These games don’t relate directly to, say, spotting a batter’s ability to staying down on the ball as he swings, but in terms of some vague instinct-based judgments –a player’s value, or how his skill set compares with another– extra-curricular, stat-based baseball games do correlate.

And if you’re willing to buy that a little, and I darn well think you ought to, then hopefully you’ll allow me to slide into the organizational side a little, and write from that perspective, since that’s where I’ve put myself by recently joining an online Out of the Park baseball league.

In our league I’m the GM of the Kure Arsenal in a Japanese outfit called the League of the Rising Sun (LRS). As the story goes, the league was a fledgling Japanese league bought by a better established American one called PEBA. When the league was sold, several of the LRS franchises were in financial straits, mine being one. We’re the Florida Marlins of the league, and our collective payroll is currently just over 8 million, far behind our division rival Shin Seiki Evas’s payroll of $54.6 million. We’re just three games back of the Evas, but that’s a different story for a different day.

A Foreigner Living in a Foreign Land

As a Japanese league GM adhering to a foreign player limit, I’ve suddenly found myself in a bit of a role reversal in which I’m forced to view the non-Asian players as a commodity. I never expected this. As a foreigner who lives in Korea, and moreover someone not living in Seoul, I’m very much an outsider here because of my race. I sometimes I feel this intensely and other times not so much. Naturally, I empathize with other foreigners living in Korea be they English teachers from Australia, England or Canada, factory workers from China or Bangladesh, or on-order brides from The Philippines or Vietnam.

In terms of baseball players living and working in Korea I can understand their plight, and I’m sure they face some of the same handicaps I did as a student, teacher and now as a baseball scout. To put it mildly, their jobs are unstable and while Korean fans are quick to embrace them – as was the case last year with Lotte’s Karim Garcia as he drove the team toward its first playoff appearance in nearly 10 years – the scrutiny by the organizations themselves is that much more intense. Players are expected to produce…yesterday. If they don’t they’ll be fired or demoted, as was the case with SK’s CJ Nitkowski, who was sent to the minors after a single bad outing.

Less than half of the 16 foreign players that started 2008 on KBO rosters finished the season with the same team. This season has been even more dramatic, with four foreigners already having been cut, and two, Nitkowski and Hanwha’s Victor Diaz, that have spent time in the, um, less than glamorous Korean minor leagues. Nitkowski has already been demoted three times since the season started in April.

In the past I’ve cried foul and even racism in these circumstances, feeling foreign players were being treated like second class citizens, which, in Korea is exactly what they are. Last year, when Jacob Cruz was dumped by Samsung a month into the season because he’d only hit 2HRs despite posting a respectable .370 OBP, I was incensed. This has surfaced a couple times in Taiwan this season, mostly recently with Tim Raines Jr., who was released last week after just 15 games, despite hitting .327 and being on pace to steal 100 bases.

The Role Reversal

But as the GM of a Japanese baseball team I see foreigners in a very different light and I’ve gained some insight into how these players are viewed by their Asian teams. First of all, in my fictional baseball world, the foreign players are far more plentiful than homegrown (Japanese) players. PEBA and the LRS share the same free agent pool. Recently, when PEBA completed its amateur player draft, a number of A and AA levels were released and free for Kure to sign. PEBA is better established than the LRS and the talent level is higher, so these players are potential AAA or even pro-level free agents. In the PEBA/LRS universe we’re allowed to have as many non-Japanese players in our minor league systems as we want, but only six of them can be on the major league roster at any given time. Next year, once franchises like mine have become more stable, that number will be cut to four.

This creates an as hereto unique situation where I’m forced to account for a player’s race in determining their overall player value. Of course, for Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese teams, this has been a reality since those leagues started allowing teams to sign foreign talent. But for me, being an American and following Major League Baseball, where incorporating as many races as possible has long been the name of the game, this is quite new. In most of our minds (thankfully) the question of race went out the door when Jackie Robinson came in.

Race as the Sixth Tool

We’re talking real baseball vs. computer baseball, so a number of scenarios that involve, er, human emotion, where I might actually have to actually face and tell a 230lb. man I was cutting him because he wasn’t Japanese, just don’t come into play. Likewise, I don’t have to pay thousands of real dollars to a player who lands in my home country, behaves like he owns it, makes no effort to respect the culture or learn the language, and then still demands playing time regardless of performance. Still, the basic strategies are the same. Race becomes as important if not more important as any of the basic five tools in a player’s on-field skill set.

Suddenly, spending the resources to develop a foreign player makes less sense. Our league recently had its annual amateur draft and there were six non-Japanese players in the draft pool. One of them was a solid-fielding, lefty-hitting, catching prospect from Puerto Rico named Felix Lima. My head scout, a Japanese guy named Nobukazu Ito, had him at #12 on his draft board. I’m not sure if Ito was taking Lima’s race into account, but I sure as heck was. LRS Limatime didn’t happen until the 12^th pick of Round 3. He was clearly the best catcher in the draft at a scarce position – there were only seven eligible catchers overall. Had he been Japanese he might have been a Top 10 pick.

