Chien-Ming Wang changes things up
BY ANTHONY McCARRON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Sunday, March 2nd 2008, 10:51 AM
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Until Saturday, the only thing notable about Chien-Ming
Wang's changeup was that it was the pitch that Ben Broussard whacked over
the wall in the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium to spoil the righthander's
bid for a perfect game last May 5.
Now, the changeup is Wang's big project for the spring. He threw four of
them Saturday while pitching two scoreless innings against the Phillies
and admitted afterward that he is eager to have a reliable soft option
to keep hitters from sitting on his mid-90s sinker.
"That's going to be one of our main objectives," pitching coach Dave Eiland
said after the Yankees beat the Phillies, 9-3. "As a pitcher, I don't care
who you are, you have to change speeds. He's got to pitch off that so
hitters aren't looking for everything hard."
Wang, who Joe Girardi reiterated is the likely Opening Day starter,
added, "I've got to get comfortable first to use it during the season."
Did he think he could? "Yes," he said.
Catcher Jose Molina said he could tell the few changeups that Wang threw
were effective by the way the Phillie hitters flinched at them.
"The sinker is coming in at 94 or 95 (mph) and then the changeup is 88,"
Molina said. "Now they have to think about the sinker, his slider and his
changeup. It gives them something else to have in their minds."
Wang faced seven hitters and retired six of them, the only blemish an
opposite-field double by Ryan Howard on a fastball that Molina wanted low,
but drifted up into the strike zone. He struck out one, catching Pat Burrell
looking at a slider.
Eiland called the changeup a "three-finger, circle change." Wang holds the
ball with his middle two fingers in a two-seam grip and leaves his index
finger off the ball. Wang said sometimes the changeup moves away from
righthanded hitters and in to lefties. Other times, it has natural sink.
Eiland said if Wang threw 10% changeups during the season, that would be
a good goal.
"But with his sinker, he'll get a lot of quick outs, too, so he might not
even get to the changeup," Eiland said. Last year, Wang said, he threw
the pitch perhaps two or three times a game.
Wang was upset with himself when Broussard homered off the changeup because
he lost his perfect game bid on his third-best pitch.
Wang wasn't the pitcher lost in a cloud of Cleveland midges during the
playoffs last October - that was Joba Chamberlain - but his playoff
failures buzzed like gnats around the Yankee ace for much of the winter.
He said it took him a month to quit brooding over his poor showings against
the Indians, and the Yankees used those losses against him in beating him
in an arbitration hearing.
But there was a sense of starting over yesterday. Wang certainly appeared
comfortable as he reclined in the Yankee clubhouse at Legends Field before
the bus left for Clearwater. The T-shirt he wore - which had a design that
featured, in part, a skull and crossbones - got him noticed even though he
was sitting quietly.
"Skull and crossbones, huh?" Mike Mussina said as he passed by. "I like
it for a first start." Wang laughed.
Wang was 0-2 with a 19.06 ERA against the Indians last October, and
some believe the Yankees lag behind the Red Sox because they don't have
an overpowering ace while Boston has Josh Beckett. But Girardi said there
was a simple explanation for Wang's poor outings: "He struggled a little
bit. So did the Cy Young winner last year, C.C. Sabathia. He struggled,
too."
"The playoffs," Wang said, "were last year. This is the start of a new
season."
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