02/15/09 4:49 PM EST Yanks optimistic on Wang's health Team being cautious, but hurler expected to be ready for season By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com TAMPA, Fla. -- Each time Chien-Ming Wang climbs to the top of a big league mound, work productivity halts a world away, as the Taiwanese icon takes ownership of the national spotlight in half-inning intervals. A freak Lisfranc injury in his right foot last summer changed all that. When Wang hobbled off the field on June 15 in Houston, hurt running the bases in a blowout victory against the Astros, remote controls across Taiwan suddenly lacked purpose. The Yankees kept playing through September, but Wang's season was done that afternoon. "I feel bad for the fans, because they wanted to see me pitch every five days," Wang said. "I wasn't able to pitch, and they weren't able to watch." Wang was 8-2 at the time, a reliable force for a club that had not missed the postseason in 13 seasons. Forced to cobble together a lackluster rotation in Wang's absence and headed for October darkness, the Yankees on Sunday received a bright reminder of what they'd missed. In front of Yankees manager Joe Girardi and the club's coaching staff, Wang showed off his recovery from a bullpen mound at George M. Steinbrenner Field, earning enthusiastic waves from catcher Jose Molina as his offerings pierced an imaginary strike zone. "It's very good to see him out there," Girardi said. "I knew that he had thrown after the season, but obviously you want to see him coming into camp healthy and feeling good. It's something that we'll watch very closely, but he looked good to me today and didn't look like he favored his foot at all." With the Yankees barely remaining afloat in the American League Wild Card chase, Wang was forced to assume the role of idle observer, dragging his crutches through the carpeted clubhouse at Yankee Stadium and relegated to whatever limited workouts he could complete. "I felt really bad," Wang said. "I wanted to go quicker on rehab, to go back on the field. I couldn't help, I couldn't get on the mound and pitch and I couldn't provide innings for the team." While the Yankees tried to patch their stretch drive together with help from the likes of Alfredo Aceves, Dan Giese, Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner, there was false hope that Wang might return to flickering television screens across Taiwan sooner than expected. Some estimates forecasted that Wang might return as early as August, but that ultimately proved to be optimistic. Wang said Saturday that had the Yankees made the playoffs, he would not have been available to pitch; the pain in his right foot did not disappear until halfway through November. "I thought, maybe one month, two months, and I'd be back," Wang said. It took longer. Wang returned to Taiwan and enlisted the services of a personal trainer to help him through his rehab, the first time Wang has utilized one. "In the winter, I did a lot of free work and a lot of stretching," Wang said. "I did work very hard." While Wang is expected to be in the rotation on Opening Day, the Yankees have placed restrictions on his cardio activity for now. Wang is being discouraged from running and has been completing all of his conditioning indoors, favoring the stationary bicycle over the elliptical trainer. "We don't want his foot taking all that pounding yet," Girardi said. The Yankees expect that Wang will be able to complete all of his necessary tasks by April, though they will be eager to see how he responds during Grapefruit League competition. It is a laborious process: though Wang has been in Tampa for some time, he said his foot felt tight until just last week, when the last of the discomfort subsided. The similarly rare Lisfranc injury suffered by reliever Brian Bruney last year offers some positive track record on the topic, and Girardi said that the coaching staff is looking to make sure Wang pushes off properly and does not favor his right foot when covering bases during fielding practice. "We've seen no signs of that, as of right now," Girardi said. The positive reports lend the Yankees an optimistic view, as they head into a campaign that figures to feature one of their strongest pitching staffs in recent memory. CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett soaked up the headlines, while Andy Pettitte's return complements boisterous Joba Chamberlain and his high-octane arsenal. "I think this rotation is very strong," Wang said. "CC and Burnett are going to get a lot of innings. Pettitte and Joba, too." True to form, Wang left his own name out of the conversation. He needn't. With his healthy return to the Yankees' rotation, people will undoubtedly be paying attention, both in the United States and a world away. Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. http://tinyurl.com/b2e6jo --

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