Since they are more plentiful and therefore easier to sign, my team has a lot of foreign players in its system. However, with 12 new draftees ready to be assigned (along with some undrafted signs) I’ll be having to trim the fat so-to-speak. The foreigners will be the first to go, and it’s especially difficult to imagine a foreign player over the age of 25 being kept in the minors. I currently have two foreign pitchers in AAA who are only there to eat innings since because two of my Japanese players are injured, and I need the extra innings in a staff of just 10. I’ll willingly overuse them and if they get hurt I’ll dump them. I just need the innings to bridge the gap between my starters and two prized relievers. The minute the Japanese players are healthy, the foreigners will likely be cut, or if they’re lucky sent to Single-A where their arms will again be overused.

Getting Jumpy

These days Diaz, who was recently recalled from the minors, is filling in at first for the injured WBC-hero Kim Tae-kyun. Diaz normally plays right field and is something of a butcher out there, and last week I happened to tune into one of Hanwha’s recent games and saw him at first. Within a few minutes he made a throwing error on an attempted double play. As the camera zeroed on the normally tough-n-stoic Diaz, he was visibly nervous. And he ought to have been. Being demoted in the KBO is the first step to being cut and often times, as was the case with Mike Johnson, whose SK Wyverns career lasted all of two appearances, players aren’t given that courtesy. Do they deserve better? Maybe. Diaz’s average recently dipped below .300, and while he’s amongst the league leaders in HRs, he also has 50 strikeouts in 142 ABs. Let’s just say he’s lucky he’s not playing for the Kure Arsenal.

If you watched Daisuke Matsuzaka start for the Red Sox you saw a guy throwing dying quails, holding his hand on his hip. Obviously not fit to pitch. 

He’s since been placed on the DL with arm fatigue, and even though most sports writers have the attention spans of gnats, they haven’t forgotten Dice K featured prominently in the WBC, and was even (wrongly in the opinion of, well, everyone) named MVP of the tournament. Suddenly I’m seeing stories with headlines like WBC a sore spot for Daisuke, Let Japan Pay His Salary, Daisuke To The DL. But Hey, At Least He Was The WBC MVP, Right?, and World Baseball Classic Has Lasting Effect On Daisuke Matsuzaka.

I’m not about to dispute the fact that his 14.2 innings in the WBC has something to do with his arm fatigue. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. People are quick to jump on the WBC because, well, they can and it makes a better story than Red Sox place Dice-K on DL after another bad start.

But what I thought I would do is look at three players who threw more innings than Matsuzaka did at the WBC and how they’ve fared. Not all pitchers are the same. Maybe Matsuzaka’s arm endures more stress when he pitches in international games than, say, Yoon Suk-min’s does. Who knows? Not me. And not anyone writing stories like those linked above.

Hisashi Iwakuma, 20 innings pitched at the WBC

The guy who was without question the MVP of the World Baseball Classic started off his 2009 campaign with a six inning, one run victory over Yu Darvish and the Nippon Ham Fighters. He took a loss in his second start, going five innings and surrendering three runs to the Lions. He threw 92 pitches.  

Bong Jung-keun, 17.2 innings pitched at the WBC

Team Korea’s best arm made his third start last night, throwing 111 pitches over eight innings and holding the KBO Champion SK Wyvrens to three runs, striking out eight. It was already Bong’s third start of the season. He’s thrown 112 and 102 pitches in his other two starts, has an overall ERA of 2.25 and has 15 strikeouts in 20 innings.

Yoon Suk-min, 16 innings thrown at the WBC

The Kia Tigers ace had a first rough start to the season, going five innings and giving up six runs to Doosan en route to a loss. However, Yoon rebounded in his next start, going the distance and throwing 137 pitches in an April 11 victory versus Samsung. He gave up one run and will probably make his next start Friday.

Bong is off to a fantastic start and, save injury, will be one of the KBO’s top pitcher this season. Ditto with Yoon. There’s nothing to suggest that Yoon’s loss versus Doosan was due to any residual effect from throwing a number of innings at the WBC. Doosan’s offense is arguably the best in the league. I also suspect Iwakuma will again be one of the NPB’s top pitchers this season.

Let’s go ahead and say it: The Asian style of baseball is the boring way to win — but win nonetheless. Watching Japan vs. Team USA, it felt like USA was the A.L. team and Japan was the N.L. team. I swear Davey Johnson looked like Earl Weaver for a minute, waiting for a three-run homer. Sadaharu Oh, meanwhile, was Connie Mack getting excited about bunts. Japan executed to perfection. The Asian teams are so fundamentally sound that you can be sure they never will beat themselves. This was a classic case of the mentality that sells shoes. You know, chicks dig the long ball. Maybe so, but that’s the thinking that beat Team USA.

I’ve always kind of respected the fact that Todd Jones is a athlete/writer, although I have to admit, I’d never read any of his writing until this. Hard to blame what I believe is a typo in the first sentence (although maybe they just print whatever he writes) on him, but going on to name Sadaharu Oh as Japan’s manager is pretty unforgivable from a writing or editing standpoint.

Not sure why he’d label the Asian style of baseball boring, especially with Korea leading the tournament in HRs. I suppose in Jones’s world, where Sadaharu Oh and Ichiro are the only Asian baseball players that exist, Asian baseball is only played in Japan.

And anyway, all I heard during the WBC is how Asian teams were playing the game the way it was meant to be played. What is Jones talking about? And what’s with the surreal quasi-rant in the last couple sentences? Keep the beer away from the computer and get a job, man.

I had a funny conversation with a friend tonight during which I told him who Ichiro was. He’s not Korean or Japanese, but Canadian, and even though he tangentially follows baseball through EWC, he’s not a baseball fan and had no idea who Ichiro was. 

