The CPBL hitters better than Manny Ramirez

Despite playing games for 23 years, the Chinese Professional Baseball League probably received the most notoriety in the United States for the exploits of Manny Ramirez with the EDA Rhinos.

Ramirez had a .422 OBP and .555 SLG in his 49 games, making him not only the most notable hitter in the league, but arguably the best as well.  He would go on to play 30 games for the Rangers' AAA affiliate Round Rock, and things didn't go well, as the power evaporated (.111 ISO) and he had a 82 wRC +, similar to his 84 wRC + in 17 games with the Oakland Athletics affiliate in 2012. Of course translations don't work perfectly, or even well at times, but it probably does speak to the talent level of the CPBL that Ramirez couldn't hit in AAA, but dominated the league in his half season. For this post, I found three hitters that had similar 2013 seasons (though they played the full season instead of the first half) to get a look at a few of the best hitters in the league. Like the majority of posts on this blog, it is from an American perspective, so the goal is to see whether or not any of them are MLB prospects. All three players are 27 years old, so they could be considered in the prime of their careers.

Yi-Chuan Lin

The 2013 Home Run derby winner, Lin had the exact same HR % and OBP as Manny Ramirez. Lin also outdid him in slugging percentage by .005. These statistics nearly match 2012's exactly (.419 OBP, .573 SLG). He had more groundouts than flyouts, though the ratio is closer to 1 in 2013 than in 2012. Obviously not much of a runner as a first baseman, he provides no real positional value, though it appears he played a couple of games at 3rd base.For each individual hitter, I GIF'd one of their swings on a home run:

When pitchers throw low and in on him, he can pull the ball with quite a bit of authority. However, he doesn't always have a power swing, and his extreme contact ways are not typical when scouting first basemen. He will cut down on his swing to make sure he puts the ball in play, even going down low and slapping the ball. I don't think that elite pitching would be able to blow the ball past him, but good breaking balls can make him chase and cause him to sacrifice all his power. Perhaps he doesn't have the elite power you want in a corner infielder because he doesn't look the part. If you saw him on a baseball field without seeing his numbers compared to other CPBL hitters, you wouldn't peg him as a power hitter, and at least in this case, I think the bias is warranted. Also, if a picture of Lin was shown to the Rangers before they signed Manny Ramirez and they were told that the two of them hit for the same power in Tawain, then they might not have signed him, or at least, they could have predicted that Manny would fail in AAA. So this is what Lin has stacked against him when getting evaluated by MLB scouts. He is a first baseman that has an offensive game of a solid second baseman or shortstop. He hits for a good average by relying on contact with an occasional home run. That is a skill set that has value, but not from the most power driven position in the MLB.

If Lin (or 2013 Manny) is the best the CPBL has to offer when it comes to power then the MLB isn't going to be looking to the league for powerful position players. So if there is a MLB prospect that is a position player, they have to establish being one by doing something other than hitting for power. It is going to have to come from being a high average hitter with positional value or by great speed or defense.

Kuo Hui Lo

His OBP was .014 points smaller, but he out slugged Ramirez by .010 points. Lo was once a minor leaguer in the United States, playing in the Mariners system from 2006-2011, reaching AA and holding his own (.335 OBP and .430 SLG in pitcher friendly league), but a horrible leg injury at home plate cost him the 2012 season and ended his MLB affiliated career. However, with the season he had in 2013, perhaps he will be back on MLB radars even though he is now 27 years old. Perhaps the biggest thing for him is that he played 89 games in a season and was able to play the field.

Lo had 8 assists defensively, playing all three outfield positions, but mainly centerfield this season. In the minors, he mainly played left field with mostly positive FRAAs, with 2008 being an exception.

