Choo Shin-soo was the subject of a writeup on Fangraphs, which tells us that the Busanite has arguably been the most productive offensive player in the majors over the last month. I knew he was swinging the bat well, but not to that tune. He’s got a .376/.459/.706 line over his last 85 at-bats, which is good for a 2.21 win probability added, second only to Mark Teixera over the last month.

The Korea Times had a piece on Choo earlier in the week. I’m not recommending the piece itself, but it has a few quotes from Choo and some history about his high school days as a pitcher for Busan High School. Guess why he had Tommy John surgery.

When the EWC 1-year anniversary rolled by a couple weeks ago it reminded me of the very first post I wrote here, which was about Kim Byung-hyun getting his release by the Arizona Diamondbacks. At that time Kim’s release meant there were exactly zero Koreans in Major League Baseball at the time. Kim was picked back up by the Marlins shortly thereafter. Last I heard Kim is living in San Diego where he has a sushi restaurant. He’s hoping to catch on with another MLB team next spring. If not, he’s always got the Woori Heroes (who likely own his rights) to come home to.

The re-emergence of Park Chan-ho means there are two at-east servicible Koreans in MLB right now. The next closest would have to be Ryu Jae-kuk, who is with the Durham Bulls, but hasn’t pitched since May due to injury. I’m not bullish on his chances on making it to the majors, but he’s just 25. My guess is he’ll give it a shot for another year or two.

In Double-A Mississippi Jung Sung-ki has only allowed one run over his last 11 innings, lowering his ERA to not as terrible as a 5-plus ERA of 4.41. He’s got six saves on the year. Hard to say what the Braves plans for him will entail. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s a sidearmer and has trouble getting lefties out. Southpaws are hitting .306 off him this year.

Another lefty Nam Yoon-hee has also had a better second half than first. He’s playing for Spookane in short season Single-A. On Sept. 3 versus Boise he threw two innings, striking out three and allowing just one hit, lowering his ERA to 4.20 in 40.2 innings. We’ll have to see is Nam gets the call to low-A Clinton or high-A Bakersfield.

At the moment the most promissing season from a Korean minor leaguer is being put together by Kyeong Kang, who plays for the Hudson Valley Renegades, a Rays short season A team. Kang was named a Mid-Season All-Star for the short season New York-Penn League, has a slash line of .278/.338/.463 and an OPS of .801.