As we ate daegi-guk-bab (pork stew) the news played on a big screen TV to the side. A headline read “Korea 4 Japan 3.” Of course it wasn’t the score of a game, but the score of the all WBC team, which was announced today. Four Koreans made the team — Lee Bum-ho, Kim Hyun-soo, Bong Jung Keun, and Kim Tae-keun, who was one of two unanimous selections to the team. The other was Cuba’s Frederich Cepeda.

Before you think I’m flying off the handle again, the Korean media has handled the team’s loss with grace, stressing how terrific the team played in getting to the final at all, and recognizing the fact that Korean baseball is now respected around the world.  

There have been a number of articles in the mainstream press (see NYT article here) about Korean baseball, most of which pontificate on the fact that there aren’t many Koreans in MLB. That’s both true and untrue. Park Chan-ho, who yesterday struck out seven in four innings,is likely to be named the 5th starter for the world champion Philadelphia Phillies. WBC team member Choo Shin-soo is primed for a breakout season that could see him (I think) flirt with 20 HRs and 20 SBs. The Padres Baek Cha-sung will begin the season in the starting rotation, and Ryu Jae-kuk has an outside shot at making the team’s opening day roster. Here’s an article by a Padres beat writer for the San Diego Union Tribune that wonders alloud if the home team couldn’t use a few Koreans. He fails to mention Baek or Ryu in the piece. Oops. 

Of course as someone scouting in Korea this all piques my interest. My bosses were recently quoted in a Chicago Tribune article – I guess it’s fair to say “we’ve” known for a while, but a lot of teams don’t, or haven’t anyway.

hat, promised one National League scout who has followed South Korea throughout the WBC, is about to change.

From one unnamed National League scout quoted in the LA Times:

“I’ve been surprised. I think a lot of people have,” said the scout, whose team forbids him from speaking on the record. “Maybe I was just ignorant. I was ignorant. If you don’t think some of these Koreans can play in the big leagues, then that’s prejudice.”

Maybe not prejudice…just bad baseball scouting. There are a number of new readers here at EWC — this growth started when this LA Times article quoted me and referred to EWC, and culminated with yesterday’s Japan vs. Korea final, which ended up as the second largest day (views wise) in the history of the site. I’m not the type to blow my own horn when it comes to numbers of people visiting EWC, but I can almost guarantee that until the WBC, the Top 20 days in the history of EWC were spawned by links via MLB Traderumors and/or Deadspin.

As I’ve mentioned before, going into 2009 the Cubs have four Koreans signed by my bosses within the last couple of years. They are pitchers Rhee Dae-eun and Jung Su-min, shortstop Lee Hak-ju, and outfielder Ha Jae-hoon. And there’s more on the way..wink wink. I’ll be following the progress of all four during the 2009 season.

I’m ready to write about something besides the WBC now. This isn’t to say there won’t be another post or two coming up, but for the most part it’s time to close the door, welcome the 2009 seasons of MLB, NPB, KBO, and CPBL, and get back to our regularly scheduled meanderings.

Sure, once it’s over it’s easy to look back at key points in a game and critisize managerial decisions — but since when does it make sense to throw strikes with two outs, runners on second and third with first base open?

Oh yeah, and with one of the greatest hitters in baseball history up at the plate.

Yet, Lim Chang-yong threw eight pitches to Ichiro Suzuki and not one was a wasted pitch. Six of the eight were fastballs, most of which were hovering around 95 mph. The eighth was a splitter down the middle that hung over the plate and was slapped into center for a 2 RBI single to put Japan up by the final 5-3 score.

Hard to fathom any circumstance where not walking Ichiro made any sense. Before Akinori Iwamura took second on catcher’s indifference, announcer Rick Sutcliffe speculated it might not be a great move by Japan to take the open base (Korea wasn’t holding the runner at first) since it would essentially take the bat out of Ichiro’s hands.

To rewind that a little further, the decision to not hold the runner at first is even questionable. Third string firstbaseman Lee Tae-kuen (an outfielder) was a full 15-20 feet behind the runner. This even caught Japan, who didn’t take it’s free base until the second pitch, off-guard.

This is nothing but boneheaded nationalistic bravado here, folks. This was Kim In-shik attempting to engage Ichiro one-on-one. I would fully take it the other way and say this disrespected Ichiro. After Iwamura took his free base Lim threw a fastball on the outter half of the plate, which Ichiro fouled off. Next pitch, another fastball, again fouled away.

Lim is a very good pitcher, and as opposed to 90% of the right-handed submarine pitchers in the world, he can get left-handed hitters out. Last year, in the NPB Lim surrendered a .264 on base average versus lefties. That mark was 20 points higher versus righties. But Ichiro is no ordinary left-handed batter. He too defies common logic and has a career .387 mark versus LHPs — ten points higher than that against right-handed pitchers.

In the mind of Kim In-shik to walk the reviled Ichiro was to lose face. Even with Hiroyuki Nakajima (hitting .222 for the WBC) on deck, even with first base open and two outs, even with his closer having already thrown over 30 pitches, Kim (since he’s likely calling the pitches from the dugout) came at Ichiro with several more pitches before the eighth was lined into centerfield.

