The owners kept their pre-season arbitration perfect record alive by the Yankees brass winning over Chien-Ming Wang in his salary arbitration case against the Yankees on Friday. Wang will make four mil instead of his requested four-point-six.
I’m a big fan of Chien-Ming. I like his presence on the mound, his 120ish era+, his 6.6666666… IP/G, his miserly issuance of long balls, heck — just the general cut of his jib. Sure his last LDS was a huge, steaming deuce. And when his sinker doesn’t, shut your eyes because the downhill ride is terrifying. I hope his disappointment in not being extended and then losing the arbitration doesn’t translate into discouragement and discontent down the road.
Edit @ 4:10 PST: Looks like I should have done a bit more digging before fretting. Pete reports:
“The $4 million is the highest salary for a pitcher in his first year of arbitration eligibility since the Florida Marlins gave Dontrelle Willis $4.35 million in 2006.”
Ahem. So even though he lost, he won.
Sure his last LDS was a huge, steaming deuce
The nine year old in me laughed out loud when I read this.
“huge, steaming deuce” is an inherently funny phrase, no matter the context.
Hehe, the 25-year-old in me laughed at that one.