Yea…  maybe the baseball gods will look kindly on him and the Yankees will have a great season and he can coast to something special.  Probably not.

I agree on Hughes.  I’m trying to contain my enthusasim for him. 

Wang needs another pitch to keep hitters honest.  There’s no question in my mind that if he can do 2 things: 1) Maintain the nastiness of that sinker; and 2) develop either a changeup, a curve ball, or even a good rising fastball to throw to lefties so they cannot sit on that sinker on nights where it doesn’t sink as much.  Right now, he throws a sinker and a slider.  The slider is not a top notch slider and, it’s not a good complement to the sinker – those pitches do not act appreciably different from one another.  He mixed in a changeup last year, but very sparingly probably because he didn’t have much confidence in it on a consistent basis. 

My guess: The rising fastball is the easiest to develop but probably won’t be the most effective – therefore, he should go with the changeup more.  The problem with that, is a good changeup usually takes time to develop and is definitely more difficult to throw in a manner that fools hitters.  The good news is that Wang is still only 27 and a far cry from an old man which gives me hope for him. 

Â