Former Yankees Update Chien Ming Wang

The Yankees signed Chien Ming Wang to a minor league deal before the season and watched him dominate AAA hitters all season long while he spent time with the Scranton Wilkes Barre Railriders. Wang opted out of his deal to sign a major league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays last month and has not seen his 2006 success come back. Wang was designated for assignment last night by the Blue Jays after a terrible start, his second consecutive bomb, against the Detroit Tigers. Wang finished his Blue Jays career with a 7.13 ERA and a 5.31 FIP. He did get ground balls at a career high of right at 63% but that was the only bright spot in what was a disaster for Wang. Will the Yankees bring him back? I would not be against it personally.

Chien-Ming Wang Stays With The Yankees

Chien Ming Wang had multiple opt out clauses written into his minor league deal that he signed before the 2013 season and the date of one of them was yesterday. Wang has decided to remain with the Yankees even though six teams, including the Baltimore Orioles are reportedly interested in the right hander. Wang said he would only opt out if he could get a major league deal and obviously none of the six teams were willing to hand him a big league contract. Wang has put up a 2.65 ERA with a 4.1 K/9 and 1.6 BB/9 in 51 innings for the Scranton Wilkes Barre Railriders.

We Need A Replay Of 2007

In 2007 the Yankees had a rash of injuries and ended up firing their strength and conditioning coach Marty Miller, who was in his first year on the job after Brian Cashman hired him earlier in the winter. An impressive list of Yankees stars, including Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina, Chien Ming Wang, Phil Hughes (the almost perfect game start), and Johnny Damon to name a few landed on the DL or battled various muscle and hamstring injuries in that season before Brian Cashman and George Steinbrenner had seen enough. Should we see the same thing happen this season to current Yankees strength and conditioning coach Dana Cavalea? Is current Yankees trainer Steve Donohue or his assistant Mark Littlefield safe? Should they be?

The Yankees have more money on the disabled list this season then 17 major league teams and have by far missed the most games due to injury of any team in 2013. The young guys or guys in their prime, guys like Eduardo Nunez, Chris Stewart, Cesar Cabral, Joba Chamberlain, Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda, Francisco Cervelli, David Robertson, Curtis Granderson, Boone Logan, and Mark Teixeira to name a few,and the older and aging guys, guys like Derek Jeter, Kevin Youkilis, Andy Pettitte, Travis Hafner, and Alex Rodriguez to name a few, have all missed time due to injury this season. At some point it has to stop being called dumb luck or simply "baseball" and has to go towards something else. Should it be the trainer, strength and conditioning coach, manager Joe Girardi, or simply the unpredictability of baseball? I do not really have the answer to that but I sure wish someone would figure it out sooner rather than later.

World Baseball Classic Is Underway

Team USA still has almost a week before they start playing World Baseball Classic games but the WBC is officially underway over in Japan this morning. The Netherlands team that has former Yankees player Andruw Jones and Braves short stop Andrelton Simmons is leading big against the Korea team. Chinese Taipei and Chein Ming Wang beat Australia behind six shut out innings behind Wang and hopefully the Yankees were watching. The two time defending champion Japan team started their title defense with a win over Brazil and Cuba and Brazil are still left to play today but we will have World Baseball Classic games all weekend long to enjoy, thank God competitive baseball is back.

Team USA will start their WBC next Saturday, March 9th, against Team Italy. That would have been interesting to see Francisco Cervelli playing against us but he is using his time well in camp and seems to be the front funner right now for the starting catcher job so maybe that was a good decision. Team USA will play next Sunday as well against Team Canada, who will be Russell Martin-less after the Pirates did not want him to play short stop in the WBC. I cannot say I am the hugest fan of the WBC but competitive baseball is competitive baseball so I will be watching.

Wang & Yankees Reunion?

"If you bring me back I'll promise to wear this outfit to the ballpark every day."

The Yankees are looking for another starting pitcher to add to the AAA rotation, in case they need somebody as a part-time fill in during the season (a strong possibility). The reason for that is that it's not ideal to pull up a young kid that's still developing to make a few spot starts in MLB. You'd rather leave that kid in the minors to get regular work, and let a veteran make those MLB appearances instead.

So the Bombers are keeping their eye on former Yankee Chien-Ming Wang. Spring Training pitching instructor Billy Connors was impressed with a recent workout by Chien-Ming, and will be watching Wang when he pitches for Team Taiwan in the World Baseball Classic.

Wang is looking for a Major League contract, but after missing all of 2010 and following that up with two lackluster seasons, he may have to settle for a minor league deal. In that case I'm okay with the team bringing CMW back, as there aren't any better options for that role available, but if it would cost a MLB contract then no way.

Developing Pitchers

If only the Yankees could develop ace-like starters.

A comment under my post at the LoHud Yankees blog has been rattling around my head for a few hours now. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it was in the form of a question, which went something like this...

Why can't the Yankees develop ace-like pitchers, instead of buying or trading for them?

I looked up the top 10 Yankee starters, in terms of WAR, over the last 10 years. Here's the list, including where they started their careers...

Mike Mussina - 31, drafted by Baltimore

Andy Pettitte - 24.8, drafted by NYY

CC Sabathia - 18.8, drafted by Cleveland

Chien Ming-Wang - 12.8, signed by NYY (spent 5 years in minors before MLB debut)

Roger Clemens - 11.4, drafted by Boston

David Wells - 8.4, drafted by Toronto

Randy Johnson - 8.2, drafted by Montreal

AJ Burnett - 6.4, drafted by NYM (spent 2+ years in Florida's minors before MLB debut)

Phil Hughes - 4.9, drafted by NYY

Orlando Hernandez - 4.4, signed by NYY (although he was 32, so not a true prospect)

So that's three pitchers that entered, and were brought up in, the Yankees farm system that turned out to be among their top 10 best pitchers over the last decade (note, I'm not including Hernandez as he was not "developed" by the Yankees). Not bad in my opinion, especially when you consider the fact that the list includes the #2 pitcher (Pettitte), a guy who had a lot of promise before a freak injury (Wang), and another that's only 25 and whose future is yet to be determined (Hughes).

And let's not forget that, during those 10 years, the team missed the playoffs once (2008), made it to the World Series once (2003), and won the World Series (2009). Which brings me to my main argument... the Yankees are not a team that rebuilds. They aren't going to settle for missing the playoffs for a few years in order to develop players, and make a run at a title down the road. This is a team that looks to win now and develop players (at least in the past few years, as their philosophy has changed quite a bit). And due to winning like they have, the Yanks aren't able to draft nearly as much great raw talent as teams like the Tampa Rays, Washington Nationals, or Kansas City Royals have.

This topic has been brought up a handful of times by me over at Daily Sports Pages, and I'll repeat it again...

If you want to root for a team that has great minor league systems, then take off the Yankee t-shirt and root for somebody else. I'd much rather cheer for a team that not only creates some great players every once in a while (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Robinson Cano), some serviceable MLB players (Brett Gardner, David Robertson, Melky Cabrera), and has some good/great prospects (Manny Banuelos, Dellin Betances, Gary Sanchez), but also wins.

And just for kicks, here are the 4 teams that made it to their respective League Championship Series last season, along with their 2011 farm system ranking according to AOLNews' Frank Piliere...

Milwaukee - 30th

Detroit - 24th

Texas - 9th

St. Louis - 17th

Where did the Yankees finish on that list? 4th. I rest my case.