The move ignored basic baseball strategy, and it ignored the kind of hitter that Ichiro has been his entire career. The only thing it didn’t ignore was the history of the Japanese and Korean nations. It cost Korea its chances at the WBC crown.

What can you say? The one-and-only Ichiro went 4-for-6 with 2 RBI–including the game-winner with a two-run single in the top of the tenth–as Japan beat Korea in an extra-inning nail-biter to repeat as World Baseball Classic champions.

An erratic Yu Darvish blew a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth in relief of Iwakuma Hisashi, giving up Lee Bum-ho’s single scoring pinch-runner Lee Jeong-wook to tie the game.  But Japan rebounded quickly in the top of the tenth, getting to eventual loser Lim Chang-yong.

Japan gave Korea every chance to win it, and needed fifteen hits to produce three runs. Korean manger Kim In-Sik’s decision to pitch to a dialed-in Ichiro with men on second and third in the tenth was a head-scratcher, and Kim–who had an arsenal of fresh arms at his disposal in the bullpen– will probably replay that decision in his mind for quite some time.

Darvish then shook off his ninth-inning yips and slammed the door on Korea in the bottom of the tenth, showing the virtually unhittable stuff he’s capable of when on and confident.

Matsuzaka Daisuke earned the tournament’s MVP award, which could just as easily been handed to Iwakuma, who turned in his second big game performance in the tourney. The trio of Darvish, Matsuzaka, and Iwakuma combined for a 1.66 E.R.A. over 38 innings during the classic.

Apparently unmoved by some of the most electric baseball in the world, sportswriter Chris Ruddick is the proud recipient of today’s “EWC Provincial Jackass of the Day Award” for his astoundingly stupid column entitled “Is the WBC over yet?“.

While the rest of the world was glued to quite possibly one of the greatest baseball games ever played,  watching the ascension of Asian baseball unfold before their eyes, Provincial Jackass sat and groused that it wasn’t MLB season yet.

Ruddick’s essential premise is because the USA didn’t win and Derek Jeter shouldn’t have been starting at shortstop, that the tourney wasn’t fun for him to watch, ergo the whole WBC was basically a waste of time. He also whines that it’s hard to find the games broadcast, and berates David Wright for stating that his game winner against Puerto Rico was the biggest hit of his career (because the Mets choked down the stretch in ‘08).

So wait, Chris, if the U.S. plays lackluster ball, then you don’t care about the tourney, but if they play well and are proud to represent their country, they’re at fault because they didn’t save it for their pro clubs? The irony being it’s because of attitudes like Ruddick’s that the USA isn’t fielding the most competitive teams it can, leading to the lackluster play that bores him so much.

Ruddick’s closing line: “can we get the real season underway now” really shows his true colors–even though I’m sure he won’t have a problem cheering for a lot of these same boring, irrelevant international stars when they’re playing in MLB lineups in the future.

I could go on, but all I’ll say is this: If you didn’t get chills from the Netherlands upset victory over the Dominican (Ruddick poo-pooed it because of poor attendance), and weren’t on the edge of your seat watching Darvish’s electric stuff against Korea in an extra inning final, you know jack sh*t about the game of baseball and have no business writing about it. Period.

There, now I feel better.

For what seems like the thirteenth time in the last two weeks, Japan and Korea will duke it out in the WBC. This time it’s for all the marbles, as Japan’s Iwakuma Hisashi takes the hill against Korea’s Bong Jung-keun in the title match. Bong is shooting for his third straight victory against the Japanese.

It’s just a gut feeling, but something tells me Korea is going to well once too often by throwing Bong again and that Japan gets its second straight WBC title. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is certain–no one in their right mind doubts that Asia’s baseball talent is for real anymore. The best is yet to come.

Reader predictions, let’s go….

I decided sometime after Korea won the Olympic gold meal in baseball that I was going to make the 2009 World Baseball Classic part of EWC going forward. Afterall, with Korean baseball becoming a focal point of world baseball, it seemed to make sense to add my two cents, and so I started writing the Korean Approach to the U.S. 2009 WBC Team series and doing WBC news and notes last Sept. 12.

It’s ironic that during the pinnacle of Korean baseball history I was away from a TV, working 12 hours a day scouting Korean high school baseball, a clear byproduct of the former, but one that prevented me from seeing a single inning of the team’s thrashing of Team Chubby on Saturday.

Well, the high school baseball tournament has concluded, and luckily I’m back home for the wondrous, colossal matchup that is the final. Today’s Japan vs. Korea WBC final is what East Windup Chronicle was born to be and the timing is perfect. The vision has been realized. At least that’s what I think. The site was really Jackson’s idea in the first place, so he might have a different opinion.

I’ve spent a lot of time here carping about how criminally underrated Korean baseball has been in recent years. I wouldn’t say this trip to the WBC final proves once and for all that I was right, but the proof is in the pudding, and my pudding I mean scouting peepers. Things are about to get very different in Korean baseball. Today, while at Seoul Station waiting for my 7 a.m. train back to Busan, I paced down row of four big screen televisions, each about 20 yards apart. As I walked from one to the next I was greeted by groups of older Korean men, and a few woman, watching news about the Korean team in the 2009 WBC. News reports of Kim Tae-keun’s impending departure for MLB. A “MLB scouting report” of Kim and the news that Tommy Lasorda thinks he’s an MLB level player. Coverage of the WBC in Japan and, of course, what people there think about the Korean team. It was surreal. I spent the next 10 minutes walking from one TV to the next, bewildered in realizing that I’d somehow ended up a part of all this.

