Having standout Korean pitchers on your staff can be an incredible advantage. His 3.86 ERA to start 2020 is a few ticks above his 2020 FranGraph's ZiPS projection of 3.58 (that projection is 5th best of all pitchers) and his WHIP sits at 1.33. Besides, have you seen the going rate for a decent starting pitcher these days? Straily is entering his age-31 season, and could be primed to dominate the KBO, especially with a de-juiced ball. in offense, but were also the third-best pitching team in the KBO, which fits nicely with the Rays balance of offense and pitching, even if the Rays arent quite as proficient on the offensive side of the ball. 3 starter. Loading Pitcher Player Stats. The city is the home of electronics giant Samsung, which also explains the team name. While only a decent source of power, the 32-year-old should remain a reliable source of hits in 2020, alongside stellar plate discipline, boasting an 8.4% strikeout rate and a 9.5% walk rate in 2019. Its one of my favorite stories in baseball. Interest in former major leaguers in the KBO has spiked in recent years, and so have re-exports of these players back to the States. A decline in velocity is inevitable, but it likely wont be a concern for the As while they have him. Their small gamble of two years and $4.75 million paid off instantly with his first year in Seattle, as he became the fifth starter the team needed. FIP or Fielding Independent Pitching measures what a pitcher's ERA would look like if the pitcher experienced league-average defense and luck. In 2018, the SK Wyverns became the first team in KBO history to win the Korean Series with a foreign born manager, Trey Hillman. On my first trip, a work colleague pointed at my Cleveland Indians hat then pointed to his Tigers hat and said, I take you. Tigers fans are some of the most passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans I have ever met, and even in Northeast Ohio, it is not uncommon to see a Kia Tigers hat from time to time and share a few kind words. Yang Hyeon-jong ( Hangul: , Hanja: ) (born March 1, 1988) is a Korean professional baseball pitcher for the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). When he was younger, he played first and third base, but has been stuck at first for the latter part of his career. He doesnt have much mileage on his throwing arm, and I dont think hell age the way other starters typically do. The Eagles added pitcher Ryan Carpenter from Taiwanese side Rakuten Monkeys and former AL Rookie of the Month infielder Ryon Healy. Last season, their best hitter was a player with Major League experience in Darin Ruf. This was a difficult decision to make. He has impeccable control, with a walk rate hovering between 2 and 4% throughout the high minors. Cho has seven years in the KBO already, so he could be posted as soon as next off-season, but I doubt the market would favor a reliever with a 30-day negotiation window as dictated by the posting system. He posted a 9.45 ERA over 13.1 IP and decided to take things to the peninsula, signing a one-year deal with the Wiz this past December. While his power did take a massive step back in 2019, going from a homer every 20 plate appearances to one every 38 in his sophomore campaign, power fell across the KBO as the league de-juiced baseballs league-wide. A few seasons later, if he discovered the strength needed to throw at an increased effort throughout an entire season, that would explain why his velocity has trended up, not down. Lively usually managed good strikeout rates during his time stateside, but walks were an issue, and what ultimately held him back as a pitcher. Alcantara finished the 2020 season with a 20-2 record and 2.54 ERA, winning the Choi Dong-won award as the KBO's best pitcher, and if he can build on his success in Japan a return to the Majors may not be far off. He posted a 9.45 ERA over 13.1 IP and decided to take things to the peninsula, signing a one-year deal with the Wiz this past December. He had nowhere to go but up. Hyun-Soo Kim you may remember from his brief stint with the Baltimore Orioles and Philadelphia Phillies in 2016 and 2017. I cant help but root for this guy. He bounced around from the Rangers to the Cubs, back to the Rangers, then to the Pirates, before finally making his MLB debut in 2015 with the Braves. Ruf was definitely the anchor of the Lions lineup last year, as the teams next best hitter, Ja-wook Koo, had a .771 OPS. Take Merrill Kelly for example, whos serving as the de facto ace for the rebuilding Diamondbacks. Theres a realistic chance that Rucinski flops. Bringing in a pitcher from a foreign league is a risky prospect, no matter how promising or trustworthy said pitcher might be. