Wang's replacement

While Yankees' followers hold their collective breaths waiting for a diagnosis of Chien-Ming Wang's injury, there is a difference of opinion regarding his value. "It's not easy replacing 19 wins."--Girardi.(NY Times.) David Pinto of Baseball Musings has a different perspective:
"I disagree with the idea that Wang is difficult to replace. For one thing, Chien-Ming holds a 4.07 ERA in 2008. That ranks 48th in the majors among pitchers with at least 70 innings pitched, between Hiroki Kuroda and Odalis Perez. Those two have a combined 5-11 record, reflecting the poor offense that play behind them.

Longer term, of course, Wang is a very good pitcher. Since the start of 2005, his rookie season, Wang ranks 18th in ERA among pitchers with 500 innings. Once again, his record is out of whack with the surrounding ERAs. Wang is 54-20, a .730 winning percentage. Hudson and Harang, 17th and 19th respectively, are 50-35 (.588) and 46-39 (.541). On a team that wasn't an offensive power house, Wang would more likely be 41-33 over that time. So really, the Yankees should be thinking about replacing a fourteen game, not a nineteen game winner.
This is very important. New York could replace Wang with Harang, for example, for a lower cost than Sabathia. Harang holds a cheap contract that goes through 2010 with an option for 2011, and he's not a Cy Young award winner."

This perspective also supports the notion that while Wang is a good pitcher, he isn't a top of the rotation starter.