RHP Chien-Ming Wang was examined today at New York Presbyterian Hospital Columbia Medical Center by Yankees Team Physician, Dr. Stuart Hershon and Dr. Justin Greisberg, Foot and Ankle Specialist.

Imaging studies revealed a mid-foot sprain of the Lisfranc ligament of the right foot and a partial tear of the peroneal longus tendon of the right foot.

Wang will be on crutches and wear a protective boot for a minimum of six weeks.

– Yankees.com, 6/16/2008 (2:49PM EST)

Rays take second place in the AL East, anyone?

Though ruling out the Yankees for a 2008 playoff berth would be both foolhardy and premature, their chances at the division title were dealt a serious blow last Sunday when Chien-Ming Wang suffered a dreaded Lisfranc injury while rounding third on a Derek Jeter single. The injury was both unlucky – how many times a year does Chien-Ming Wang round third base? – and uncommon. Jon Lieber tore his peroneal longus covering home plate in 2007, while Ken Griffey Jr. injured his in 2003. Lisfranc injuries, on the other hand, occur more frequently in football than baseball, with Dwight Freeney and Kevin Jones being two big-name players to recently suffer them. Oddly enough, Yankees reliever Brian Bruney tore his Lisfranc in April, but his was more severe (he’ll likely miss the entire season). Wang appears set to miss the months of July and August at minimum, a crippling misfortune for the Yankees, whose rotation – while Chien-Ming hobbles about the clubhouse in crutches and a walking boot – shapes up like so:

1. Andy Pettitte (88 IP, 4.64 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 3.91 FIP, -0.52 WPA, .332 BABIP)
2. Mike Mussina (82 IP, 3.87 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 4.17 FIP, 0.52 WPA, .296 BABIP)
3. Darrell Rasner (42 IP, 3.65 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 3.14 FIP, 0.21 WPA, .315 BABIP)
4. Joba Chamberlain (36.1 IP, 2.48 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 3.16 FIP, .91 WPA, .294 BABIP) * combined RP/SP
5. Dan Giese (59 IP, 1.98 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 2.78 FIP, .265 BABIP) *AAA numbers

Who? With respect to Dan Giese’s success in AAA this season, he’s a 31 year old right-handed journeyman who’s played parts of 10 minor league seasons with the Red Sox, Padres, Phillies, Giants, and Yankees organizations. He’s got excellent control – only 123 walks in 658 minor league innings – but has virtually no MLB track record to speak of, having thrown just 15.2 big-league innings in his career, all of them coming in relief. According to his 2008 PITCHf/x data, he throws a upper-80s fastball and a upper-70s slider (the 2007 system classified the pitch as a curveball, I’m not sure which is more correct). Regardless, his stuff seems more suited to relief work, and unless he has a third pitch he’s been hiding from everyone, he’s not likely to be effective for more than one or two turns through the lineup, and he CERTAINLY won’t match Wang’s numbers. One has to imagine that if he can pitch like a poor man’s Paul Byrd, the Yankees will content themselves with that.

The problem, of course, is that the Yankees didn’t bring Giese in to fill in for their injured #5 starter. From whence shall come the true replacement? Before even considering whether or not the Yankees will need to look outside of the organization for help, Wang’s injury puts tremendous pressure on Joba Chamberlain to pitch like a front-end starter now. It looks like the Yankees picked the right time to put Joba in the rotation, because had they waited, they would have certainly made the switch following the Wang injury and would have had to make do for three to four weeks while Chamberlain got stretched out. It’s anyone’s guess as to how the next two months will look for Joba, but his last start was encouraging, even if he did walk four and strike out just two.

Pettitte and Mussina are known quantities at this point, but Pettitte is 36 and Mussina is 39; they both have solid histories of health, but neither are capable of dominating good offenses, and having an ace pitcher is extremely important, as most people are aware. Rasner is another steady, consistent command guy with an 88-92mph fastball to go with a slider/curve/change. His season numbers are excellent, but look at who he’s faced – SEA/DET/BAL/BAL/MIN/KC/OAK. Based on their records at the time, Rasner’s opponents have had a .478 winning percentage (those same teams are currently at .456). Basically, he’s been getting fat off teams that aren’t very good, or weren’t good at the time (Detroit).

If Joba can’t succeed quickly, the Yankees might not even have a true #2 starter right now. Should the rotation surrenders 4-5 runs per game, will a bullpen headed by Ross Ohlendorf and Kyle Farnsworth be able to effectively carry leads – if they’re given leads at all- to Rivera?

Theoretically, the Yankees could get Ian Kennedy back at the end of next month, and Phil Hughes back 3-4 weeks later. Even IF those two were to return as drastically improved versions of the pitchers we saw early in 2008, will the Yankees be in a position to contend if they sit back and wait? C.C. Sabathia to New York is everyone’s favorite rumor, but there is no guarantee that A) Sabathia will be available, or that B) the Yankees, after passing on Santana, will want to offer the type of package that would be necessary to land Sabathia. Peter Gammons recently floated Rich Harden’s name in a column as a possible high-risk, high-reward trade target for numerous teams at the deadline. Either pitcher – if Harden were to stay healthy, which he won’t – would give the Yankees a legitimate ace and allow them to try and compete in 2008. Other free agents to be include A.J. Burnett, Jon Garland, Paul Byrd, Brett Tomko, and Horacio Ramirez (and hey, guys like Freddy Garcia and John Patterson are just out there for the taking!).

The next 5 weeks will be extremely interesting. What the Yankees end up doing could well depend on the Rays and Tigers as much as the Indians, because if the Red Sox open up a significant lead in the AL east, the Wild Card picture may dictate how the Yankees approach August and September. The Yanks could have in the neighborhood of $60 million coming off the books after 2008 in the form of Pavano, Giambi, Mussina, Abreu, and Farnsworth, and Hank “the NL is soooo 1846″ Steinbrenner has yet to really make his spending proclivities known. It’s unlikely that, in the final season played in their hallowed (ugly) ballpark, the Yankees will go down without a fight. Wang’s foot injury is crushing, though, and they likely don’t have enough in-house answers to avoid making a significant move before August 1st.