Don't judge Wang by one October

I’ve gotten a few e-mails in the past 12 hours from some nitwits pointing to last October’s playoff meltdown by Chien-Ming Wang, disputing the idea that he is an ace. I am constantly amazed how shortsighted people can be. To summarize: Wang has won 19 games in each of the past two years. No other pitcher has that many wins. Not Johan Santana. Not C.C. Sabathia. Not Josh Beckett. Not Jake Peavy, Brandon Webb or anybody else. Wang was awful last October. Nobody would ever try to contradict that fact. He pretty much single-handedly killed the Yankees’ chances against Cleveland. But Sabathia was pretty bad, too. He just had the good fortune of pitching against Wang in Game 1, who was worse on that day. Of course, Sabathia’s 10.45 ERA in two ALCS starts didn’t exactly do much for the Indians. Sabathia has made three starts this season, going 0-2 with a 11.57 ERA. Does this mean that he’s not an ace anymore? Of course not. It means he’s off to a bad start. Nothing more, nothing ... [link]