The Nationals officially signed Chien-Ming Wang to a one-year $2MM deal that includes up to $3MM in performance bonuses.
MLB.com's Bill Ladson reported the agreement and Ronald Blum of the AP added the terms of the deal. Last week Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweeted that Wang had picked the Nationals and Ken Davidoff of Newsday tweeted that Wang would earn $2MM with the chance to more than double that amount in incentives. Wang's agent insisted that no deal was in place after those initial reports emerged.
Shoulder and hip injuries limited Wang to 12 appearances last year, and the Yankees non-tendered him. Wang, 30 next month, could be a major contributor for the Nationals if he can return to form. The two-time 19 game winner has a long way to go, as last year's 9.64 ERA indicates.
Once healthy, he will join new addition Jason Marquis in the team's rotation. Wang has less than five years' service time, so he won't be a free agent until after the 2011 season unless the Nationals non-tender him, too.
Awsome! This guy(if he is 100%) can make the Nationals staff decent. Great Signing Mr.Rizzo! Im really happy we got this done….. 1. Marquis 2. Lannan 3. Wang 4. Stammen 5. Strasburg(or whoever wins it in ST but i think talent wise overall Strasburg is the best person available unless hes held in minors for other reasons such as contract, free agency time or some seasoning). Good News.
if he is like his old self he will be the ace not the number 3 guy he was number 2 for the yankees
well i was just refering him to #3 at the moment because he is coming off a injury. im pretty sure if hes with the team in 2011, he would most def. be the ace but at the moment he could not be.
He’s just like Bedard, Harden, Sheets, etc. Sure, they all COULD be ace types. However, the odds are really against it. Otherwise you would have had people lining up for his services. It’s clear that virtually every team views him as an incredible long-shot – hence he fell to the Nats for hardly any salary commitment.
That’s not to knock the signing. I think it’s a smart move. But to consider him a #3 starter or even thinking of him as a positive contributor at all is being overly optimistic.
The good thing for Chien Ming is that he doesn’t rely in his fastball a lot like Bedard, Harden and Sheets to dominate, with a regular fastball (88-92) and his awesome breaking pitches he can regain his old self pretty quickly, specially in the NL.
As a Yankee fan, I think you have the wrong player in your mind. Wang relies almost exclusively on his sinking fastball, throwing it most of the time. His breaking pitch, a tight slider, is nowhere near awesome.
Yankee fan here myself too (since the early 1980’s), as you’ve said it, he relies in his SINKING pitch (just what i said), not the fastball per se, not a stone thrower as Joba, as Huges, as Clemens, besides the usual fastball (even hitting 95MPH on occasions), he uses his sinker looks like a fastball but with a lot of downside action. As you see, the fact that his fastball has remained almost the same is what gives us an insight about what could be wrong:
2007 93.7 MPH average
2008 91.8 MPH average
2009 92.2 MPH average
BUT when you check his offspeed pitches, you can see there’s no apparent difference in the past two years:
2007 Slider speed 84.3 MPH, Changeup speed 81.3 MPH
2008 Slider speed 85.9 MPH, Changeup speed 83.5 MPH
2009 Slider speed 83.2 MPH, Changeup speed 83.1 MPH
As you see when both offspeed pitches are at the same velocity, MLB players can succesfully time Chien Ming pitches, in the other hand, the fact that both his fastball and sinker are almost at the same velocity gives him the upside because players don’t know wheter to swing and adjust for a sinker of a plain fastball. But with the movement being diminished, they waited for offspeed pitches, knowing that, at best, both had the same movement and velocity.
Wang never really threw a “plain fastball”. He’s always thrown a sinking fastball, something more like a 2 seamer. He was able to get people out with it because of the late, heavy action and the mid-90’s velocity. His other pitches were never anything special, just something to show the hitters to keep them honest. He actually relies on his fastball a lot more (throws a FB 76.8% of the time) than guys like Bedard (63.8%), Harden (64.0%), and Sheets (64.1%).
This is what I don’t get. I’m rooting for the Nats to be relevant, I really am. But people, don’t get ahead of yourself. Of course, if he is as good as he once was he will help the team a lot. But check it, he’s hurt now. Has been a while. The chances he doesn’t ehlp the Nats at all are VERY real.
YES!! This is a tremendous sign by the Nats!!! Way to go Rizzo!! Yes!
