In yet another clear-cut case of "why haven't these people heard of stretching", Mr. Chien-Ming Wang has strained his hamstring and will be sidelined for the first 3 weeks of the season. The Wangster summed up the injury and its timing as "very sad" and that he "hope[s] it gets better"; I suppose if you are a non-english speaking pitcher, those are a couple good phrases to memorize once you get injured.

Wang and Pettitte were the two being considered for the excitement/pressure of opening-day starting duties, and while it would seem a safe bet that Pettitte would be defaulted into that role, his own bodily dysfunctions (back spasms, to be exact) mean that he won't be chosen as the opener either....which means....wait for it.....
It's looking like the Yankees Chick's personal saviour Carl Pavano will be sauntering (carefully, please!) up to the mound on opening day. I joke that there is nothing CP could do to redeem himself in my eyes, but I suppose if he whips out a good opening day performance I might trust him 0.009% more than I do at these moment.

Wang's ill-timed injury/Bahamavention also means that the Yanks will get to give one of their Spring Training pitchers a try-out as the 5th man in the rotation for the first couple weeks of the season. Jeff Karstens is the obvious top choice for the job, since he has pitched for the Yankees a bit in the past and has had a successful spring - 2.70 ERA, 11 strikeouts and 0 walks given up in 13.1 innings pitched.

The good news is that Wang's injury shouldn't pose long-term problems; he should be back in the rotation in late April/early May. The bad news, of course, is that I don't really enjoy writing about injuries unless they are occurring to non-Yankees or Carl Pavano, so I think I'm done for the day...