Yankees most valuable pitcher

While Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy get all the attention, the Yankees most valuable pitcher works on his game. Chien-Ming Wang will start opening day, he will be expected to soak up innings and match up with the elite pitchers of the league. Joe Girardi's experience in Florida provides a glimpse of what we can expect--he leaned on young ace Dontrelle Willis in an effort to lighten the load on his young staff. We know the "Holy Trinity" will be protected and obsessed over. A distracted Pettitte with a cranky elbow and a faded "Moose" also figure in the mix. The dubious bullpen will be up early and often. Wang's start figures to be the closest thing to a day off they'll get.

Peter Abraham, in an article titled, "Wang works on refining changeup," offers some sobering statistics: "Wang had a 5.23 ERA in his starts against teams in the AL East. He had a 2.58 ERA in his other 16 starts." New Yankees' pitching coach Dave Eiland says, "You have to change speeds" and mentions that's "the main objective" as Wang refines his game.

This time last year, Wang was projected as the #1 starter by default. He was a young pitcher coming off a 19 win season and was being rushed by an organization that had no other options (case in point, when Wang got hurt, the infamous Carl Pavano was the opening day starter.) A year later and another 19 win season under his belt the time to fill the top of the rotation is now. He's come a long way in a short time. The team's annual playoff appearance will be in jeopardy if Chien-Ming Wang can't do the job. No pressure.

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