Wei-Chung Wang

[WV Brew]

Worried about how Wei-Chung Wang is performing. The Clearwater announcers called him a "nibbler" yesterday before the game started. Obviously, this has now become his reputation. Here is how he has done excluding Brewers' appearances:

 

2013 Gulf Coast Pirates

47.1 IP, 3.23 ERA, 0.866 WHIP, 7.0 H/9, 0.8 BB/9, 8.0 K/9, 10.50 K/BB

 

2014 Combined Minor League

26.1 IP, 2.39 ERA, 0.949 WHIP, 7.2 H/9, 1.4 BB/9, 7.5 K/9, 5.50 K/BB

 

2015 Brevard County

60.2 IP, 5.93 ERA, 1.665 WHIP, 11.6 H/9, 3.4 BB/9, 6.7 K/9, 1.96 K/BB

 

Not a good progression. Unless there is some underlying injury, this is very worrisome.

[jerichoholicninja]

When you look at his game logs he's given up 3 ER or less in 8 of his 12 starts. His second game in which he went 1.1 IP with 8 ER and 5 BB is making his numbers look worse than they should. I would agree overall the stats don't look too impressive but he's thrown some really good games and some really bad games. It's not like he's getting knocked around every time he pitches.

[brewmann04]

does anyone know if he working on anything down there ?

[jerichoholicninja]

http://reviewingthebrew.com/2015/06/11/interview-with-milwaukee-brewers-prospect-wei-chung-wang/

 

Here's an interview with Wang. Important things to take away from it are that he has been working on his curveball this year. Probably too much he feels as he's losing the feel for his other pitches. Also, advanced stats say he's been unlucky as he has a high BABIP (.357) with good ground ball and low line drive rates.

[JohnBriggs12]

You can spin it any way you want but this guy was never the prospect the Brewers thought he was when they selected him in the Rule 5 draft, then stubbornly held on to him on a team contending for a division.

 

He's 23 and toiling in high A ball. "Working on his curveball"? He better start missing some bats.

 

The only excuse that I would consider valid is that he lost a key year of development that he can never get back. That's a big reason it makes no sense to keep a guy like that who's not close to major league ready. Ask Matt Ford how his career went after one year with the Brewers.

[Outlander]

I would really consider DFA for Wang. I just don't see him being ready by 2018 and it would be nice to save an option or two down the road. It is not like somebody is going to pick him up in the rule 5 draft again this year.

[Mass Haas]

I would really consider DFA for Wang. I just don't see him being ready by 2018 and it would be nice to save an option or two down the road. It is not like somebody is going to pick him up in the rule 5 draft again this year.

 

If you DFA him, he still has two minor league options left, and in my opinion, he'd be snatched up quickly based on that and his LH-ness alone. Heck, the Pirates would probably gladly have him back in their system. All this concern after 12 starts? I'm a bit surprised...

[brewmann04]

wow a lefty and people want to get rid of him wow. remember he missed one season and didn't pitch a lot as a starter in 2014

[jerichoholicninja]

Briggs and many other posters have had it out for Wang since last year's hot start and their feeling that he cost them the playoffs, so this reaction is not surprising.

[brewmann04]

it hard to believe that they blamed wang when the OFFENSE COMPLETLY DIED LAST YEAR DOWN THE STRETCH

[logan82]

it hard to believe that they blamed wang when the OFFENSE COMPLETLY DIED LAST YEAR DOWN THE STRETCH

You mean when Wang was not on the team? I think the argument was we burned out the bullpen because our good relievers got used up early in the season. I don't buy that argument at all though. Every team has a guy in the back of the pen who barely gets used.

[FVBrewerFan]

Briggs can speak for himself, but I don't think he ever said Wang cost them the playoffs.

[MrTPlush]

it hard to believe that they blamed wang when the OFFENSE COMPLETLY DIED LAST YEAR DOWN THE STRETCH

You mean when Wang was not on the team? I think the argument was we burned out the bullpen because our good relievers got used up early in the season. I don't buy that argument at all though. Every team has a guy in the back of the pen who barely gets used.

 

Even the "burning out the bullpen" excuse doesn't make a lot of sense. We have a full bullpen this year and still have two guys among league leaders as far as being used goes(Smith, Jeffress). Nearly every team has two guys at the back of the pen that are worthless. There was no one better that was going to be usable in big innings. Anyone else, like Wooten, would have been reserved for low leverage/meaningless innings just like Wang.

 

If anything that blazing start hurt us because Ron would use "his" guys in a winning situation no matter what. We were winning so much there was no time for those guys to get rest. If we had 6 save situations in 6 days K-Rod would pitch them all.

