (2) an opportunity to help the team....
"Hey, let's say I could go to the Yankees, that's fine, but if I'm not going to play, then what's the point... the M's were the best fit for those two things."
"We got into the negotiations and I checked around and I saw they'd signed Chone Figgins. I'm goin', all right! Now we're talkin'!"
"Then I looked some more and I go, WHAT? WE GOT CLIFF LEE THIS WINTER? Man, we could win a ton of games!" General laughter on the show.
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=== Chien-Ming Wang ===
In the early 1990's, we well remember Scott Erickson throwing three excellent seasons fresh up from the minors... well, two-three seasons. People were riding Bill James about the way Erickson was blowing James' absolute strikeout principle, that all stars in the rotation strike out more men than the league average.
I mean, in his second season Erickson was 20-8 with a super low ERA, and his third season excellent too... Erickson was deathly feared everywhere around the league. Stories from Minnesota, "one thing everybody in this clubhouse knows, do NOT talk to Scott on the day before he pitches. The guy is just a rabid Doberman when it comes time to pitch...." stuff like that.
Erickson came out there with a fearsome glare, smoking 92-94 swerveballs in that seemed impossible to hit.
James didn't back down. This guy will not sustain success. You do not sustain success on four strikeouts per game.
Erickson's next four ERA's: 5.19, 5.44, 4.81, 5.95. These guys come up, hit the league with super-high groundball ratios and super-low strikeout rates... they can last one year, maybe two, perhaps three. No way they sustain it.
Same applies to Jo-El's new swerveball. He'll probably be good THIS year.
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=== Dr's R/X Dept. ===
Some other roto team might go ahead and chase the glory of Wang's first three years. It will not be mine.
BABVA,
Dr D