One of the things I love most about sports media is how stories break. It's fascinating to me that different sources have completely different information, and it's a cat-and-mouse game...between rival reporters, between the teams and reporters, between agents and the teams.
Competely fascinating.
What we have here, this morning (afternoon now) is not a failure to communicate, per se, but differing parties getting different messages.
On one hand, you have Peter Abraham, Boston Globe reporter, tweeting that Wang has decided on signing with the Washington Nationals, going so far to specualte that Wang "could be in the rotation by May," as he is that cloose to returing from last season's shoulder surgery.
Abraham is supposedly close to the pitcher according to sources, which leads to the question of why a Boston writer is so close to a player that has spent his entire career thus far in New York.
Jon Heyman, of SI, tweeted that Wang was choosing between the Nats and one other team "within 10 days."
Jon Heyman, of SI, tweeted that Wang was choosing between the Nats and one other team "within 10 days."
On the other hand, you have Nats beat reporters Bill Ladson and Ben Goessling saying that although the Nationals are interested and monitoring Wang, that reports that he's signed are false and not close.
But we also have Chico Harlan saying the Nats are the leader in the clubhouse.
But we also have Chico Harlan saying the Nats are the leader in the clubhouse.
And apparently, according to XM Homeplate, Wang is throwing for the Dodgers today.
So the truth lies in there somewhere.
Wang is an interesting case study. He's the original John Lannan. He's been successful on the major league level without the ability to miss bats. He's a sinkerball pitcher that coaxes ground ball after ground ball, with a lifetime K/9 of 4.2.
What's even more interesting is last season in his 12 starts (where it was obvious that he was hurt, going 1-6 with a 9.64 ERA), his K/9 was 6.2, the highest it had ever been in his five big league seasons.
As an investment, the Nationals have to take a chance on a 30-year old pitcher with a lifetime 4.16 ERA if he's really healthy.
Then, they just need to find a couple guys behind him to pick the ball up.
Well you saw where Orlando Hudson went!
Clearly its not done yet, but I like the Nats chances on this one!
Golly, what a mystery. Abraham covered the Yankees the last five years and wrote a book on Wang that sold in Taiwan. He started at the Globe over the winter. Found that out in 10 seconds on Google.
anon, thanks for looking that up.