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. But they took it a step further and named themselves the Wyverns, which is far superior and much cooler than your boring, run-of-the-mill, four-legged dragon. The matchup here is tough but Choi has been one of the more solid pitching options in the KBO over the past few seasons. Knowing which ones excel can help you make more informed value bets. Of the top 23,. Really enjoyed opening day (night). The bad news: Since 2008, the Eagles have only qualified for the playoffs once. The Samsung Lions are a former powerhouse that has fallen on tough times in recent years. The good news: that once was quite recent. They are the only team in the KBO not owned by a larger parent company. With the KBO de-juicing the ball in 2019, Yang Hyeon-jong had his best season since his MVP year. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. According to an article from the Yonhap News Agency in March of 2019, the Giants topped Gallup popularity polls from 2008-2013 and appeared back on top in 2018. so many quotables. That made the Lotte Giants a perfect fit for my familiarity with thinking and writing about struggling teams. This forward-thinking approach is supported by the Dinos hiring of Swiss Army knife front office member Patrick Bourgo, a SABR member who serves as the lone employee in KBO whose role is specifically to help foreign players adapt to Korea and bridge cultural barriers that have deterred previous foreign players. But after homers, Jeong really pulls away from the former major leaguer. Lee Jung-lee (left) and Kang Baek-ho (right) With Kim Ha-seong 's latest success as the Padres SS, KBO's best young stars could join him stateside soon as well. Its unclear who will step up in 2020, but there will undoubtedly be a huge void to fill with Lindbloms departure. Heroes started as a brand new franchise in 2008, they did not start and continue from the Sammi Chungbo Pacific Hyundai lineage. They have an absolutely gorgeous stadium. Typically, plate discipline adjustments like that dont come at age 19, so it will be very exciting to see where he can take his game in 2020. Their top three instantly becomes one of the best in the league come playoff time. The injured list (10- , 15- , or 30-day limits) will be introduced to the KBO in 2020. In many ways, it has been one of Asias best-kept secrets. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted Also on the roster is former major leaguer Ben Lively, who joined the Lions for 57 innings in 2019, and will return for the 2020 season. Named KBO Best Pitcher with the SK Wyverns posting a 17-6 record with a 2.51 ERA in 190.1 innings with 180 strikeouts.Led the KBO in quality starts (24) while ranking second in wins and strikeouts, third in ERA and innings pitched.Was a road warrior earning 13 of his 17 wins on the road going 13-1 with a 2.30 ERA in 16 appearances. He may project more as a reliever in the majors, but Rucinski could still put up some good years as a starter in Korea too. This wasnt with the Dinos, but this is why Ive rooted for Thames since 2012, and why I have picked the Dinos as my KBO team: given @EricThames' signing with the nationals today, i would like to remind everyone of the greatest walk-off interview i have ever seen. The Tigers lost second baseman Ahn Chi-hong () to the Lotte Giants. (Unofficial) KBO League stats, schedules, video links, live game day coverage and more. On the pitching side of things, the Wyverns lost a few key pieces during the offseason. . In his rookie season in 2015, he had a .349/.417/.534 slash line and followed it up with a .343/.420/.547 line at just 23 years old, and looked like one of the bright young hitters in the league, as he followed up his first two strong seasons with two consecutive .900-plus OPS seasons, before he saw a decline in 2019. Now, lets talk about the Eagles. They have won two championships (1984 and 1992) and have only made the playoffs six times since the turn of the century. The initial lack of it also might have caused him to conserve his energy early on. ESPN The good news? In 2019, the Bears best pitcher was undoubtedly Josh Lindblom, who won the Choi Dong-won award (the KBOs Cy Young equivalent) in both 2018 and 2019, and took home the league MVP in 2019 with league-leading numbers in wins, strikeouts, WHIP, K/BB, and opponent AVG, and finishing second in ERA on the