I R Fast: A Look at KBO Release Points and Deliveries

In this post, I want to look at some of the deliveries and the release points of pitchers in the Korean Baseball Organization. First, for some context, it is helpful to look at the release points of some recent or current KBO pitchers courtesy of American Pitch F/X data:
In the screenshots below, I included as many pitches as I could find, but I am obviously missing some. The teams should be correct, but there may be a couple that are wrong. More importantly, the names should be correct. A big thanks to Dan of MyKBO for being helpful as always. He was a huge help in identifying some names I had problems figuring out, and I used his rosters and Korean spellings of names to find players. If there are any that are just wrong, let me know in the comments, so I can fix it. All of the screenshots were taken from YouTube, many of them from the criminally under viewed videos of LefthandedSubmarine. I don't know who that is, but his videos give you awesome looks at Korean pitchers and hitters. The screenshots are not uniform, that is, they differ in quality, times of delivery, and angle. I tried to crop out graphics, my own mouse, and any other distractions, but wasn't always successful and often caused different sizes of the pictures. I can't really help that.

So why am I doing this? What am I look for? First I am always interested in arm angle and release point. Are they releasing the ball in a way that will cause platoon splits? Where are they standing on one side of the rubber or the other (this is harder to tell in some of the screenshots)? Also, what do their deliveries look like? Do they look deceptive? Do they look repeatable? Are there heads going along with their bodies? What does their posture look like? For a lot of the pitchers, I will include some notes on what I think about their deliveries. Feel free to disagree with my notes, that is why I put the pictures up there, so people can make their own observations.

NC:

Adam Wilk

Not bad posture, we don't see the arm come all the way through in the screenshot, so this isn't a great look. He stands on the very 3rd base side of the rubber, which seemed strange to me. His back twists some, but I don't see an overall body lean.

Charles Shirek

He looks like he leans to the left quite a bit, especially with his back and head. His arm angle looks pretty traditional and he has pretty solid posture.

Choi Keum-gang

The arm has already come through and he has already released the ball, so it is hard to guestimate posture too much. Head is straight with body, traditional arm angle.

Eric Hacker

Clearly has bad posture, back has already come through even though his arm hasn't. Traditional arm angle.

Im Jung-ho

Good posture, but arm comes way out.

Ko Chang-sung

Lee Hyung-beom

Not very good posture.

Lee Min-ho

Same here, looks like the previous pitcher, traditional arm angle.

Lee Seung-ho

This is just ugly. I am not sure where to start, that is just painful to look at.

Lee Sung-Min

The big there here is where his head at. This probably doesn't let him repeat his delivery well and may cause him to crossfire.

Noh Sung-ho

Lee Jae-hak

Low arm angle, almost sidearm because his back comes through so early. Head pointed slightly away.

Hanwha:

Ahn Seung-Min

Looks pretty traditional other than a tilt to the left.

Denny Bautista:

It almost looks like he is falling down, he is way pointed to the left. The arm angle is traditional.

Chan Ho Park:

Obviously retired now, but I am not sure why I didn't put him in the release point chart above. As you can see, Park's is one of the cleanest out of all of them, standing up pretty straight, good posture, traditional 3/4ths arm angle. Park is probably what you should compare all the other ptichers too as far as delivery.

Dana Eveland:

Arm drags behind his body it seems, arm angle seems way out, but that appears to be just the angle, as the release point chart has him pretty standard.

Hyun-Jin Ryu

Not great posture, leans a little right, especially with the head. No real red flags though, arm angle is pretty traditional, sort of high for his height.

Kim Hyuk-Min

Almost a tomahawk motion, not much out, just straight over the top. Head leans with body.

Kim Jong-Soo

Little bit of a lean to the left, looks like he is falling off the mound.

Kim Kwang-Soo

Decent posture, slight lean to the left, arm seems to drag a little.

Ma Il-yeop

Pretty standard, the arm might be a little behind his body.

Park Jung-jin

Fuzzy picture doesn't really help, but clear head lean, arm angle a little more up than usual (not a bad or good thing, just an observation).

Yoo Chang-sik

Not great posture, traditional arm angle, head leaning to the right.

Doosan:

Ahn Kyu-Young

Poor posture, though the fact the arm has already come through in the screenshot makes it look more dramatic than it should be.

Byun Jin-soo

Sidearmer

Dustin Nippert

Not great posture, arm angle is pretty traditional, leaning pretty hard to the left.

Garrett Olson

Leaning very hard to the right, not a good looking delivery.

Hong Sang-sam

Kim Chang-hoon

Sidearmer with good posture, which is kind of weird (though I don't know what it means).

Kim Kang-ryul

Kim Sun-woo

Lee Hye-cheon

Good posture but his arm is way out.