Does this mean Marquis’s streak has a chance to stay alive now?
Wang should be a nice fit in the Nationals’ 2-hole. They had just better hope that he has enough stamina to go the distance.
Nasty lol… but a pretty good low risk sign.
“If he can win 15+ games the Nationals will be in better position them some suspect.”
That might be a little overboard right there. I wouldn’t be looking for him to go out there and win 15. Dudes gotta return back to form first. That’d be like me saying the Tigers would be in a good position if Dontrelle could get us 13 wins haha
Wang was my favorite Yankee. Sad to see him go but I’ll be rooting for him in DC.
Predicted record in 2010: 5-8 with a 5.26 ERA.
If the Nats can score him 6+ runs per game, then sure, he’ll win some games.
Wang
Marquis
Lannan
Strasburg
Storen/Benson/Stammen??
vs.
Johan
Pelfrey
Niese
Perez
???
which rotation would you rather have in the NL? I’d take the first.
In terms of offense if Dunn, Zimmerman, Willingham, and Milledge can get it together I think this team has a chance to finish above the Mets and over .500. Good Luck in the season Nats, i’ll be rooting for ya, respectfully as a die-hard Yankees fan of course.
woah woah woah buddy. we traded millege to the pirates and thank god we did haha. i think u mean Nyjer Morgan? hes our CFer
Ahhh, well, I hear that Morgan is a beast with a glove in the OF, i’m liking the direction the Nats are headed, do you know if there are any offensive threats in the minors for the Nationals?
Storen’s being groomed as their closer from what I understand. Maybe they’ll give Colin Balester a shot at the 5th spot
why as the closer? I thought the Nationals signed Capps/Bruney to compete for the closer role. Storen should get a crack at the rotation before being relegated to closer. If it doesn’t work out the can put him back in the pen, like they did with Papelbon, and what the Yankees SHOULD do with Joba.
Storen was a closer in college, not a starter. he was drafted as a closer/RP. so no chance hes a starter. Hes being groomed for a year to become the closer of the future. as far as offensive players. We he some we just brought up in Maxwell, Desmond and Morse. Then we have Espinosa as our 2nd baseman/short stop of the future working up as well. If any1 has any other names throw htem in there, maybe Marrero is future first basemen
Does bryce harper count?
you have to be on crack if you take any of those guys over johan and Strasburg
didn’t pitch at major league level yet? wheres john maine?
I’m not saying i’d take any of those guys over Johan, but i’m talking about the rotation as a whole for both teams, sure if Johan could pitch 7 days a week and go 7 innings i’d take that rotation, but i’m liking the way the Nats rotation is shaping out. And sorry i left out Maine, but he also will need another bounce back season.
If he can come close to what he did in the AL East he will own the NL.
Finally it gets done. Nats could improve this year, good move for both parties concerned.
Mighty difficult to evaluate this unconfirmed signing right now. The Sheets and Penny signings seemed awesome and low risk until the final $$ came out.
I can’t wait to see the details of this deal.
Can’t really say anything bad about this signing.
yeah.. it honestly cant hurt them… he either blows n fits in perfectly.. or he does good..
Fantastic! Now the Nats can go back to selling the Wang T-shirts they already had on their products web site most of this week. There are questions galore about he Nats, of course, but if Scott Olsen and C-M Wang can get back to their form before injuries, then perhaps the Nats will be a much better team than they were the past few years. The chance to have Wang for not one, but two years makes it an even better risk to take.
Wang is the best 9 ERA plus Free Agent ever. He will go 6-12 with like 4 wins vs. the Mets (just our luck I’m a Met fan) He’s so done
I like how the only Met Fan is talking about how bad a team will be and how bad this is as a pitching move…. alot of room to talk there bud.
Ur right Mets have big ??? At pitcher why add another Wand is done. His leg injury messed up his arm and took away the sink on his sinker…Nats r only one who want him bc they r starving 4 stop gap pitching
There were plenty of teams that wanted him early this off season but as it progressed teams went other ways with other FA signing and were not willing to risk whether or not he could come back from this or not. There was 3 others who were interested pretty much till the end with the nats. HE can either come back and dominate like he did before, or not come back from it at all. i dont see where the problem ur finding with it is. Nats losing nothing by this. this is a LOW risk/ HIGH reward signing.
