Well, I was honestly mystified by the decision to bring up from AAA Anthony Claggett of all people. He is honestly, not very good, as I assume anyone who watched the game noticed.
Anyway, for the third straight game Chien-Ming Wang was awful. He looked pretty good in the first, not great, but okay. Then in the second, as soon as there was a runner on base he completely fell apart. Now Wang has never been great out of the stretch but he just looked terrible.
(To pick Claggett to try and keep the game under control was a bit mind-boggling, but that’s a personal gripe.)
It is clear right now that Wang’s problems are not something that can be worked out in the Major Leagues. I don’t believe you go from good to awful this quick and that he can still come back from it, but not if they keep putting him out here and hoping he’s made the proper adjustments to his mechanics. Since he can’t easily be optioned to AAA (he would have to pass through waivers and for sure there would be a team to pick him up), the best way for the team to accomplish this is to come up with a phantom injury like a blister, put him on the DL and send him to the Tampa facility. After today, I don’t really see how they don’t do this and call up either Ian Kennedy or Alfredo Aceves to take his place.
While you might clamor for Phil Hughes, I think that would be a bad choice since he’s been having some trouble throwing his curveball for strikes. AAA batters were sitting on it the other night, which means he needs to get that down before he comes back. Aceves is who I would pick as he is as complete as he will ever be, and the team has much less invested in him. I believe he can easily be an average MLB starter and fill in pretty well.
In closing, I vote for Girardi to put Veras in to pitch the rest of the game. I mean, why not? He’s useless anyway.
