Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
March 14, 2006
The Joy of Choi

South Korea remained undefeated, walloping the United Stats 7-3 last night. The big blow was a three-run homer by the Dodgers own Hee-Seop Choi. He was on the bench when Willis started, but pinch hit Choi in the fourth when Willis couldn't go deep into the game. I like the attitude of the Korean manager:

"Something happened tonight which nobody could believe," Korea manager In Sik Kim said. "Not just the USA team, which is (some) of the best of all the best Major Leaguers, but our players (beat) these players and it's very difficult to believe what happened.

"But this is baseball and you never know what might happen."

Pitching and defense are the mainstays for the South Koreans in this tournament. They're posting an ERA of 1.40 through five games. Look at their numbers compared to the United States. Both team are striking out a lot of batters; the US has the same number of Ks in five fewer innings. But look at the hits allowed. Twenty eight for Korea vs. thirty seven for the US. That's the defense.

With the outstanding play of Japan and Korea in this tournament, and with the success of their countrymen in the major leagues over the past decade, we're going to see more and more Asians playing in North America. Maybe over the next decade all these countries can agree on a system where there is a free market in players; that an Asian major league and a North American major league drafts and trades from a world pool of players. That would be expansion.

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Posted by David Pinto at 07:18 AM | World Cup | TrackBack (0)
Comments

The Asian players realize that fundamentals and the team concept are necessary to win this tournament. Unfortunately, most other players haven't grasped that. I've seen players swinging for the fences late in the game when you're down and a man is on second with no outs. Too much ego I guess. We could learn a few things from the Land of the Rising Sun. Humility would be a nice start.

Posted by: Nate at March 14, 2006 11:46 AM

When the starting lineup plays a full nine and no one drops out of the tournament, then we'll see. Until this this is nothing more than a split squad spring training game. Because this counts for nothing, why wouldn't the players just have fun and swing for the fences? Maybe the lesson is the Asians need to lighten up, espcially Ichiro (yeah he's _real_ humble).

Posted by: Scott Janssens at March 14, 2006 03:00 PM

After having watched the Koreans the past two games, I suspect that one advantage the Koreans have is a manager who understands the effects of the pitch count rules, and is brilliant at substituting in pitchers to fit the situation.

Posted by: Capybara at March 14, 2006 03:54 PM
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