While it’s been slow on the free-agent front in the North America, plenty of recognizable names have been landing deals overseas in Japan and Korea. A couple of notes on the international market as the holiday season is in full swing…
- Lefty David Huff has agreed to a one-year, $1.3MM deal with the Yakult Swallows in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, according to the Japan Times. The 33-year-old last suited up in the Majors for the 2016 Angels but spent parts of eight seasons in the bigs, posting a 5.17 ERA with 5.4 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a 38.8 percent ground-ball rate in 393 1/3 innings, spending time as both a starter and a reliever. Since his last big league appearance, Huff has been thriving with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, pitching to a 2.66 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 1.0 BB/9 in 199 1/3 innings in an extremely hitter-friendly setting.
- Though Hyun Soo Kim recently signed a four-year contract to return to the KBO (worth a total of $10.7MM), the 29-year-old said at his introductory press conference with the LG Twins that he’s not totally closed off to taking another shot at the Majors if the opportunity presents itself (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). Kim also spoke highly of his time in the Majors and the amount that he learned playing in parts of two seasons with the Orioles and Phillies. “[T]he biggest lesson is that I realized the importance of routines,” said Kim. “I thought I had built a solid routine myself, but it was nothing compared to what the big leaguers were doing. I thought players who stuck to their routines were always able to get out of their slumps quickly.” Yoo also “marveled” at the manner in which big league players took care of their bodies, Yoo writes, and offered a candid assessment of his time in the Majors. While he attributes many of his struggles to a lack of regular playing time, he takes responsibility for his lack of at-bats. “I didn’t play well when I did have my opportunity,” said Kim. “So it’s on me.”
Kim sounds like a true pro, best of luck to him in his return home
Agreed. Hopefully he can come back soon and be successful.
Matt Stairs said Kim could exhibit a huge boost in home runs with some changes to his swing/approach. Apparently in BP he pounds HR into the second deck.
Seeing how there are plenty of instances where mediocre to bad pitchers who were in mlb go to japan and succeed it makes mlb gm’s really scour Japanese pitchers carefully as Japanese pro baseball offense isn’t comparable to mlb
Good point. I would definitely hope so as I’m always skeptical.
Phillies don’t scour anything in Japan, they just write off the country and everyone in it.
I ment to put scout but I couldn’t edit it in time lol
the league is a hitter friendly league, I just think that they use a smaller ball, which you would think is harder to play with as a pitcher, so hats off to them for succeeding
They use an almost identical ball now and just one mfg. now. Japan changed in either 2011 or 13 ( I would have to look it up again). The pitchers liked the bigger US ball used in international play and changing full time made it easier.
Wouldn’t a smaller ball be harder to hit?
Harder to make contact, but it’s harder for pitchers to put movement on it. It goes both ways, but the bigger ball makes for a more entertaining game.
So what you’re saying is that bigger balls make MLB more entertaining.
Maybe Hosmer signs a pillow deal in Japan come March?
You and this pillow talk the last few days
Shhhh
Merry Christmas everyone!
Kim’s comments make you forget just how hard it is to even be an average player in the show.
For whatever reason Huff has always reminded me of Rich Hill, maybe he could work with Hill and revitalize his career trying different grips, sequencing, etc. Either way, best of luck to him…I once ran into him in Cleveland, and he is a genuinely good dude..Hope he continues to succeed overseas, and maybe one day he can get another chance in the Bigs…