As of now there are two full time MLB scouts living and working in Korea. I’m part time, live here, and am the only “active” one of those. That will change. Just in the last week more scouts have shown up, more fans have arrived, and more dollars are being spent or talked about being spent. I think Korean baseball is about to change in a big way. I don’t just mean scouting-wise and I don’t just mean the profile of the national team. I think it’s about to be turned upside down. Where that puts things I can’t be sure. I can only hope people respect Korea along the way. Unlike a number of other baseball-talent nations Korea has infrastructure, the money and the general distrust of foreign business, to make things very difficult on those who don’t respect.

In the meantime we can all enjoy a game that exemplifies everything international baseball has to offer.

Mercenaries…carpetbaggers…no heart, no soul…only care about their pro clubs…heart’s not in it….oh, but wait a minute, the U.S. flashed it today with a big time come back.  We all saw it, but in case you live in a cave and missed it, here’s the recap.  Maybe Aaron lit a fire under their arse with his last post on team USA.

How psyched are the Koreans? For the second time during this WBC, the Koreans outplayed Japan, this time bringing it to poster boy Yu Darvish in the first inning. And as seen above, for the second time in two WBCs Korea (literally) planted the flag on the mound. Starter Bong Jeung-kung was lights out against Nippon and beat them for the second time in the tournament.

Allright readers, let’s hear it….

(photo courtesy of Reuters)

Nice looking photo stream from yesterday’s Cuba/Mexico game. One of the advantages of having so much Korean (and I assume Japanese) media down in San Diego. I don’t find these things so commonly in the American media. They must exist — maybe I’m looking in the wrong places.

I hate to say it, but things could get a little dark around here over the next few days. Jackson and I both have big scouting endeavors that will take up most of our time through the weekend. Unfortunate, especially since Japan and Korea will be going at it this afternoon. 

Here are a couple of stunning photos of Norge Vera as well.

This next one looks supernatural. Like if Cormac McCarthy wrote a story about Vera. 

And finally, Mexico Goes Down and the masked fans go home. I’ll miss these guys.

Anyway, I’m not a big fan of Engrish jokes, and I’m not sure a failed attempt at an anacronym counts as Engrish. In any event, I’ll just count it as idiotic.

Chances are you neither know about or care what Dokdo (“hey, this blog from 2009 labels it Dokdo!”) is, but maybe after seeing this photo you’ll want to get to know the Korean position on the matter. Whether or not you decide to take the opposing view simply based on the fact that these guys are attempting to use the WBC for political purposes will be your choice. 

I like the John Wayne Gacy guy staring at the camera in the middle. I just had a little daydream of him following those two guys with the sign home.

I’m not a big fan of game breakdowns with a lot of bold type. I think it’s a lazy way to make articles feel longer than they are. That said, if I was one of those types of writers, I would include something like this:

It was over when:

Korea, with runners on first and second and David Cortez in to pitch, pulled off a double steal.

It was a gutsy move by manager Kim In-sik — something I’d never attempt if I were managing, but it paid off in spades. Kim Tae-keun singled, both runners scored and Mexico fell into utter collapse from there.

But there’s more to it. It wasn’t Cortez’s first pitch. He started Kim Tae-keun off with a strike, but then, oddly Manager Kim removed Kim Hyun-soo (13 steals during 2008) from first and replaced him with the arguably slower Lee Jin-yong (68 steals over nine years). Why? Was it a decoy? Is Kim injured? Who the heck knows? But whatever the reason it sure put David Cortez to sleep. Running on the next pitch Ko Young-min was over half way to second by the time the ball got to home plate. Rod Barajas didn’t even make a throw.

The ex-Rockie Cortez actually had a phenomenal 2008 in the Mexican league and joined countryman Karim Garcia in Korea, playing with the Lotte Giants during the last month of the KBO season. Someone ought to mention that to the Charlie Steiner because it’s a tremendous storyline.

Not really, but it’s something to talk about. Cortez didn’t allow a run over his first eight appearances in Korea, but then seemed to run out of gas and would have been removed from the closer role had the team not been swept in the first round of the playoffs.

Following the pickpocketing the sizable Korean crowd went nuts and the game turned into a party from there. Suddenly Vinny Castillia looked like a former player not long out of the game, with little business in the dugout. An older coach grumbled something in the direction of Castillia, who just stood and glared at the field. 

Kim Tae-keun singled to center, scoring two. Whatever thread that was keeping Mexico in the game snapped, Korea buried Mexico with four runs in the inning, and now Mexico has to beat Cuba to avoid heading south.

In my WBC predictions made before to the tournament I had Korea facing adversity in the first round before advancing into the second round, but then losing there. But I noted it would take some time for the team to find its identity. Well, I think they’ve found it. 

This is a vastly different team than the one that won the Gold Medal at the Olympics. The heroes are different, and the guy Manager Kim has catching, Park Kyung-oan, is so old his name is spelled with the old Korean romanization scheme. He’s also 1-for-13, but is supposedly getting the starts over Olympian and All-star Kang Min-ho due to his fantastic signal calling ability. Never mind all pitches are called from the bench. 