He was a pretty extreme flyball hitter this year:

In the minors, the only time he hit more than 10 homers or had an Isolated Slugging over .200 was in the extremely hitter friendly environment of High Desert in 2009. Just by league averages that season, he wasn't overly impressive, but was close to some fringy big leaguers like Konrad Schmidt, Efren Navarro, J.B. Shuck, and Charlie Blackmon. He clearly has some occasional power that he brings into games, and despite not having huge size (he does after all, have to play in the middle of the outfield), he is 6-2 188, certainly big enough to be a big leaguer.

I don't love the swing, and that may be an obstacle for potential MLB teams. He dips his front shoulder, not giving him a smooth or quick swing path to inside pitches. It doesn't seem to take away from his power and he still has the reach and plate coverage to hit pitches outside well, but I think elite pitching would come inside on him and have success.

Hung-Yu Lin

Listed as a catcher, but appears to be mostly a DH, as he caught just 28 of the 97 games he played. Lin has less power than the two players above, slugging just .477 (4th best out of qualified hitters, which Ramirez wasn't because of lack of at-bats), but his OBP was .431, best in the CPBL.

This year, he was a groundball hitter for the first time in his career. While it doesn't look like Lin has great bat speed, he clearly has the strength and plate coverage to hit balls on the outside part of the plate with some authority.

The decider of Hung-Yu Lin's value will be his abilities behind the plate. While I can't speak intelligently about whether or not he is a good receiver, thrower, or even game caller, the fact that it seems he has mostly been a DH suggests that he isn't a plus catcher. This really hurts any value he has with MLB teams because he doesn't hit for the power of the guys above, and doesn't have a real position.

The Deliveries and Fastballs of the Softbank Hawks

Continuing the look at the deliveries of pitchers in the NPB, this post is a look at the deliveries of the Softbank Hawks, in both screenshot and GIF forms. I tried to get the screenshots from behind, but for some I had to do from the home plate perspective. I tried to use a different video or game to make the GIF, just so readers have different angles, etc. Also, building off the look at fastball effectiveness broken down by velocity, I took a look at each pitcher's last week of pitching (for most of them, just one outing) and used the formula to see how their fastballs would project in the Majors (instead of separating each individual fastball into the velocity groups, I just used the averages of the fastballs in and out of the zone, but still used the percentages of the fastballs thrown inside and out of the zone). The ERA - by each pitcher's name is their 2013 number, and isn't park adjusted.

Brian Falkenborg: 48 ERA-

Projected Fastball: 6.89 whiff %, 22.62 contact %, .97 HR %

Shingo Tatsumi: 117 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.36 whiff %, 14.39 contact %, .96 HR %

Kazuyuki Hoashi: 133 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.97 whiff %, 20.54 contact %, 1.02 HR %

Akira Niho: 101 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.66 whiff %, 27.77 contact %, 1.5 HR %

Ryota Igarashi: 57 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 6.81 whiff %, 20.27 contact %, .84 HR %

Shota Takeda: 98 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.59 whiff %, 18.27 contact %, .90 HR %

Masahiko Morifuku: 73 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 5.01 whiff %, 26.51 contact %, 1.6 HR %

Shota Oba: 148 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 5.16 whiff %, 18.46 contact %, 1.21 HR %

Shinya Kayama: 68 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.97 whiff %, 20.54 contact %, 1.3 HR %

Hayto Terahara: 133 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 5.95 whiff %, 18.75 contact %, .84 HR %

Takehito Kanazawa: 56 ERA-

Projected Fastball: 4.59 whiff %, 24.78 contact %, .64 HR %

Akihiro Yanase: 49 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.50 whiff %, 24.64 contact %, 1.4 HR %

Tadashi Settsu*: 65 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 4.8 whiff %, 21.64 contact %, .49 HR %

Vicente Padilla: 108 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 5.13 whiff %, 30.91 contact %, 1.9 HR %

Sho Iwasaki: 127 ERA -

Projected Fastball:  6.88 whiff %, 24.55 contact %, .85 HR %

Shintaro Ejiri*: 46 ERA -

Projected Fastball: 5.94 whiff %, 24.58 contact %, 1.15 HR %

*Thanks to the always helpful Michael Westbay for the help on Settsu, Padilla, and Iwasaki's pitch data.

