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Paul’s Note: The following article was posted on 8/14. For the original article in Traditional Chinese, click HERE.

I got the title of this article from a conversation with the pitching coach Ron Guidry.

And I agree with him.

Everybody is concerned with Chien-Ming Wang, me too. I want to see him win. When he got blown up last time, it was a rare tragedy, plus the inconsistent starts lately, many people have asked the same question: “What happened to Wang?”

Even the Taiwanese media went after Guidry after the game, asking “What’s wrong with him? What happened?”

At first Guidry patiently explained to them that Wang has too much on his mind, trying too hard, trying to be perfect. He also mentioned that Wang needs to watch out for his form and such. You know, the same old.

But Taiwanese media persisted, “What’s wrong? He didn’t use to be like this, what’s wrong with the form? Why is the control off? Why?”

Slightly annoyed, Guidry responded “What’s wrong? Nothing!”

First of all, Gator is not saying that Wang is without problems.

Combining what Guidry and Torre have said, Wang’s problem right now is mental, not physical. As far as his pitching form, he indeed has problem with it this year — the angle of his arm, release point, left hand opened too early and so on. But these are something fixable, so they are not worried.

The problem is his mindset recently.

Due to his recent inconsistency, Wang began trying too hard, forcing his pitches. Torre and Guidry brought up the same point that he wanted to pitch well too badly, trying to be perfect, trying to make the great pitches, trying to be too fine, trying to figure out what’s wrong, nibbling at corners.

In another word, the Wang in the past that focused on pitching without much on his mind, is thinking too much.

This is the point Gator is trying to stress, everyone experience slump, mentally and physically, Wang cannot win every game, he will not dominate every time he steps on the mount, who can? Whenever he has a bad outing, we say “what happened to Wang?” “Wang is slumping!” Do we really expect him to win 20 games every year?

There’s nothing wrong with Wang, he just had a couple bad games, that is all.

Chien-Ming Wang is a power pitcher that attacks. Last year when he had a 2-hit shutout against the Devil Rays, he pounded the strikezone with his 2-seamers throughout the game, did not rely on his breaking balls. Of course, he was in the zone.

However, when he sometimes rely too much on attacking the strikezone with 2-seamers, Gator would recommend him to try different pitches and paint the corners. For instance, against the left hand hitters of the Royals last time, he went inside with 4-seamers, and attacked outside corners with 2-seamers.

The Chien-Ming Wang right now, is too stubborn with getting the perfect location. Guidry’s advice: “Don’t think too much. Just throw the damn ball. Don’t worry about the location, let the movement take over, trust your stuff.”

“You have great sinkers, and your sliders are improving tremendously, you know you have good stuff, trust yourself. Don’t worry about how to pitch, the hitters should be the ones worrying.”

The form changes, which pitcher or hitter never experience that problem? Facing mental block, or hitting a wall, there are 162 games a season, who never faces a single slump? Players are human, too. Wang hit a low point, well, get back up!

When Wang pitches well and win games, we are happy for him; When he loses, the whole Taiwan mourn; when he is not having a good game, giving his all on the mount, we cheer for him. That’s the fun of being a fan.

What’s wrong with Wang? If people on the team don’t even worry, why should we?

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