Kim Tae-keun, who didn’t even make the Olympic team, is now making a bid for tournament MVP with his .412/.500/.824 line. Olympic hero and “Japan killer” Kim Kwang-hyun is now being used as a LOOGY. Ko Young-min is only starting due to injury, and major leaguer Choo Shin-soo, expected to carry the offense due to the absence of Lee Seung-yeop, isn’t even getting off the bench. Thirdbaseman Lee Beum-ho is the third of fourth best thirdbaseman in Korea.

Yet…here they are, with a chance to advance into the final round. Clearly, there something going on here.

Nice day for Asian baseball, eh? Unfortunately, the Cuba/Japan game started in the middle of the night for me, so I only caught the last few innings. But I went back later to try and see what went wrong with Aroldis Chapman, whose line of 2 1/3 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 3 BB and 1 K was anything but what I expected. According to his Pitch F/x data, his average fastball (he threw 31 of them) was 94.6 mph — although Norichica Aoki, who got a 101 mph fastball (by the TV gun) up on his eyebrows, before Chapman got a little fine and walked him, might beg to differ on the speed.

Unfortunately, mentally, Chapman became kind of a mess during the inning. It raised his pitch count significantly, and indirectly ended up costing Cuba the game.  The Japanese team took him deep into the count during the inning, simply waiting for him to beat himself. It was the perfect game plan, albeit the only plan given the pitch count limits and the fact that Chapman has amazing stuff.

In the second inning, with Michihiro Ogasawara up, Chapman quickly got out in front 0-2, but became upset when his third pitch, a slider just on the outside of the plate to the lefty hitter, was called a ball. Incidentally Pitch F/x labels the pitch a cutter, I suppose because of the speed. Chapman’s cutter is unmistakable, because it breaks out and down not unlike Mariano Rivera’s. It’s that good.

The next three pitches (all fastballs above 95) were balls and 35-year-old catcher Ariel Pestano went to the mound.

Seiichi Uchikawa was next and the outcome was roughly the same. Down 0-2, ball, foul, ball, ball, foul, ball. Luckily for Chapman both Ogasawara  and Uchikawa were picked off 1st, otherwise Chapman might not have made it through the 2nd inning. He finished strong by striking out Kosuke Fukudome on a curveball. It was Chapman’s first strikeout and his 41st pitch over two innings.

I don’t want to give the Japanese team too much credit, because Australia did the same thing in its game versus Cuba last week. Taking pitches, working the count. But that only goes so far. Chapman was throwing strikes, not getting the calls he wanted, and then not throwing strikes. When he came back in the third inning it was as if he was determined to throw nothing but strikes. He had Kenji Johjima down 0-2 before leaving a changeup out over the plate. It was lined into centerfield for a hit.  Aki Iwamura followed with a base hit on the second pitch.

Japan then played its patented small ball, with Ichiro bunting into a force at third. Note: remember that next time you hear that Japan small balls its way to victories. It’s not the first time a bunt has led to a less than desirable outcome for the Japanese during this WBC. Chapman, because he’s left handed, was able to make a nice play on the ball, but with Chapman seemingly laying it in for each batter, why not let the Hall of Famer swing away?

Yasuyuki Kataoka hit the third pitch he saw, a letter-high 90 mph fastball, into left for a base hit. By the way, Chapman lost his cool again on the second pitch, a curve that looked like it could have been called a strike, probably causing him to lay one in Kataoka’s wheelhouse. That was it for Chapman. Norberto Gonzalez’s first pitch went to the screen and Japan scored the only run it would need. The legend of Aroldis Chapman takes a hit and Cuba is one loss away from elimination.

I know it’s baseball. It’s not life or death. But if you are American, and you would just as soon see the American team put a product on the field that’s worth your time, I have to ask you…

Are you satisfied?

If you don’t like Team USA you are most definitely satisfied. The team is now 2-2 and on the edge of being knocked out of the WBC early in the second round for the second straight time. I doubt the team will lose to The Netherlands, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

Are you disappointed in the U.S. team?

There are plenty of baseball fans who don’t care about the WBC. I’m not asking them. And there are a number of people, including a lot of Americans, that are perfectly happy simply watching an international baseball tournament they consider to be an exhibition. They’d just as soon the Americans win, but might also enjoy seeing Puerto Rico or an underdog winning.

But I’m sure they’re are a lot of people who want the American team to win. If you’re American and like baseball you’ve probably been in this group at one time or another. Of course it’s easier to flee this group than to be dissatisfied or be (lazily) labelled a patriot or nationalistic. 

Look me in the eyes and tell me…are you satisfied?

Hey, this post turned into a a classic Replacements song. Now that the parameters for this discussion are set, please ask yourself the question found in the title once more. Are you satisfied with the American team’s performance? Do you think the team was well-prepared to play Saturday’s game against Puerto Rico? Do you think the manager arriving during the second inning had any effect on the outcome? Are you bothered by the fact that a number of the players, upon losing by mercy rule, had no idea the game was even over? Do you think the players are bothered by the losing?

Again, this is the WBC. I don’t mean to make it sound like life and death. But if you’ve spent any of your life watching or following this stuff you can’t be satisfied. In fact, you might feel somewhat cheated. And if you live in another country, a country where this sort of stuff can somehow be both directly and indirectly held as being representative of your culture, your history, your desire, your ego, and your being…well, then, you’re probably somewhat ticked off.

