Scouting Report: Dae-Eun Rhee

Dae-Eun Rhee is a 23 year old right hander from South Korea currently pitching for the Tennessee Smokies (the AA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs). He has a good curveball that looks like it is of 12-6 variety. It definitely qualifies as a "slow curve". When I saw him (May 15th 2012 against the Jackson Generals), he was getting opponents to chase a lot, especially on the curveball. He has decent looking velocity on a moving fastball that can run in or tail away (and usually moved down as well). He also threw a couple of straight, high 4-seamers with good looking velocity. His numbers are nothing special, but he looks pretty advanced as far as his different pitches and pitch selection. Nothing is real straight, and he changes speeds pretty well. In the game I saw, he didn't give up much hard contact, and has always had a pretty respectable GO/AO ratio. He did have some control problems in the 3rd, and that seems to come with pitcher that have heavy movement like Rhee, as they can't always control it. His minor league walk numbers suggest that he has had this problem a lot. However, there is nothing in his delivery that suggests that he won't be able get control at some point (as in, it is not a quirky delivery). The moving fastball was really the wild pitch for him, as he can throw all his breaking pitches for strikes (but doesn't necessarily have to, as he can get hitters, at least minor league hitters, to chase). He has a little bit of a goofy body type, and looked pretty awful defensively.

Overall, there is obvious potential for Rhee. It all seems to hinge on what he is able to do command wise. I don't really see any reason why he won't be able to gain more command as he develops further. The stuff is there for him to be a solid MLB starter.