KBO Catchers Pop Times

With the Korea Baseball Organization regular season over, I'll soon be releasing the 2013 KBO WAR rankings. This year, I don't believe there will be a real defensive component as there just isn't enough good data. Last year's data was especially unhelpful when it came to catcher defense. There are many facets to catcher defense, such as receiving and game calling, but the simplest facet is measured by a stopwatch, measuring the time it takes for a catcher to catch the ball and throw it to 2nd, a catcher's poptime. In this post I wanted to look at the poptimes of catchers in the KBO, so I looked at the main catcher from each team (and an extra catcher for Doosan), found a video of a throw down of each, and timed it several times. I labelled the results with each catcher's name and made a GIF of them throwing, just for a visual look.


Choi Jae-hoon: 1.91-1.94

Hyun Jae-yoon: 2.00-2.10

Heo Do-Hwan: 1.90-1.95

Lee Hong-gu: 2.00-2.05

Yang Yi-Ji: 1.84-1.85

Kang Min-ho: 1.9-2.00

Jung Beom-mo: 1.97-2.00

Jin Kap-Yong: 2.09

Kim Tae-goon: 2.00

Jung Sang-ho: 2.00

Jo Ji-Hoon Scouting Report

Jo Ji-Hoon is a 19 year old right-handed pitcher for the Hanwha Eagles, not turning 20 until April of 2014. The Eagles brought him up earlier in the season and had him throwing out of the bullpen before giving him his first start in the past week.

Jo is listed at just over 6 feet tall, and 200 pounds, though he didn't seem to be  heavy to me. Either way, he is unlikely to add weight, so adding velocity seems unlikely, though it is always tricky to tell.

I saw him work out of then pen, getting up to 89 MPH, which even for the KBO, is below average top end velocity. With that said, he had really good numbers in the KBO minor leagues, and at 19, even for a really bad team, to get a start (not to mention his success in the bullpen before the start) shows that he seems to have some advanced feel for pitching.

Mechanically, he swings his arm pretty far back, but he comes forward in a pretty traditional manner. He doesn't provide the deception that many of the pitchers in the KBO might have, but they don't look as hard to repeat, other than quite a long stride, as many pitchers' mechanics. 

Ji-Hoon proved to be difficult to classify. He topped out at 143 KMH, which is about 89 MPH, throwing one pitch that hard. The slowest pitch he threw was a curveball around 73 MPH, not having the traditionally slow curve.

The easiest way to break down his pitches is by three simple classifications, fastball, curveball, and changeup. The biggest challenge was differing from the fastball and changeup which was tough. There were some pitches in the 80-83 MPH range that didn't really drop like you would expect a changeup. I tried my best, just by watching the pitches. This way of classifying him has his fastball averaging about 85.9 MPH, between 82-89 MPH (133-143 KMH), thrown 59 % of the time.

The changeup averaged about 79.6 MPH, 75-84 MPH (121-135 KMH), thrown 19 % of the time. The curve averaged 79.4 MPH, 73-78 MPH (117-126 KMH), thrown 22 % of the time.

However, this is an overly simplistic way of looking at how Jo threw the ball, as it doesn't appreciate the different things he was doing with his pitches. I think you can identify seven different pitches Ji-Hoon was throwing if you break his fastballs into three parts. He was throwing the straight 4-seam fastball, but he also threw a lot of sinkers, with pretty good locations at the bottom of the zone and some movement. You could also explain his slower fastballs by looking by calling it a 2-seamer, as some of them tailed inside to righties. It wasn't a good pitch, but it might help explain what was going on rather than just really inconsistent velocity (which could be true since he is again, just 19).

Some of his harder curves did look like sliders, so you could break that pitch in two if you needed to. The traditional curveball had really nice break to it (I thought it was his best pitch) and he could throw it for strikes, while the pitches that looked like sliders to me didn't sweep or go horizontal much, but they had a different vertical break, a lot like the slider that you see a lot of Korean and Japanese pitchers throw.

He also seemed to alternate from a traditional changeup and a forkball, this based just by observation on movement. The change breaks more arm side and is less sudden, while the forkball spikes in the dirt. He seemed to have both.

Anecdotally, he seemed to work fastball heavy early and then went really breaking ball/off-speed heavy later in the game. Here is a graph of his pitch velocities (by KMH instead of MPH) sorted by pitch count, the first pitch being the far left, and the last pitch being the far right (I manually logged the velocities based on the broadcast, so there are a few missing that weren't shown for whatever reason):

I think, because of the velocity, Jo's ceiling is quite limited. He is not going to be a guy that MLB teams will be scouting a lot, and I don't see him emerging as an elite pitcher in the KBO. However, his advanced command for his age, along with his selection of pitches, should allow him to have some success now, and be at least a stabilizer in the Eagles rotation, who need a lot of guys who can get outs, and he is young, so barring some kind of injury or unforeseen regression, he should be around for quite a long time.