I put almost no stock in the U.S. team losing to Venezuela and I think if the teams matchup again the U.S. will crush them. I suppose most Americans can wonder aloud how Jeremy Guthrie ever ended up on the team, but more than that Venezuela had everything to gain from beating the U.S. and the American side had absolutely nothing to gain. Same ol’ story with the U.S. 

The worst part of what transpired (for me and my selfish concerns) is that Puerto Rico will now face the Americans in the first game of the second round. Surely Puerto Rican baseball players can find a bone to pick with Uncle Sam if they look for it, but I see the Americans coming back and beating any of the remaining seven teams. In Game 1 of Round 2.

It’s funny to be mixing politics and baseball, no? I don’t care if you don’t believe in clutch hitting — nationalism exists and it’s bigger than baseball. It’s in the war, stupid. It’s also, and sorry to be a little crass in comparing war to baseball, why the WBC is great in its own unique way. MLB doesn’t have that. Yet.

If you had to pick an MVP for the U.S. team who would it be? Probably Adam Dunn. But on the pitching side though you might have to go with Matt Thorton, who stopped the Guthrie hemoraging in the 7th inning today, and picked up a hold while not allowing baserunner in the game versus Canada. He’s might be Davey Johnson’s go to guy in Round 2.

I have to admit I savored Puerto Rico’s win today, especially Jonathan Sanchez’s four innings of two-hit ball. If you’re looking for fantasy sleepers for 2009, you might begin and end with Puerto Rico’s starting pitching. I’ve enjoyed the Dutch’s victories over the Dominicans, but it’s hard to see them going much further. That said, the curious oranj can definitely beat Venezuela. Unless Luis Sojo pitches Carlos Silva and Felix Hernandez in the same game again.

But in truth, I think my prediction of P.R. winning it all could be in danger. I think they’ll lose the U.S. and then beat the loser of Ned/Ven, only to face the U.S. again. I like them better as the underdog.

Korea played Correia today and looked terrible. I’ve been a big Kim Kwang-hyun supporter on this site, but his last three starts, going back to the Asia Series in November, have been not just subpar…but lousy. Even his performance in the Korean Series was one down/one up. Am I worried? No. His velocities are fine. Just a up in the zone. And, to take a casual stab for sake of sportswriting, I have to wonder if a pitcher who wins rookie of the year, Korean championships in each of his first two years, the Korean version of the Cy Young in his second year, and a Olympic gold medal (during which he dominated arch nemesis Japan twice), has a whole heck of a lot left to accomplish pitching in Korea.  

Lastly, I was happy to see Mexico mercy rule Australia, who I was starting to feel were like a wannabe Dutch team. How about Lotte Giant Karim Garcia’s four for four? Save some for the KBO Karim. Back to PacRim scouting for the Red Sox for Australia’s John Deeble. I guess there are worse fates. 

As we head into Round 2 I’m definately seeing an opening. The Dominicans are gone, the U.S. has shown it can lose and neither Japan or Korea look like surprise, gutsy world beaters. Cuba and Puerto Rico are unblemished, but P.R. will have to contend with the U.S. in Game 1, and Cuba will have to contend with Japan and Korea, both of whom have beaten Cuba (who’s roster isn’t affected by MLB) fairly recently. 

Looks pretty wide open to me.

-Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

While the WBC moves forward, in Taiwan the aftermath of the national team’s dismal WBC showing has given rise to an unintentionally hilarious media war of finger-pointing, accusations, and tragically off-base quotes from various baseball and government figures attempting to make sense of the situation.

If anyone wants a glimpse into the real reason why things are sliding backwards, not forwards in Formosa, keep reading after the jump. For those of you who have moved on and would rather just know what’s going on with the WBC to date, stop reading and click here.

Things are getting ugly as the mob demands answers. Taiwanese Premier Liu Chiao-shiuan has vowed government intervention and the creation of a special government task force to clean up baseball in Taiwan. A TV Talk show host with a horrible toupee is whining like a little b*tch suing a CPBL team president for exposing him as an ignoramus on the air during a call-in segment.

Embattled Coach Yeh has pinned blame squarely on the team’s MLB minor leaguers, claiming they were too obsessed with their own stats to perform as a team–apparently overlooking the fact that, um, CPBL veterans fared just as poorly against China in Beijing as the youngsters did in Tokyo.

In the mean time, nobody is really asking the questions that need to be asked.

However, our EWC correspondent and beat writer Iron Chef, himself a die hard NT fan, has been gracious take take time away from making tremendous loads of cash as a doctor and hobnobbing with Taipei’s elite his difficult life as an intern at Taipei University Medical Hospital to dig up a collection of quotes from last week’s contest to see who is more untethered from reality bloviating about the cause of Taiwan’s baseball struggles. He has also added some of his own commentary on the quotes.

[Ed. NOTE: THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED BELOW ARE THE WRITERS OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINIONS OR BELIEFS OF EWC STAFF. ESPECIALLY MINE. NOW READ THE ABOVE SENTENCE AGAIN SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE PROCEEDING]:

______________

“There are only 9 players on the F!@#ing field!”

Mr. Zen-Xiang Lin, General Manager of the President Lions

On 2100, Legislator “Toupee Seige Machine” Chiu–whose previous political accomplishments include leading an angry mob and running over police in riot gear and acting as Taiwan’s version of Ken Starr– admonishes the President Lions on a TV talk show for not cooperating fully with the player recruitment process.