*Thanks to Kazuto Yamazaki for the Ejiri GIF

An Off-Season Plan for the Rakuten Golden Eagles

While the season is still ongoing, and it appears that the Rakuten Eagles of the NPB will make the playoffs rather easily, it is never too early to look at the off-season and that is what I am doing here. Rather than a real "plan", in this post I will just list some players that I think would make interesting targets for the Eagles, many of whom would be good targets for any NPB team (this post is just Rakuten specific, so their assumed roster needs are taken into consideration here).

Keep Casey McGehee

I would let all the foreign pitchers walk, and I have a feeling Andruw Jones will retire. If he is interested in coming back to Rakuten, I think it is at least worth considering, though if he takes another step back in 2014, it would be a serious problem. Even with McGehee's good season, I think it is doubtful that MLB teams are going to reevaluate him, especially with his shortcomings defensively at 3rd. In the Majors, his bat isn't good enough for 1st base and his defense not good enough for 3rd. With his bat playing better in the NPB, it will play at first, or as Rakuten has done, you can ignore his shortcomings defensively at third base.

Japanese Players in the United States:

Make a run at Hiroki Kuroda

Kuroda may use the NPB as a barganing chip with the Yankees again, as his contract is up. Rakuten could use the money from posting Masahiro Tanaka to offer him a competitive salary (perhaps 10-15 million dollars American money). They could replace an ace with an ace. Rakuten could make Kuroda the highest paid player in the NPB, and I think he would be worth it. It would probably be a long shot because chances are that he will want to remain with the Yankees or pitch with his old team, the Hiroshima Carp, but it is at least worth exploring. He is very good in the MLB, so he might not pitch quite at a 2013 Tanaka level, but he could still probably be the best pitcher in the NPB.

Hideki Okajima

Rakuten should use their foreign player slots (4 on the Ichi-Gun, most teams carry a couple more in the Ni-gun that they can rotate in and out) on starters, not relievers, so Okajima makes a lot of sense to help the back of the bullpen, as Rasner will not be back (Tommy John Surgery) and even if Takashi Saito comes back, he has a long injury history. Okajima was dominant in the NPB in 2012 and very good in the PCL in 2013, but not really given much of a shot in the MLB. It makes sense for him to come back to Japan, and would make sense for Rakuten, though he will have a lot of potential suitors.

Daisuke Matsusaka

Dice-K wasn't great in AAA, and has struggled with the Mets (and has had injury problems over the last few seasons), but the 90 MPH fastball with a 79 MPH changeup could still play in the NPB. I have to imagine he is coming back to Japan for 2014, and I think he is a reasonable gamble for a team with some extra money, and a need in the rotation, especially since he won't cost a foreign spot.

Kensuke Tanaka

Tanaka was a high OBP/low SLG guy in the PCL in 2013 with a long history of NPB success. He is most useful as a middle infielder, even though he isn't a great defender, but Kaz Matsui isn't a plus defender either and he played all year at short. I think Tanaka is great Matsui insurance, in case the later's skill set declines anymore.

Hiroyuki Nakajima

I like Nakajima better than Tanaka, but he is still under contract with the Oakland Athletics. They removed him from the 40 man roster and he didn't hit much in the PCL, so they may be willing to release him. He is a guy who could take over shortstop for Rakuten and be a really nice addition, though he may be more interested in joining one of his old teams.

Yoshinori Tateyama 

A lot of success in both the NPB and AAA, things just didn't work out in the Majors (with both the Rangers' park and usage playing large roles). Very useful reliever, especially in the NPB, where sidearmers aren't often relegated to platoon roles.

Hisanori Takahashi

Probably a reliever now and his MLB career is probably over the way he has been passed around the past couple of years. Fastball and changeup velocity stayed steady in his MLB career and his curveball actually got harder.

