As The Master Wordsmith "Nelly" Once Said...

What does it take to be #1? Or, better put, what does it take to be a #1 starter in Major League Baseball?

I was having this discussion recently with a friend of mine who's a big Yankee fan. And the specific topic of the discussion was Chien-Ming Wang.

My position was that Wang is not a #1, despite his 2006 season. And, not surprisingly, the guy on the other end of the conversation thought I was nuts.

First, my logic. Wang was great in 2006. He won 19 games. He finished (a distant) second in Cy Young voting. And he finished tied for 7th in the league in ERA (3.63).

Now let's dig deeper. With his spectacular numbers, he carried a rather ordinary 1.31 WHIP, good for 18th in the league, and an even less impressive 76 strikeouts (tied for 37th best in the league). There are a handful of closers who had more K's last year, and they did it in about a third of the innings.

So Wang's a contact pitcher, so what? Does that mean he's not good? Well, consider this. This is a list, by season, of the pitcher who had the most wins that year without reaching 100 strikeouts.

2006 - Chien-Ming Wang (19W, 76K)
2005 - Kenny Rogers (14W, 87K)
2004 - Ismael Valdes (14W, 67K)
2003 - Ramon Ortiz (16W, 94K)
2002 - Kirk Reuter (14W, 76K)
2001 - Kirk Reuter (14W, 83K)
2000 - John Halama (14W, 87K)
1999 - Omar Olivares (15W, 85K)
1998 - Brian Anderson (12W, 95K)
1997 - Willie Blair (16W, 90K)
1996 - Jamie Moyer (13W, 79K)
1995 - Mark Gubicza (12W, 81K)
1994 - Jimmy Key (17W, 97K)*
1993 - Bob Tewksbury (17W, 97K)
1992 - Bob Tewksbury (16W, 91K)
1991 - Bill Gullickson (20W, 91K)
1990 - Tom Browning (15W, 99K)

*Key only made 25 starts because of the strike.

The names on this list don't exactly scream "aces" to me. And I was amazed to see Bill Gullickson won 20 without 100 punch-outs in 1991.

So if Wang is putting guys on base, and not striking many out, how was he so successful last year? The answer is double-play-balls. He got 33 of them in 2006, second only to Jake Westbrook's 36. It's hard to imagine someone who relies that much on his defense is going to be consistently good for a multi-year stretch (i.e., a #1 starter ).

Want more proof that Wang just had a good year, but isn't a #1? In 34 starts, only 18 of them were considered quality starts (at least 6 innings pitched, no more than 3 earned runs). Yet, he won 19 games. Only a few other pitchers (with at least 10 quality starts) pulled off that feat last year. John Garland did it (18W, 17QS), so did Jason Marquis (14W, 13 QS). And you know who else did it? Randy Johnson. The Big Unit had 17 wins, with only 14 quality starts. You know what Wang and Johnson have in common? The Yankee lineup. Johnson was #1 in baseball last year in run support. Mike Mussina was #5 and Wang was #12.

In short, is Wang a good picther? Yes. Is he a #1 starter? No way.