Submitted by Henry, Sep 10, 2007 06:10

If you looked at Wang's situational stats, you'll find that he gives up way more runs in the first few innings of a game than in the later ones. You can spot the same trend for his ball count. It would mean that Wang needs time to warm up and get comfortable on the mound but when he does I would say he is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball right now. That said, you will need to take into account how many games Torre has pulled Wang out of in the 6/7/8th innings when he was leading by a large margin, even with low ball counts. I am sure he would have had three or four extra complete games, not to mention his ERA would be significantly lower. Being the Yankee's Ace not only brings a lot of pressure, but probably overptotection by the managers.

Having ample run support has also crippled Wang's numbers if you think about. Like in colleage football, for example, the coach would bring in the second-stringers to play in the 4th quarter if they're up by 5 touchdowns. Can we really blame Wang for not getting many opportunities to make his "stats" look better for the judges? He doesn't care, all he cares about is getting the "W" FOR THE TEAM. That is what makes him a very valid CY candidate.

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