Nats have to make these kind of moves because they have nothing and 3 waiting for their number 1 pick..He’s done
The Nats have nothing? they have plenty of pitching prospects. they will have about 8 guys fighting for 2 rotation spots. They make these signing for the possible High rewards and pitching depth
People love the phrase Low Risk/High Reward .. doesn’t take a genius to figure out the Nats will not be a contender unless/when Strasburg emerges
________________________________
so if they are not contenders why does it matter who they sign? stick with ur mets and begging and pleading minaya for every free agent to make them better and in the end not getting them.
Stop gap
typical mets fan….
Nope Mets r taking a step back. At least they didn’t give up any prospects
guy quit trying, u do not make any sense anyways…
Neither will the Wang signing
idiot…
Chien Ming Wrong 6 12 with a 5 ERA
this signing cant hurt the nationals.. honestly… if wang comes back and sucks… oh well no big deal its not liek the nats were going anywhere anyway, n im being realistic here…. he either blows and loses n just keeps that losing path going.. or he does good n helps them win 3 more games.. making there season total..24… it cant hurt them honestly…
they need to bring in any players that have had any kind of slight success in there careers.. theyll take anyone there so desperate to get some actual players whove done good.. you cant suck forever… or can you?
They will win 75 games…NL East is tighter than people think
i was kidding, obviously theyll win more then 24 games. i think the nats will have around 77/78 wins
Don’t u find it strange that Yanks let Wang go so easily?
ehh not so much.. yeah when wang was healthy he pitched great for the yanks, but look at the yanks rotation..pitching wasnt a need for them and they obviously felt he wasnt that good that needed to keep him….wang doesnt k anyone, everyone knows he relys on groundballs clearly, the yankees have better defense then the nats, dunn is basically having no one at 1st…. which ever team took on wang knew they needed to have a solid IF for him… n the yankees clearly out slug teams yeah wang 19 games back to back..but it helps playing on the yankees when there putting up 10 runs a game…which the nats will not do…if the nats expect him to be this savior ace pitcher then there crazy…could he be thrown in there as a #2 or 3 n do well , yeah sure. but we can only wait and see
They r just stop gaps until num 1 pick is ready
why is this page messed up wtf…but im gonna copy n paste wat i said below …the mets won like 95 games in 06.. missed playoffs litterally by 1 game in both 07 n 08.. bc they had shitty bullpen which they fixed… n last year b4 all the injurys preseason the mets were favored the most by every mag to win the WS… its the same rotation with more expierence n now there sayin maya might sign soon whose supposed to be legit… i would sure as hell take the mets rotation as is over the nats, even with strasburg who wont even be up this year…. n even if u dont like mets starters.. they still have a better closer, and better offense then the nats.. ill take the mets lineup vs the nats starters over the nats lineup vs mets.. the only way the nats will win more games then the mets this year is if they have another injury filled season.
Probably but u have to do it between the lines
Dude i wouldnt worry about that NATS just worry about who yall sign… And im a Braves fan but i hope the nats kick yalls butt!!!! Chien Ming Wang if healthy will kick the mets butt haha… he will go 11-7 3.87… Braves rock Mets suck (^_^)
if wang kicks the mets butt hell sure as hell kick the braves too.
lol, the Mets have no prospects to give up!
Funny but not true – Martinez,Davis,Neija,Holt,Reese they r just not 2010 ready and neither r the Mets
i hate to break it to you buddy but you cant really speak about anything baseball related… your a fan of the washington nationals…
im not a mets fan but the begging got them bay… who did the nats get ?.. pudge past his prime ?.
Please dont act like the idiot mets fan, being a nats fan does not determine talking about baseball related talks. The nats are rebuilding after the former upper office dug them into the dirt….. and 2nd note CONGRATS METS! U got 1 out of ur 25 targets this off season. u got bay. The nats have upgraded way more then the mets, u obviously dont follow baseball as well as u think u do if u think pudge was the only upgrade.
no i know very well who the nats got but your coming out saying the mets pleeded and begged for players..when they didnt at all ? they tried to get guys, and didnt want to pay more or go more years.. hows that begging ? if they were begging they woulda thrown 3 years n 10 mill more at them n got rejected…maybe you dont follow as much as you think you do.
Not a mets fan here but the Mets just getting their own players back and healthy is more of an upgrade than the Nationals have made. IF the Mets can get their players to actually be healthy for the year they could win some games maybe even a winning season. Nats on the other hand are like the Rays in the 90’s. Might as well keep getting #1 picks and eventually shock the world. Not happening yet though.