Lee Jae-woo

If he weren't tilting so far to the left, then this would be one of the better deliveries.

Lee Yong-chan

Noh Kyung-eun

Seo Dong-hwan

Not bad, leans to the left quite a bit.

Won Yong-Mok

Yoon Myung-jun

KIA:

Anthony Lerew

Pretty solid delivery and arm angle, would be even better with slightly better posture.

Han Seung-hyuk

Henry Sosa

First base side of the rubber, arm seems a little low and out.

Im Joon-seop

Very aggressive tilt to the right, over the top delivery.

Jin Hae-soo

Kim Jin-woo

Ko Young-chang

Park Ji-hoon

Park Jun-Pyo

Park Kyung-tae

Posture not good, everything else looks solid.

Seo Jae-weong

Very traditional.

Shim Dong-seop

Son Song-wook

Yang Hyun-jong

Yeo Gun-wook

Yoo Dong-hoon

Very low release point, strange body motion.

Yoon Suk-min

Despite quite an injury history, this is a very traditional delivery. Okay posture, normal arm angle, nothing strange going on with his head.

LG:

Bong Jung-keun

I like this delivery

Choi Hong-Soon

A lot of tilt to the left.

Choi Sung-hoon

His head seems to be working against him.

Im Chan-kyu

Good look at him standing on 3rd base side of rubber and coming very over the top with arm drag.

Im Jung-woo

Ben Jukich

1st base side of the rubber, maybe some arm drag, left leg doing something pretty strange.

Jung Hyun-wook

Jung Jae-bok

Not bad, leans towards first base.

Kim Hyo-nam

Kim Kwang-sam

Poor posture and tilt to the left.

Radhames Liz

The big fastball is brought down by this poor delivery. Not taking advantage of side by making himself horizontal.

Park Dong-Wook

Shin Jae-weong

Looks pretty good

Shin Jung-rak

Woo Kyu-min

Love the look at two different sidearmers.

Yoo Won-Sang

Lotte:

Choi Dae-sung

Posture improvement would make this a very aesthetically pleasing delivery.

Chong Tae-hyon

Arm is submarine, but body is not.

Chris Oxspring

Jin Myung-ho

Jo Jung-hoon

Other than the hard tilt to the left, this looks pretty good, effectively makes him over the top.

Kang Young-sik

Kim Sa-yul

Kim Seung-hee

Does it look like the arm is dragging here?

Kim Soo-whan

Kim Sung-bae

Body and head going in a complete different direction as his arm.

Ko won-jun

High release point.

Lee Jae-gon

He looks big, why is he going sidearm?

Lee Myung-woo

Decent delivery, maybe a little bit too slow with the arm (or quick with the body).

Lee Yong-hoon

Ryan Sadowski

Solid, little bit of left leaning, 3rd base side of rubber.

Shane Youman

This look hurts my hip. Very high release point, using the size.

Song Seung-jun

Nexen:

Brandon Knight

I am trying to figure out what he is doing with his no throwing arm. Maybe this is why he leans to the left, other than that, he looks good, has had a lot of success in the KBO.

Han Hyun-hee

Im Jung-hoon

Pretty good, other than the non throwing arm a very slight lean. Middle of the rubber.

Jang Hyo-Hoon

Kang Yoon-gu

Kim Byung-hyun

Kim Sung-hin

Arm is dragging behind body.

Kim Young-min

I like this one quite a bit, there is a lean to the left.

Lee Bo-keun

His body tilt is sort of strange.

Moon Sung-hyun

Leaning way too much to the left, looks like he is already on 1st base side.

Oh Jae-young

Good example of mediocre posture.

Park Sung-hoon

Slight head lean to right, rest of it looks good.

Shim Soo-chang

Shin Myung-soo

Son Seung-rak

Andy Van Hekken

He has one of the better ones, and had a clear height advantage. Left side of rubber?

Samsung:

Ahn Ji-man

Aneury Rodriguez

Bad posture gives him arm drag, tilts to left with glove arm.

Baek Jung-hyun

Really bad posture and head angle.

Bae Young-soo

Head and glove shoulder a little to left, but looks good other than that.

Cha Woo-chan

Jang Won-Sam

Not terrible.

Jo Hyun-keun

Kim Hee-gul

Kwon Hyuk

Have to think the arm is easy to see since it is so far away from his body, despite the fact that the release point is standard looking.

Kwon Oh-jun

Low 3/4ths delivery.

Lee Woo-sun

Mitch Talbot

Now with the Marlins' minor league system, Talbot struggled in Korea, or was at least below average. The arm angle is traditional, but everything else is horrible. The head tilts way to the left and he is falling off the mound towards the left.

Oh Seung-hwan