How we did: Week 16 NFL Picks

Big D in Bold. I in Italics
Colts shock Texans
Excuse: The Texans look pretty bad now, the Yates magic is going away, they miss Andre Johnson, and are becoming one dimensional. The Colts are starting to look better, Dan Orlovsky is playing good enough, and is an easy upgrade over Painter.

Giants dismantle Jets
Excuse: Jets defense looked very vulnerable up the middle. This is not the 2011 or 2010 Jets.

Bills destroy Broncos
Excuse: I have been on the side that doesn't believe Tebow is a quality quarterback (30th best in the league according to ESPN's QBR), and this week he gave the Broncos no chance to win, even against the terrible Bills. The special teams was awful, even though the defense didn't play terrible.

Eagles bruise Cowboys
Packers roll over Bears
Saints break records against Falcons

Big D: 2-4, 55-34 overall
I: 3-3, 55-34 overall

NFL Picks: week 16

Big D in Bold. I in Italics

Texans versus Colts
Jets versus Giants
Broncos versus Bills
Eagles versus Cowboys
Packers versus Bears
Saints versus Falcons

NFL Picks: Week 13

Big D in Bold. I in Italics

Eagles versus Seahawks
Falcons versus Texans
Steelers versus Bengals
Cowboys versus Cardinals
Saints versus Lions
Chargers versus Jaguars

How we did: Week 12 NFL Picks

Big D in Bold. I in Italics

Cowboys survive Dolphins
Packers figuratively stomp on Lions
Ravens sack 49ers
Falcons beat Vikings
Texans fire Jaguars
Patriots embarrass Eagles
Steelers knock off Chiefs
Saints run all over Giants

Big D: 8-0, 43-21
I: 7-1, 40-24

How we Did: Week 9 NFL Picks

Big D's picks in Bold, mine in Italics

Cowboys run over Seahawks
Giants stun Patriots'
Excuse: The good Giants showed up this week, but my confidence in the Patriots is definitely shaken after back to back losses.
Broncos make less mistakes than Raiders
Excuse: I think we can rule out the Raiders being a playoff contender, and that Carson Palmer trade looks really really bad.
Ravens shock Steelers
Bears finish off Eagles
Excuse: I kept faith in the Eagles, and it proved to be dumb. They are done.

Big D: 3-2, 29-16 overall
Me: 2-3, 28-17 overall

NFL Picks: Week 9

Big D in Bold, I in Italics

Cowboys versus Seahawks
Patriots versus Giants
Broncos versus Raiders
Ravens versus Steelers
Eagles versus Bears

How We did Week 8 NFL Picks

Big D in Bold. I in italics

Giants survive Dolphins
Steelers frustrate Patriots
 Excuse: This one surprised me a little bit. Contrary to what many people have been saying, the Steelers have not been playing well. 
Bills dropkick Redskins
Eagles embarrass Cowboys
Chiefs surprise Chargers
Excuse: The Chargers look bad. It is almost like they are coached by Norv Turner.
  
Big D: 2-3, 26-14 overall
I: 3-2, 26-14 overall

NFL Picks: Week 8

Big D in Bold. I in Italics

Giants versus Dolphins
Patriots versus Steelers
Bills versus Redskins
Eagles versus Cowboys
Chargers versus Chiefs

NFL Picks: Week 6

Big D in bold. Me in Italics

Eagles versus Redskins
Pats versus Cowboys
Bills versus Giants
Bears versus Vikings
Jets versus Dolphins

How we did: Week 3 NFL Picks

 Big D in Bold, Me in italics

Giants defeated Eagles
Packers down Bears
Saints shock Texans
Steelers survive Colts
Cowboys squeak by Redskins

 Big D: 4-1 this week, 11-5 overall
Me: 3-2 this week, 9-7 overall

How we did: Week 2 NFL Picks

Big D's picks are in bold, mine are italicized
Patriots smoked Chargers
Excuse: I picked against the Patriots. Dumb. 
Cowboys survived 49ers
Jets crushed Jaguars
Falcons swarmed Eagles
Excuse: This was sort of a pick 'em game, Eagles led most of the way, their defense collapsed, that surprised me.
Giants toppled Rams
Excuse: I don't like either of these teams, but the Rams played horrendous, that just wasn't a very good pick

Big D: 3-2 this week, 7-4 for the year
Me: 2-3 this week, 6-5 for the year 

NFL Picks: Week 2

Big D's picks are in bold, mine are italicized

Patriots versus Chargers
Cowboys versus 49ers
Jets versus Jaguars
Eagles versus Falcons
Rams versus Giants

NFL Picks: Week 1

My friend Big D and I will be picking certain NFL games every week through out the season and keep records on how we do. For week 1, we both agree on our picks, and here they are:

Patriots over Dolphins
Eagles over Rams
Giants over Redskins
Jets over Cowboys
Ravens over Steelers
Broncos over Raiders