season. Pitchers Team W-L-SV ERA WHIP G GS QS IP R ER H HR SO BB K/BB; Raul Alcntara #43 . Like the MLB, the KBO holds an All-Star Game partway through the season in July. Under the current KBO playoff format, the top seed has won the Series 24 of 29 times. Rucinski also pitched very well in the Korean Series, winning Games 1 and 6, while earning a save in Game 4. Last year, Chun-Woong Lee slashed .308/.378/.374 with two home runs, 88 runs, 48 RBI, and 21 stolen bases. While the rate stats have been impressive, Koos innings pitched have also dropped in the last few years. Their top pitcher is Aaron Brooks, who has a 2.76 ERA (7th in the KBO) and leads the KBO with an 11% hard-hit rate (among pitchers with at least 100 AB against them). Their all-time winning percentage is .471, but they remain one of the most popular teams in the KBO. 1. To give you an idea, let's imagine a pitcher who threw 200 innings, struck out 200, walked and hit 60, gave up 24 home runs, and 240 fly balls. At the end of the day, the KBO is what we love: baseball. A passionate fanbase that is used to winning in a smaller town whose roots are in manufacturing. Their first roster consisted mostly of players from the defunct Ssangbangwool Raiders team, who disbanded due to ownership bankruptcy. KBO Rookie of the Year (2014), KBO League Golden Glove Award (2019) The winning team takes on the first-place team in the Korean Series, played as a best-of-seven. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. As for our Wyverns? The city is about 238 kilometers, or about 150 miles away from Seoul. Upon returning to the KBO in 2018, though, he picked up right where he left off by blasting 43 home runs with an insane .345 AVG and 112 RBI in just 113 games. The soon to be 38 year-old 1B/3B has led the Eagles in batting average every year since 2015. Hiwoom->Kiwoom, Your email address will not be published. If you get more thrills rooting for the underdog as opposed to the perennial favorites, than the Hanwha Eagles are for you. Last year, Wilson posted a 2.92 ERA and 1.16 WHIP over 185 innings, and similar to Kelly, he had one of the best ERAs in the league at sixth. With a strong defense behind him (and Jokisch himself is no slouch, winning the Fielding Bible Award at pitcher), he was able to win the ERA title at 2.14. Koo relies on his slider as his best breaking pitch, and pairs it with a splitter and a curveball to round out his repertoire. Aaron Brooks (Kia Tigers) Aaron Brooks came to the KBO with much less fanfare than Dan Straily, but there are similarities in both of their journeys to Korea. Kiwoom would eventually go on to be swept themselves in the Korean Series by Doosan. Weather data provided by Weather. If Im thinking about a team that is often shadowed by a rival team in the same city but also has an incredibly passionate fanbase its hard not to immediately think of the New York Mets. , including an adorable robot named DomDoml, whose head was modeled after their stadium, the gorgeous Gocheok Sky Dome. Major League Teams Shortly after graduating high school, he debuted at the age of 18 with the KT Wiz, hitting 29 home runs en route to Rookie of the Year honors. He also has the most starting experience of the relievers, starting 20 of his 39 appearances for Kiwoom from 2018 to 2019, before being moved exclusively to the bullpen in 2020. In 2017, the KBO tweaked the strike zone to make it, in practice, larger. It also has new rules coming into place as early as next year that will increase the similarities with MLB. The Tigers 2020 campaign will likely feature strong pitching, but will like only go as far as their batting can take them. He made his MLB debut with Texas in 2021. Their position players only accumulated 6.57 WAR over the whole season. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. Updated: Thursday, March 2, 2023 3:23 AM ET, Park Factors Thanks for putting together. Like Grove, he didn't reach the majors until the age of 25, but he pitched into his 40s; sort of an early version of Warren Spahn. 1:13 Former MLB pitcher Mike Montgomery, who was a reliever on the Chicago Cubs' 2016 World Series team, threw a rosin bag at an umpire after he was tossed from a KBO game on Friday. Once upon a time, the Samsung Lions were the class of the KBO. The team as a collective posted a .488 SLG in 1999, which is the highest in KBO history, and earned them the nickname the Dynamite Bats (this is also a nod to the Hanwha conglomerates main business: explosives production). 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