Korean Free Agents:

Radhames Liz

The hardest thrower in the KBO could become the hardest thrower in the NPB if he chooses to go that route. Command isn't great, but the selection of pitches should be good enough to play as a starter in the NPB. If nothing else, he takes over as a dominant force at the end of games. 

Oh Seung-hwan

Rakuten seems to be on the fringes of discussions with Oh, the best KBO reliever. He is a good back of the bullpen piece, but he may turn out to be too pricey. 

Yoon Suk-min

A lot of question marks, enough that makes me believe he will stay in the KBO for another year to try to have a better season, but some clear pitching talent and a desire to leave the KBO. 

Charlie Shirek

The biggest obstacle to Shirek having a big league career is a lack of a real out pitch to get strikeouts. This would probably matter less in the NPB. Solid fastball, throws strikes, would be successful in Japan.

Domestic free agents:

Keep Kazuya Fujita

Even if he doesn't profile as the starting 2nd baseman going forward, his defense is special enough that he would be a great utility player. If Rakuten is unable to find anyone else to start second or short, then Fujita is good enough to start in my opinion.

Hideaki Wakui

Wakui has taken a huge step back this season statistically, being relegated to low leverage relief work, but he still has shown decent velocity, and could be a nice buy low opportunity for the Eagles, as the Lions may not be interested in keeping him around. 

Norihiro Nakamura

A former Rakuten player, Nakamura still plays mainly 3rd base despite being 40 years old. If McGehee heads elsewhere, Nakamura is probably a good option to explore.

Takehiko Oshimoto

Not having a good season this year, but he is just 30 years old, throws in the high 80s, and has some NPB success under his belt. He is a reliever all the way, but could be a guy that is cheap and doesn't take up a foreign roster spot.

Toshiaki Imae 

Another third base option, though a lesser one than Nakamura or Mcgehee. He has some doubles power and any evaluation of him would probably start and end on how you believe his defense rates. He isn't quite the power hitter you want on a corner, and he doesn't really run either. If he is a plus defender, I don't think it matters.

Yasutomo Kubo 

Another reliever that throws in the high 80s on average, having a little bit of a better year than Oshimoto and has been an innings eater in the rotation before. He is a couple of years older, but the flexibility makes him a little more attractive.

Kan Otake

When healthy, he has been an effective pitch to contact starter. The main drawback is that he is 30 years old and has never really been an innings eater.

AAA/AAAA players:

Thad Weber

Fastball would play up in Japan, and his hard curveball isn't something that a lot of NPB hitters see often. Can start or relieve.

Maikel Cleto

Cleto could unseat Scott Mathieson as the hardest throwing pitcher in the NPB. Was a waiver claim in the middle of the season by the Royals, but stretched out some as a starter in the PCL with the Cardinals. Has a weird home run problem, and it is unclear how it would translate. 

Henry Rodriguez

He usually has no idea where the ball is going, but he can hit 100 MPH as well, and just his sheer stuff is good enough that he should get more swings and misses out of the zone if he pitched in the NPB. He is a good guy to take a chance on, even though it is highly unlikely you could get him to start.

Angel Castro

Has NPB experience, survived tough run environment in Albuquerque in 2013 and has gotten his fastball up to 95 MPH in the past. He worked mostly out of the rotation in 2013, and reportedly sat 90-94 MPH according to Isotopes beat writer Chris Jackson.

Ryan Feierabend

Gained fastball velocity as the year went along and had a pretty good year in the more pitcher friendly portion of the PCL. Not a high strikeout guy, but doesn't walk much either, potentially a guy who fits in quite well.

Mike Zagurski

Still has good fastball velocity, but limited to a reliever, I don't think he will get a guaranteed deal in the Majors.

Fernando Nieve

KBO experience, great AAA season. Can start, probably a reliever ideally. Got up to 95 MPH last year when I saw him.

Jason Lane

Can pitch and hit, gives the roster some flexibility, a good use of a foreign player spot. 

