In last night’s game I’d rather not talk about (but will later on anyway), Chien-Ming Wang came up in pseudo mop-up duty. Since we already know that his release point changed at around the time he became less effective, I figured I’d take a look at it using the Brooks Baseball Pitch F/X tool.

Chien-Ming Wang's Release Points - 05/22/09

And now, here they are here it is from a stinker he pitched before getting put on the Disabled List:

Chien-Ming Wang's Release Points - 04/18/09

Wang’s release point hasn’t changed since the last time we saw him, which now makes me extra concerned that it was in fact an intentional change.  The horizontal release point is more similar to what it was when he was successful, but it’s still a big chunk higher up.

I really wish I could find out more about why his release point was changed and the thinking behind it. It might be because the pitching coaches think that throwing it straight overhand will give it a better sink, but as anyone who has been watching knows–it ain’t working.