KBO Scouting Reports: Jin Woo Kim and Kyung-Eun Noh

Here are scouting reports on two pitchers in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO):

Kyung-Eun Noh (노경은) had a miserable 2011 if you look just at his ERA (5.17), but his FIP was alright at 3.75 (league average ERA in 2010 was 4.58. Baseball Reference doesn't have data on 2011-2012 for some odd reason).
In 2012 he was much better with nearly a strikeout an inning and a 2.53 ERA. Some of this is just DIPS correction, but it does seem he pitched better overall in 2012. There are heat maps available on KBO pitchers at this site and they suggest that Noh was avoiding the middle of the plate in 2012 more than he was in 2011.

2011:

2012:

It does seem that he did a good job of working both sides of the zone if the heat maps are accurate. Something Noh does a good job of is get a lot of grounders, as even in 2011 he had a 0.76 FO/GB (GB/FB inverted, which is what MyKBO.net uses).

The Korean Data site has a list of the pitches the KBO pitchers throw, but just gives pitch ranges, so I used the median for each pitch he throws to give sort of an average.

Noh's fastball is just about 90 MPH, here are his other pitches:

83.39 MPH slider: his most frequent breaking ball

81.22 MPH curve (so a harder curve than most curves). He doesn't use it very often according to the scouting report.

84.01 MPH Forkball. He likes to use it when he is ahead.

Also what I think is a cutter (the word translated as Kurt) at 87.73 MPH. Doesn't use it often according to the report.

Noh has a history of elbow issues that have really cut into his career, and the switch from the bullpen to the starter role (and the jump of innings) is somewhat concerning. He will turn 29 in Spring Training.

Obviously you aren't going to find many (or any) MLB pitchers with a forkball. So we will look at splitters or changes in comparisons.

Hisashi Iwakuma is sort of an interesting comparison (though it sounds racially lazy), though Noh's slider is harder, forkball is slower than Iwakuma's splitter, and his curve is much harder. Joel Peralta is pretty close, other than not having a slider. Mike Minor is really close if you imagine that the forkball and change are basically the same thing. Obviously Minor throws left-handed, which makes the comparison less believable. 2012 Tim Lincecum looks really similar on paper as far as pitch velocity and repitoire, but  Noh doesn't get the kind of movement Lincecum does (though it looks pretty nice):

You see him hit nearly 94 MPH in the video, so his fastball is plus is short spurts. This video (and the one below) gives you a nice look of his mechanics. The forkball plays a prominent role in the video, and I don't think it is a good pitch (though he seems to command it well).

Jin Woo Kim (김진우) is another RHP with the following list of pitches:

91.76 MPH fastball

88.35 MPH sinker

83.39 MPH slider

79.98 MPH change 

76.57 curve is his "main weapon"

Casey Janssen, the Blue Jays excellent reliever, seems to be similar, other than Kim doesn't have the cutter (which is obviously Janssen's repertoire). Amazingly, Kim's change is slower for the fastball that he has than most MLB pitchers. Brad Brach has a similar fastball (a tick higher) and a change that is actually slower, but he isn't very similar to Kim at all. If you just ignore the changeup, Josh Kinney is an interesting comparison as is Christian Friedrich, the Rockies pitcher. 

Kim will turn 30 in March and has had a pretty interesting career path. As you can see, he is a pretty big guy, perhaps even a little pudgy (though that doesn't really seem to matter, as guys like Sidney Ponson and C.C. Sabathia have shown that you can pitch at a big weight at obviously varying success rates). His mechanics seem pretty clean and standard. He has what looks like a long leg kick. His control in the video borders from below average to poor, but I am really hesitant to base much on that. He did walk 50 batters in 133 2/3rd innings, which isn't awful or even bad, but probably a little too high in the KBO (league average was 3.8 in 2010, so it is at least better than average).
That is a pretty nice looking curve (see 55 seconds in the video). He releases the ball from a weird hand angle (see 1:05) that gives it the good spin. The slider is sort of a baby slider that he can throw for strikes, but it has some nice spin when he doesn't hang it.

Free Agent Watch: White Sox

The White Sox released 1 and outrighted 4, making them all free agents. Firstly, Kyle Cofield, a minor league pitcher drafted in the 8th round by the Atlanta Braves in 2005. He was traded to the White Sox before the 2011 season for Scott Linebrink and 3.5 million. Linebrink posted a .6 WAR with the Braves in 2011 and had an effective salary (once the 3.5 million is calculated) of 2 million (makes it a mediocre WASP of 3333.3). Cofield did not pitch in the majors for the White Sox. Cofield only threw 30 innings in the minors (28 in AA and 2 in AAA, we will only look at the AA numbers), all as a reliever. He posted a -.68 PE, not very impressive, but not bad. He had a FIP of 3.16, .310 BABIP, left 78% of runners on base, didn't give up a homer, and had a 1.77 K/BB ratio. Other than the Walk to K ratio, these are pretty good and promising numbers. I see no reason for someone not to gobble him up as a minor league free agent, he is only 24, and seems to have a future in front of him. Josh Kinney is a pitcher who pitched in 13 games (in relief) for the White Sox in 2011, earning a -.1 WAR. He had previously appeared in 45 games (all relief) for the Cardinals. His PE is not very good at 1.12, but his TR is not bad at 9.36. He has been victimized by poor fielding, only a 3.99 FIP compared to his 5.12 ERA. He keeps the ball in the park for the most part .83 HR/9, and gets over twice as many groundballs as flyballs, which is extremely valuable. His ability to miss bats (10.19 K/9 in 2011) is also very valuable. The high ERA will scare some people off, but if you can get Kinney for a low salary, I would pick him up in a heartbeat. The only position player of the 5 is Tony Pena, who played in the Majors with the Royals and Braves, but never for the Sox. Pena has a career WAR of -2.4 and .248 OBP. His pitches per starter metric is only 76 pitches, which is horrible. I don't see any reason for a team to want him. Another pitcher Shane Lindsay has logged a grand total of 6 big league innings, so looking at his minor league stats would be much more helpful. In 2011 his AAA numbers were astounding at a -6.21 PE. However, some metrics suggest this was kind of fluky. His FIP was 3.99, way above his microscopic 1.98 ERA. He also had big time troubles with walks, walking 7 per 9 innings and a K/BB ratio of 1.53. He made up for it by not giving up homers (only .28 HR/9). His BABIP was also astonishingly low, at .193, something he has never really seen in his career. Rather than domination, this suggests luck and good fielding. He appears to be a solid minor league pitcher, it just doesn't make any sense to expect a repeat of his amazing 2011 AAA season. No reason to not sign him to a minor league contract. The final player is minor league pitcher Leyson Septimo, a former Arizona Diamondback farm hand. He is 26 and has gotten as high as AAA in 2010, but pitched miserably there with a 11.12 ERA all out of the bullpen. He hasn't been that good in AA either, with an ERA over 5 but in 2011 in the White Sox organization had a PE of -5.15 with a FIP of 2.97. He gave up a .349 BABIP, and it is hard to imagine that would continue, meaning he would get better. He only gave up .34 HR/9, but has struggled with walks in his minor league career. This is another guy that you can take a chance on with a minor league roster spot and feel good about it.