I don’t think people consider it a bad move (assuming the dollars are fine). I just take issue with the projections – which are absurd.
Two years of Wang (or really 1.5 I guess) is a great, great, great move by the Nationals. With new additions Kennedy, Marquis, Bruney, Walker, Capps, and Pudge, and Olsen back, plus arriving-midseason guys like Wang, Storen and Strasburg and superior coaching, this is now a .500 baseball team.
Best Move Nats made was signing Davey Johnson, the rest of the players they acquired are medicore or well past prime
i like this pick up. low risk, high potential reward
He’s batting practice
if you keep saying “he’s batting practice” over and over again, maybe that’ll make it more true!
A 9 ERA dude 9
A career ERA of 4.16, a career FIP of 3.99. I don’t think the guy is an ace, but I certainly think he’s a good #2 or solid #3.
2 or 3 batting practice pitcher
Now this is a tough one… but I’m gonna make a guess. You don’t like Chien-Ming Wang.
But I’m willing to bet in December when the Mets were interested you weren’t making the same arguments.
Nah I actually like him except like Mike Pelfrey he only throws 1 pitch, a 95 mph sinker, that’s what makes him (both of them) risky
I was wondering about your comments…now I see…you think he throws one pitch…I guess you haven’t seen him pitch much…slider? pretty good one too….fastball can beat hitters also….stick to softball
Who? Jair? He has excellent stuff…throws a heavy ball
..
yea a 9 era with a torn shoulder… quit bringing it up. we all know. i dont see anyone complaing b4 the injury when he as 38-13 with a 3.64 era in 2 seasons. how about we bring those stats up
^ point missed.
it’s ok, though. we know you’re a mets fan, that explains a lot. 😛
hes batting practice
the last rumor i heard as far as a deal goes was 2 mill guaranteed + a 2 mill in incentives. which is in terms of wang returning to his old form would be a huge steal.
You gotta like what Rizzo has done with this team. I don’t think this a playoff team, but they could very well break .500 for the first time since the franchise moved to the States.
But really, keep Strasburg in the minors for the season. Its rarely wise to rush a prospect. And who knows, with a few more minor moves they could be a playoff team in 2011. The real question now is what to do with Dunn in July? Try to spin him for prospects or try to lock him up early.
Thank you someone finally understands don’t rush him. Let him develop.
Well there’s been too many sure thing prospects who people say “this one is different” so the team rushes the development process and ultimately the player doesn’t reach his full potential. There’s no reason to think that the Nats are going to win the division even assuming Strasburg in the rotation and assuming he’s the ace people think. So let the kid start in advanced A ball and move him up the ranks through the season as needed and maybe give him a spot start at the end of the year.
If he doesnt start the season with the team, i heard a likely scenario would be 5 starts at A-ball then 5 starts at AA-ball then they would call him up in June.
But why? Even if we assume he completely dominates the competition in the minors the guy’s professional career has been 19 innings in the fall league. This is a team with good potential, but rushing Strasburg could ruin that future.
i agree with u but to a degree, if hes as good as they say he is and takes over the minors with ease, why not call him up? not much more he can learn at that point.
Well part of it is keeping his ego in check. The other part is it’s easier to limit his innings in the minors, they really should have pitch somewhere between 135-150 innings.
id like to lock him up lol
I say they should lock up Dunn because if he hits free agency my guess is that he’ll stay in the East but he will be switching leagues and DH’ing either for the Yanks or RedSox on a 1 or 2 year pact.
Nats Opening Day 2011 rotation:
Strasburg
Zimmermann
Wang
Marquis
Lannan
Chances are if Wang looks good this year, more teams will be jumping to sign him. It’s certainly not a guarantee Wang is a National last year.
He’s under team control through 2011. From Chico Harlan of the Washington Post: “Next winter, the Nationals can either renegotiate a contract with Wang or use the arbitration process to determine his salary. Or, of course, they can non-tender the pitcher, again returning him to the free agent market.”
Oh ok, the Yankees non-tendering him (thus him still being under control) completely slipped my mind. Thanks.
1 yr 2 mill. Great Signing Rizzo. IF he returns to form and has a great year, even 1 yr 5 mill. is a great signing with the incentives.