Anthony Seratelli

Not much of a power guy at first base in the PCL, but high OBPs with large walk rates. Already 30 years old with no MLB experience, so you would think he would be willing to make some guaranteed money overseas. A worthwhile gamble if his power plays up in the NPB.

Mauro Gomez

What Rakuten will really need, especially if they have to replace Andruw Jones, will be power. Gomez provides that, with ISOs over .250 the last two years in the International League (and .217 the year before that).

Ernesto Mejia

A 1st baseman with a lot of power, but not a lot of walks and quite a bit of strikeouts. This seems like the kind of AAA hitters that eventually come to Japan and can have success.

Brendan Ryan

For some reason, NPB teams rarely if ever sign foreign good defensive shortstops. Perhaps teams believe that it is easier to buy power and produce defense from the organization through the draft and the Ni-gun. However, Rakuten will never develop a defensive shortstop like Brendan Ryan. After a left side of Matsui and Mcgehee in 2013, the difference in batted balls turned into outs with a Ryan at shortstop would be extremely easy to spot. If MLB teams believe his bat has sunken to a place where it will be tough to give him a guaranteed deal, Rakuten could theoretically sweep in and over him guaranteed money and a starting job.

Lee Dae-Ho Scouting Report

Lee Dae-Ho is a 31 (will turn 32 in the middle of next season) year old 1st baseman for the Orix Buffaloes. The 6'4 255 right-hander has turned out to be a very good hitter in the NPB after emerging as perhaps the most dominant hitter in the KBO. Lee is not a free agent and I believe he would have to be posted, and Orix has said that they are not planning on doing so, wanting to keep him.

In his last two seasons in the KBO (2010-2011), Lee lead the league in average both years, and was 1st in homers (his 44 homers in 2010 is 8th best all time, 6th best from a Korean native) and 2nd in homers. He was also top 10 in walks both years (though just like in the NPB, he struck out more than he walked).

Lee is most notable, in my opinion, because he is outhitting teammate Yoshio Itoi, the best Japanese position player prospect, by OPS this season. However, one of the reasons Itoi is attractive as a prospect is his secondary skills and Lee does not have these secondary skills. While I think he moves reasonably well defensively at first, he is not going to win any points with his body type.

The last player I can think of that came from the NPB to the MLB as a bat only player (meaning they didn't have baserunning or positional skills) is Hideki Matsui. Hideki Matsui was a horrible rated defender in the outfield when he came to the Yankees, though his reputation when he signed seemed to be that he held his own with decent range and fundamental play. But considering he was clearly signed because of his bat, it might be helpful to compare how the two players stack up statistically based on their respective NPB eras:

Matsui's last two seasons in the NPB:
127 BA +/139 OBP +/169 SLG +
130 BA +/147 OBP +/176 SLG +

Lee's two season's in the NPB:
113 BA+/118 OBP +/138 SLG +
118 BA+/116 OBP +/135 SLG +

So Lee isn't in the same class as Matsui but that is to be expected since Matsui made nearly the equivalent (based on 2013 salaries as interpreted by Baseball Reference) of nearly 8 million dollars in the first year with the Yankees. Lee is making the equivalent of about 2.5 million dollars this season with the Buffaloes. If you expect Lee to see a drop in OPS + of about 35 like Matsui did from the NPB to the Yankees, you are looking at a below league average hitter, which would profile as a bench bat/pinch hitter, not worth even matching his salary with Orix.

So I watched Lee in a series against the Rakuten Eagles, and kept the Yahoo data of his plate appearances in a spreadsheet and took notes on his at-bats as well. Since I was expecting four games of data and only got two, I found a video that included 24 of Lee Dae-Ho's 25 home runs from 2012 and charted them in the second tab (labelled "2012 homers"). This will give us a little bit better idea of what pitches he is hitting for power (classifications are just from what I thought the pitch looked like, so readers may want to watch the video themselves to make their own interpretations)

Masahiro Tanaka is the best pitcher in Japan for a reason, but he really fooled Lee with the splitter because he couldn't catch up to the fastball. It seemed all Lee could do was foul off the fastball, so he was having to speed his bat up. When he did, he whiffed horribly on a splitter, falling right into Tanaka's game.
Lee was also fooled really badly on a breaking ball, taking a big cut no where near where the ball was pitched.

