HAKANIN.Sports

Paul’s note: For the original post in Tradition Chinese, please click HERE. Also many of the quotes from playes were translated from J-Train’s article, after he already translated them into Chinese, so some of the choice of words were picked by me, trying to stay as close to the original quotes as possible.

“Everyone knows that Wil Nieves caught for Wang tonight [7/19, against the Blue Jays], and I spoke with Wil the day before the game, game day, and after the game, obtaining much information. As usual, Wil was very friendly, especially after the game. Already drenched by his sweat from the game, he still chatted with me and other media for awhile. Really appreciated him.

Ok, I admit I’m a little bit bias, had to compliment a player I like…

• The usual starting catcher Jorge Posada finally got a break on the 19th, back-up catcher Wil Nieves got the opportunity to play. Although that meant one less big bat in the lineup, but in terms of partnering up with Wang, the selections of pitches were effective, the result was respectable.Wil was in a good mood before the game, knowing he had a chance to play. He said, on game days he usually try not to bother the starting pitcher; therefore he spoke with Wang the night before, studying opposing hitters’ habits, strengths and weaknesses. Nieves: “The key is his sinkers. As long as he can keep it low, there’s nothing to worry about.”It was easier to say, but Nieves did quite a bit during the game, the variety of pitches was also rather daring. Chien-Ming Wang normally begins games with his sinkers, in order to establish his fastballs. During this game, Nieves called a change-up on the 5th pitch of the 1st inning, Wang also threw back-to-back sliders against Vernon Wells, who batted 3rd in the lineup. So, 2-seamers were used, a couple 4-seamers were thrown, even the two pitches Wang spent a lot of time working on this year, slider and change-up, were thrown. But Nieves was not done, Wang also threw several splits.Nieves said “we used all pitches, and Wang was feeling great. He was in control throughout 6 innings without facing many problems. He was ahead in counts, fastballs had good velocity and control, plus his sliders were really sharp. What was the pitch count after 6 innings? About 70? Wang did great, I was really proud of him.” The problem was in the 7th inning, “WE made a couple mistakes,” said Nieves, “several balls were right down the middle and the Blue Jays took advantage of those mistakes.” Although it was Wang who threw those pitches, Nieves focused on ‘we’ and ‘us,’ taking his share of the responsibly with Wang, showing him some support.When the Blue Jays took the lead in the 7th inning, Nieves explained that “the pitch that was hit into a triple was actually a really good pitch. I wanted a sinker at the outside corner, and Wang delivered. Aaron Hill just had a better swing for it. But the pitch for Greg Zaun was definitely a mistake, Wang put it right in the middle.”When speaking of how rare it was for Wang to show emotion on the mount during this game, Nieves said “when I went up to him, I tried to encourage him, helping him not to focus on the negatives, regain his confidence. I said ‘come on, one more pitch and we can end this inning!’”As for Chien-Ming Wang, he said that it doesn’t matter to him whether his catcher has a strong personality. He has full confidence in both Posada and Nieves.”

(the original article is also featured on udn.com, a Traditional Chinese news website.)

J-Train writes for the Word Journal, one of the bigger Mandarin news paper in North America, in NYC. He spends most of his time covering Asian athletes, with focus on Chien-Ming Wang and the New York Yankees. He recently became the first Taiwanese baseball writer to join the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). For more of his articles, you may go to The J-Train Blog (it’s in Traditional Chinese), or click HERE for my translated ones. For those English speaking fans, HAKANIN.com will continue to provide the translated version of his articles, so stay tuned!

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Filed under: Chien-Ming Wang, Joseph Liao, MLB, New York Yankees, Sports, Taiwan, The J-Train Blog