[brewmann04]

My point is the kid a 23 year old lefty who just has 1 year of pitching in the Fla State league. it almost comical how some want to drop this kid.

[FVBrewerFan]

I don't think it's comical. There may come a time, soon, when you need to open up a few spots on the 40 man roster. You're not cutting him from the organization, they're talking about DFA- those are two different things. With that said, you still have guys like Hellweg, Strong, Kintzler, a few others that I wouldn't shed a tear for if they DFA them.

 

As usual, the truth is usually in between. No rush to DFA Wang, but at the same time let's not pretend he's a huge prospect just because he's left-handed. He has been mediocre every stop along the way.

[TheCrew07]

Why exactly do we need to free up 40 man roster spots? To what end?

 

If we're talking about trading for better minor league talent I'm very skeptical that given the pieces the organization actually wants to move that we'd get better talent than Wang back.

 

I posted a couple of weeks ago that I was concerned with Wang's 2015, but the truth is right now all we have are him, Hobbs Johnson, Zach Hirsch, and Kodi Medeiros. Johnson and Hirsch are back of the rotation types or relievers, Wang's ceiling is probably that of a #3, and Mederios' is that of a #2. I'm certainly not going to sit here and claim that any one of those guys is going to reach their ceilings, and as always I believe that we need to have a greater talent base because prospects will fail. I'm not into cutting lefties until the bitter end, as the Brewers have already let 2 MLB lefties get away in Caleb Thielbar and Lucas Luetge. Nathan Kirby will join the fold once the CWS is complete but his control is so erratic it's hard to consider him more than #3, and he won't do anything more than relieve in 2015 so we'll have to wait until next year to see him as a starter.

 

I have a hard time believing that the player who pitched in minors last year isn't at least a capable MLB reliever, and plenty of prospects have had a horrible 2 month stretch. Victor Roache has only had 3 good months in his entire career yet every time he gets hot people get excited... My point is that I think there are personal biases coming into play here which cloud the big picture.

 

Wang was worth keeping last year and he's definitely worth keep this year, if he shows no improvement we can revisit this thread in September but from my point of view calls to DFA him are way too premature. There's a ton of dead weight on the 40 man which could be cut before Wang, and after this season much of the MLB dead weight will fall off as well, unless players like Ramirez and Lohse are traded previous.

 

Players that I would remove before Wang:

Cotts

Kintzler

Centono

Perez

Schafer

[brewmann04]

he really only pitched one full season and then got hurt and then stayed in the brewers pen till June. 23 years old is not anywhere close to giving up on .

[Outlander]

DFA does not mean that they would give up on him, it would actually lift a monkey off his back. Right now he has to move up a level a year before he runs out of options in 2018 and he is already behind at A+. He can move at his own pace and if he eventually pitches well at AA then he can be added again. People seem to forget that Brooks Hall was DFA and he is now pitching well at AA and probably will be added again to the 40 man this year plus they didn't have to waste another option in 2015. It is a strategic move.

[brewmann04]

We got lucky with Hall who was coming off an Injury but sorry if the DFA have to believe someone will take a flyer on a 23 lefty. It not like this league is so pitching rich and the brewers can't really afford to lose any arms.

[And That]

DFA does not mean that they would give up on him

Unless someone else claims him on waivers, which would be highly likely unless he's had a huge drop in velocity. The number of players who have gone from being a top 10 BA team prospect to DFA'd 2.5 months into the season is very, very short. For a reason. So it is pretty much giving up on him.

 

The comparison with Hall's situation isn't that valid. Hall was coming off a major arm injury and wasn't as highly regarded as Wang before that anyway.

[Mass Haas]

And just like that, Wang DFA'd to make room for waiver claim (Astros) 3B Matt Dominguez, who was optioned to AAA.

 

I was among those above on the wrong side of that discussion in terms of the actual move by Milwaukee.

[brewmann04]

Don't like this move @ all hope he stays with the Brewers. Matt stay in 3a won't be that long

[And That]

I can only guess that something isn't physically right with Wang. There's no other logical reason for the move.

 

I did laugh when I saw the alert on my phone.

[dacbrewers]

Brewers announce:

 

LHP Wei-Chung Wang DFA'd to make room for waiver claim (Astros) 3B Matt Dominguez, who was optioned to AAA.

 

There is a discussion thread on Wang here.

I saw that coming.

[dacbrewers]

I really don't understand claiming guys that aren't going to help. Do they think it's an upgrade? It's not.