I do like that he saw the best pitcher in the league and then the next day saw a lefty "junkballer" in Wataru Karashima. It gave a diverse look. I wish he would have faced Norimoto, a young but polished pitcher with middle of the rotation MLB stuff, but the game was rained out (which is why I have data from only 2 games, not the originally scheduled 4). 

At times, Lee's swing just looked huge, really looking too long and slow, causing a horrible whiff on a high 92 MPH fastball up around the shoulders. Even slow high fastballs seem to tempt him.
 
His raw power showed up as he hit a ball out of the zone all the way to the warning track, but he was very prone to the infield fly-ball because his swing would get too much of an uppercut. Still, he showed good plate coverage, with the ability to reach balls on the outside part of the plate.


You can see those last two qualities especially in this swing of one of his homers from last season:

That is an 88 MPH fastball on the outside part of the plate, and Lee has the bat speed, strength, and plate coverage to pull it out of the ball park. I count only 3 homers to left-field by right-handed batters in the MLB this year on pitches low and away and at least 88 MPH (Scott Hairston, Jeff Keppinger, and Paul Konerko). That homer is a pretty impressive feat, and it was done in a season and a league where only 1.3 % of all plate appearances ended up as home runs.

As far as average wise, Lee has hit better against righties, but his home run percentage and BB/K are both better against lefties, so he has pretty normal platoon splits, not anything notable or concerning.

There are some really impressive at the plate skills in Lee's game, but it doesn't come without some question marks as described above. None of his 2012 home runs came off premium velocity, with none of them even coming off pitches at least 90 MPH. Good high fastballs could be a real problem for Lee, which makes it unlikely he would translate to the Major Leagues. Even assuming that Lee translates normally statistically (that is, the holes in his game would be exploited the same way percentage wise in the MLB as they will be in the NPB, a big reason I don't really use translations anymore is because baseball between leagues doesn't often work like that) he would still project to have less power than a league average MLB 1st baseman or DH. While he isn't one dimensional at the plate, I don't think that the average/OBP skills will play up enough to justify a MLB contract and posting fee to bet on his power. At the end of the day, it comes down to the secondary skills. It probably would be worth betting on a bat like Lee's if it also came with defense/positional value and speed.

Fastball Effectiveness by Velocity

While we have established that velocity is very important to success several times on this blog, it seemed like it would be helpful to look at some probabilities of fastballs broken down by velocity. In other words, I wanted to see if we could look at individual fastballs, and just based on velocity (there are things like movement that we can look at in the future if need be) see how likely it is for the fastball to be a positive or negative result for the pitcher. This is what I will try to do in this post.

First, the effectiveness of four seam fastballs (MLBAM tags) are broken down by month, separated by fastballs throw in the zone and outside of the zone (based just on the traditional Pitch F/X strike zone). To measure effectiveness, rather than trying to measure by average or OPS, I broke it down by three numbers that were easy to calculate, and at the same time, in my opinion, very predictive, swinging strike percentage, contact percentage (contact % is just balls put in play, the "in play" tags on GameDay/Pitch F/X), and home run percentage. I broke it down by month because it gives us both a league average rate, along with a glimpse at the changes of fastball effectiveness as the season goes on.

After breaking it down by month, I broke it down the fastball effectiveness by MPH, starting with all pitches tagged as four seam fastballs below 85 MPH (it is admittedly a random starting point). I then went up 1 MPH each until I reached 100 MPH (100 MPH + pitches were all lumped together because there aren't a lot over 100, so it makes sense to lump them all together).

