Yankees hope Wang has the right stuff

Thursday April 28, 2005 1:20AM


NEW YORK (AP) -- Chien-Ming Wang got the news from Bucky Dent, his manager at Triple-A Columbus: The New York Yankees were bringing up the pitcher and scheduling him to start against Toronto on Saturday in his major league debut.

"I was so excited I couldn't fall asleep last night until this morning at 4 o'clock," Wang said Wednesday after arriving at Yankee Stadium.

Speaking in Mandarin through a translator, Wang still appeared to be excited about replacing injured right-hander Jaret Wright in the Yankees' rotation. The 25-year-old right-hander from Taiwan, the top pitching prospect in New York's thin minor league system, had only been to Yankee Stadium twice before, visits while playing for the Yankees' Staten Island farm team.

Wang (pronounced "Wong") is 2-0 with a 4.15 ERA in four starts this season at Triple-A Columbus. To clear a roster spot, the Yankees optioned right-hander Colter Bean to their International League club.

"We wanted to bring him [in] ahead of time, basically just to give him some time to settle in, say his hellos," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

New York manager Brian Cashman said during spring training that Wang would be the first option in case the Yankees needed to call up a starter because of injuries. With Tanyon Sturtze on the disabled list along with Wright, New York turned to Wang.