Mr. Lin, GM of the Lions, calls onto the show, asks if balding lawmaker if he had actually watched the games, and that the Lions sent 5 players in total. He also mentioned that there are only 9 players on the field, and 4-5 of them were their players. Then he got cut off for telling the truth.

Player recruitment was huge problem this time around for the Taiwanese National Team, but I’d just like to mention that the legislator should go back commanding his medieval siege armies rather than commenting on baseball.

The Brother Elephants sent 4 players: Peng, Liao, Wang, and Kuo.

The Lions: Pan, Kao, Kao, Kuo, and Lin

The La New Bears and Sinon Bulls sent no players.

_________________________________

“I lost my camera”

-The girlfriend of Red Sox Prospect Chiang Chih-Hsien

On her blog, the girlfriend of the Sox Chiang posted that she was saddened by the Taiwanese team loss, and that she was also upset she lost her camera, presumably in the hotel they were staying in. Subsequently, the angry mob of Taiwanese fans descended upon her blog, accusing her of possible “nighttime activities” and those activities being partially responsible for the lackluster performance of the team.

I personally don’t care a great deal about the personal lives of players, but I kind of want the pictures on that missing camera to come out. Hong Kong has Edison Chen, Taiwan will have Home Run Chiang!

Also, angry mob, irrational fans, sexism, Nationalistic crazy, blah blah blah.

I think Chiang just wants off the team, so he’s doing everything he can to make sure they no longer call him in to play. Chiang needs to watch that episode of Seinfeld where George tries to get Steinbrenner to fire him.

The running theme here: nobody wants to play in this tournament.

___________________________

“If there are too many minor leaguers, it can have a significant degree of effect (on performance)”…“The results of minor league games do not focus on winning or losing, but instead individual performances. In International play, only winning is important, individual performances aren’t important, the two types of games are completely different, If there are too many minor leaguers, it can have a significant degree of effect…The clubs due to the protection of their own players, either did not release them to us, or set restrictions on player usage. The coaches have to try to win the game and follow the restrictions, and it’s hard.”

-Manager Yeh Chih-shien

(Editor’s note: Chef then responded with a profane tirade that should not be included in a fine quality publication such as this one. The words “Go f–k yourself” absolutely did not appear in his comments under any circumstances.)

_____________________________

“Thank you, everybody Ganbatte!”

-President Ma Ying-jeou

When asked about the National Team’s failure, the President gave the hard-hitting response of “謝謝，大家加油!” (Thanks! Do your best everyone!)

I’ve been petitioning for President Ma to become Manager of the Taiwanese National Team for months. He’ll sit there, look fantastic in a suit, and, in keeping with his presidential style, let the players play without lifting a finger to interfere. There’s a minor problem in which the President might forget which team he was supposed to cheer for, but I don’t think that’ll be an issue.

Most dominating performance by a starting pitcher in the WBC? Aroldis Chapman? Possibly. Yu Darvish vs. China? Not really given the competition. It’s got to be Ubaldo Jimenez, who set a WBC record for 10 strikeouts (out of 12 batters) over just four innings. He set the first seven consecutive batters down on strikes.

But as we all know it was all for naught. Was The Netherlands victory the biggest in European baseball history? My frame of reference only goes back to about 2000, when the Orange beat Cuba 4-2 in the summer Olympics in Sydney. Maybe one of our European readers can help us out here.

What an amazing game (coverage from the NRC Handelsblad). I was glued to my justin.tv from the beginning and kept putting off everything I needed to do. The Dominicans were the consensus favorite to win and The Netherlands beat them twice. Who would have thought the Dominicans “weak” bullpen would end up being Carlos Marmol. 

I can see this team getting one over on Venezuela, but not the U.S. and not Puerto Rico. But it’s clear the WBC isn’t going to simply play out how people expected.

It’s ironic that Chapman would pitch on the day the Michael Ynoa landed on planet Arizona. It’s hard to know exactly what Chapman would command on the MLB market, and one has to wonder how long it’ll be before he’s there, but the point is, he’s not there, and he’s arguably the best non-signed pitching prospect in the world. 

Chapman was impressive, but Travis Blackley wasn’t bad either. Blackley has reportedly always had great stuff (he was signed out of Australia by current Rangers PacRim scout Jim Colburn), but, according to someone I spoke to in Arizona, hasn’t had his mind in line until fairly recently. Blackley lit up the Mexican Winter league, which suddenly created some competition amongst teams looking to sign him. The DBacks won and might have a sleeper on their hands.

Australia vs. Mexico should be interesting. A pretty good team isn’t going to make it through. 

Why am I writing in a Baseball America-like style? I’m not sure. Maybe because I began with a question. Well, I’m not about to write about the Venezuela/Italy game because I didn’t have the slightest bit of interest in the game.

If you were watching at the start of the game, you might have noticed Bong calling time and talking to the umpire. I was on my way home, saw it through the window of a restaurant, and was wondering what the heck was going on. Well, now you know. My guess is it was Dice-K. Not just any ol’ fan can get in that part of the Tokyo Dome.

And in case you were daydreaming about what the Korean team looked like as it was flying to Arizona for Round 2, the Korean media has you covered…

Oh, lets not forget to get a shot of the manager after his 12 hour flight. 

There are a number of other photos of a similar theme here. 

I’m not sure what to make of this one of Park Chan-ho, but Phantom of the Opera comes to mind. 

Park was reportedly elated by the news of Korea’s victory.