Obviously, when evaluating individual pitchers' fastballs, things like deception, sequencing and the quality of the other pitches' affect on the fastball have to be taken into consideration (not to mention that I only looked at pitches inside the strike zone and outside the strike zone, not where the pitch was in the strike zone. All strikes are not created equally). However, this does give us a general idea of how well an average 97 MPH fastball has been hit in the strike zone this year, or a 86 MPH fastball thrown outside of the strike zone. Velocity does matter, and I think this can help project pitchers that we have velocity data for, but not a large enough sample size to see how his fastball will actually play. It is also a starting point to see which pitchers are over achieving or under achieving when it comes to their fastball's velocity and their fastball's success.

An example of how this might work as a projection, we can look at the Sunday starts of two well known NPB pitchers and use the Yahoo data to project how the fastballs they showed would work in the Majors, assuming average deception, etc. Based on the velocities of his fastballs and the amount of fastballs thrown in and out of the zone, Shohei Otani's fastball would have a 6.84 whiff %, 19.28 contact %, and .78 HR %. Kenta Maeda's fastball, based on the data just from his last start, would have a 6.77 whiff %, 18.81 contact %, and .74 HR %, meaning that at least the way in which they pitched in their last start, Otani is a little more likely to get whiffs, but Maeda is a little less likely to give up contact or home runs, which I think makes some sense.

Scouting Reports on Three Notable KBO Free Agents

Even though the baseball season is still ongoing, it is never too early to look at the off-season. In this post, I will look at three Korea Baseball Organization players that can be free agents this off-season. These three players are somewhat similar players in style because there aren't really any notable pitchers (other than Seung-hwan Oh and Yoon Suk-Min, who I have already written about) or power hitters (other than Kang Min-ho, a catcher) that are free agents this year. The following three hitters are guys who don't strikeout a lot, have decent walk rates, and rely on speed without a lot of power.

The salary data (including the conversion rate) comes from Baseball in Korea and is this year's salary. If another KBO team signs them, they have to pay either twice or three times as much of their 2013 salary (depending on whether or not they send a player back to the original team). While I doubt they will garner much MLB interest (only one is making the equivalent of over the MLB minimum), this report will at least give a brief summation of their skill sets in case teams were interested.

Lee Yong-Kyu: .312 million
2012 WAA: 1.62, 14th best overall. 4.08 hitter FIP.
Lee is a 28 year old left-handed outfielder CF that is a decent stolen base threat, 21 for 30 on the season, with 245 career steals. Even though his walk rate has fallen some this year, he still has more walks than strikeouts. His OPS is up, but so is the rest of the KBO's.

His reputation is that breaking balls from lefties are a problem, but from his swing, and all the timing mechanisms that go into it, I wouldn't be surprised to see him struggle with top end velocity. He did chase at times while I watched him, but breaking balls over the plate were hit well by him because he does a good job of staying back. He has the big leg kick with the crouch and hip turn before that, but the plate coverage and bat control seem to be mostly there. He's not going to pull fastballs with that swing, but always seems to have long tough at-bats and takes the breaking balls where they are pitched.

Lee Jong-Wook: .181 million
2012 WAA: -.611, 3.56 hitter FIP
Lee is a 33 year old centerfielder that seems to have some range to go with decent reads. His strikeouts are up this year, and his walks are down (basically a 1:1 guy from 2010-2012) but the average and power are both up. He has 26 steals in 33 chances, more steals than his previous two years. He's clearly not the elite stolen base threat he was several years ago, but still swipes bags and speed is his game, with as many triples as homers this year.

He has good size, bigger than the other two players in this post. The bat looks quick to me, and he can pull up and in pitches with some authority. However, he doesn't pack the punch behind it you would expect for his size. He often seems to get started late with his leg kick. Because he has a lot going on mechanically, it looks like he struggles against lefty fastballs as I saw that they could blow it by him. Lee has good plate coverage and contact tools, but will chase with two strikes. He moves a lot in the box and reaches for outside pitches well with enough strength to drive it the other way with a bit of authority.