Wang is a good pitcher when he’s healthy but he’s not the “ace” that some on here are calling him. Some may think of him that way because of the gaudy win totals he had for a few years but that had more to do with who he was pitching for than it did with his pitching itself. To put it another way, suppose he had thrown just as well those years but had spent them in Kansas City or Pittsburgh rather than with the NY Yankees. No 19 win seasons, perhaps losing seasons instead. Even with the same peripherals no one would be calling him an ace. We’d still recognize that he’s a good pitcher though and be optimistic about his future if he can get healthy. No one would be foaming at the mouth about this signing however.
He also won a lot of games because he pitches well into games, which you didn’t factor into your reasoning. Pitchers that go deep into games and that don’t have to rely on their bullpen and can also just limit the other team to 2-3 runs consistently, like Wang did, pile up lots of wins. You also didn’t mention this was in the AL East, he will be pitching in the NL east…big difference. The Nats bullpen has been soooo bad the last 2 years that it has cost them lots and lots of games. They need pitchers that can go 8 innings and with their offense, you only need a one inning save…Big difference when you have a horse starter. Wang was a horse for the Yankees 38-13.
He only lost 13 games in 3 years…..? I don’t care who you pitch for, these weren’t world champion teams either….they didn’t win it all those years.. All in all I agree with you, just stating some opposite view points…he has to be healthy…so its a risk, no matter how we spin it….I actually gained more respect for Wang because he went to a team that lost the most games last year…that needs him..I’d like to see him do well really. I like what the Nats are doing.
I really have to challenge what you say. If anything Wang was successful DESPITE pitching for the Yanks in the AL East.
His career ERA and WHIP are 4.16 and 1.33 (2009 really warped his career numbers).
Facing AL East teams he was….
20-15 w/ an ERA above 5.00 and whip above 1.40.
Facing AL Central and AL West teams he was…..
30-4 w/ an ERA in the mid 3.00’s and a whip around 1.20.
Facing the NL teams he was….
6-5 w/ an ERA of 3.87 and a whip of 1.22
At Yankee Stadium his career ERA was 3.45 which is pretty good when you consider that old Yankee stadium was more of a hitter friendly park. RF wasn’t as friendly as the NYS but it was definetly easy on LF hitters.
Also, Wang ERA in wins was 2.24 w/ a 1.08 whip and in losses 8.11 and 1.86. When Wang wins it’s because he really pitched well. When he losses it’s epic.
If anything it can be said that Wang was HURT pitching for the Yanks in the AL East. Playing 47x vs the Sox, Rays, Jays and O’s has resulted in a era above 5.00 has accounted for 15 of his 26 career losses. It might be possible that he would have as much, if not more, success if he pitched with a team outside of the AL East.
I love how mets and nats fans are arguing who is better when the only real argument is who will have #1 overall in 2011
Will somebody please wake up the Marlins Front Office! I cant understand for the life of me why they are so content with the bottom of the rotation. After Johnson and Nolasco, Volstad, Sanchez and West/Miller are all major question marks. A healthy Wang could have helped the bottom of the rotation. The Marlins are the only team not to sign any Free Agents for a major league contract. My point is why dont the Marlins go after a veteran starter or two? Also who is going to produce out of the bullpen this year? We need more quality arms!
Jeffrey Loria is too busy counting his revenue sharing money to think about winning!
i really like what the nats are doing this offseason. showing fans they do have an interest in winning and are willing to open up the checkbook
Let’s hold the champagne until we see some results. Wang will likely not join the team until May or June (he isn’t even throwing off a mound yet). IF he’s healthy, the Nat’s still need to field for him, which is no given with Guzman and Dunn in the infield.
Wow.
Washington was 20th in runs scored in 2009. Adding Pudge isn’t going to move the needle much. I’m not sure what you consider “potent” but falling in the bottom 1/3rd of ML offenses doesn’t impress me.
Marquis is a career 4.5 ERA type guy. Strasburg hasn’t pitched an inning above AFL level. Capps got dumped by the pitching starved Pirates. And Wang was deemed too expensive for the $200m+ Yankees.
Sure, if ALL of those guys live up to your expectations then maybe the Nats win 75 games. As it stands now they are still a sub 70 win group.
LOL
Nats didnt bring pudge in for his offense by the way. They brought him in for his defense and leadership. He is better defensively then the catchers we had and im sure he will put up better offensive number then they did. so it was a upgrade to some degree.