[quote=“Mellow Yellow”][quote=“cfimages”][quote=“Mellow Yellow”] Over the course of this season, Wang has been very solid and has built a pretty good winning streak for himself. He would have at least 2-3 more wins than his total of 7 right now if it wasn’t for his hamstring injury that kept him out of the first few weeks of the season. _snip–
I was in Taiwan last year and every interview they’d ask him if he would better his 19-win season. That’s a little unfair I think. 19 wins is a lot and if Wang gets 15 wins per season, I’d be very happy. The media should leave him alone a bit and just let him pitch.
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Hang on, isn’t it a team sport? I admit I know nothing about baseball, but if the Yankees have already won 7 games this year, and won 19 last year, shouldn’t the credit go to all of them, not just Wang? Don’t the batters have to score runs and the guys in the field have to stop runs as well?
OT - I was watching CNN last weekend while in a hotel (don’t normally watch TV) and the sport news was on. It was really weird hearing them calling him Chien-ming Wang. It took me a moment or two to realise who they were talking about. I’d only ever heard his name spoken in the Chinese way - Wang Chien-ming. Sounded strange saying it the western way (in the same way, I can never get used to having to write my surname first on documents here, just feels weird).[/quote]
You’re right, it’s a team sport. The Yankees actually has a 35-35 record, meaning that they have won 35 games so far this season and lost 35. A full baseball season has 162 games for each team.
When I wrote about how many games Wang has won, it’s actually his pitching record. Each baseball team usually have 5 starting pitchers (which Wang is one of them) and they rotate throughout the season. In my opinion, a pitcher with a 15-win season has done a very good job. A 20-win game is absolutely lights out!
Getting back to your comment, yes the batters have to do their job and the fielders have to do theirs too. A pitchers win-loss record is just one of the indicators on how good he is. Aside from that, there’s also the ERA (earned run average), WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), etc. etc. For the hitters, there is the batting average, homeruns, and RBI (runners batted in) while the fielders have the fielding percentage.
For Wang, he’s been great lately. In his last few starts, he’s only given up 2 runs or less while going 7-8 innings per start. It means his team only has to score 3 runs to win. Therefore, he is helping his team to win and lessening the burdens on the hitters and fielders. You’re still right- it’s a team game but Wang is certainly pulling his own weight, and then some. Hope this clears up my point a bit better.[/quote]
Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for clearing up my ignorance.