Jeong Keun-Woo: .506 million
2012 WAA: .169, 4.61 hitter FIP
A 30 year old (soon to turn 31) second baseman, Jeong seems to have good range and athleticism at the position. His walks and strikeouts are both up this year, and he has walked more than he has struck out 4 of the last 5 seasons. He steals some bases but also gets caught a lot and has never hit 10 homers in a season (tied his career high with 9 so far in 2013, so he has a shot).

He likes to bunt and show bunt even though he is a right-handed hitter. Not exactly a possessor of a smooth swing path, he often tries to pull the outside pitch, but overall seems to have a groundball swing, looking to push the ball somewhere. Has some raw strength and doesn't look like a second baseman, but I don't like his swing, a swing that seems to take away from having bat speed and punch behind the swing.

Assorted Round Rock and Oklahoma City Hitter Notes

In a few previous posts, I looked at some of the players I saw in a game between the Rangers and Astros' AAA affiliates. In this post, I'll look at some more players I had notes for but didn't belong in separate posts.

I wrote about Chris Mcguiness from a Pitch F/X perspective in a previous article, and while he spent a short time in the Majors, he spent most of the year in AAA, where he hit reasonably well, but perhaps not as dominating as you would hope a 1st baseman to be in the minors. When I saw him, he seemed to pull off too soon on many pitches, even fastballs. He did hit a couple of balls hard though.

 Robinson Chirinos was acquired by the Rangers from the Rays, but was initially in the Chicago Cubs system. He did see a little bit of time with the MLB team this season. Behind the plate, he showed a strong and quick arm behind the plate, but a bad throw gave runner a free base

At the plate, Chirinos had a decent season, but didn't have real eye-popping number:

Joey Butler has also received a small amount of MLB playing time, but not enough to evaluate. He has spent nearly the entirety of the last three years at AAA, where he has put up nearly identical numbers each year, hitting very well. When I saw him, he was selective, but often seemed like a 4A mistake type hitter. He does have nice build and beat out what looked like a routine out

Jonathan Singleton is one of the top prospects in the Houston Astros system, but had a really frustrating season in AAA following a drug suspension. He is just an impressive mound of muscle on muscle, so you can see why he is an attractive prospect from a physique standpoint. At the plate, I noticed that his legs are split pretty far and he was way too antsy and aggressive at times. He was also late on a slider, seeming to just misjudge the pitch. Singleton had a huge swing and I didn't see great bat speed. He had some bat control though as he was fooled baddly on a slower breaking ball but kept the bat in the zone to make contact. He chased another slow curve and pulled it reasonably hard, doing a good job just to make contact. However, he was blown away by a 88 MPH fastball. He stole his first and only base of the season in the game I saw.

Another at-bat:

Marc Krauss got some time in the big leagues with the Astros this year but really struggled. He was acquired by Houston in a trade with the Diamondbacks for Chris Johnson and had a really nice season in AAA. You can see the raw power just on the fouls. He was initially a bit ahead and then got blown away, striking out on a pitch down the middle. In a later at-bat he was blown away by a 88 MPH fastball, though he did a good job of staying alive with fouls

Che-Hsuan Lin was acquired on a waiver claim from the Red Sox and despite walking more than he struck out, he struggled in AAA this year. He dropped the bat to work counts to start off at-bats. I still like the bat speed, but his pitch recognition wasn't great and his lack of punch really showed.

Jose Martinez was originally a Cardinals' minor leaguer, and struggled in AAA at a similar rate as Lin. He was a little ahead of breaking balls despite slowing down his bat. At 2nd, he didn't make a good read on a line drive.

Carlos Perez was acquired by the Astros in the J.A. Happ trade and struggled with the bat in AAA this year. Behind the plate, he has an easy quick release. He didn't appear to be a great reciever, though his starting pitcher didn't seem to help him. He misjudged some bouncing pitches, and also flat out dropped a ball.