One of the regular features here at East Windup Chronicle will be to follow the trajectories of some of the more intriguing Asian prospects in baseball.

The first such prospect will be Jung Young-Il, an 19-year-old right-hander from South Korea. Jung caught my eye because he was mentioned in the recent article detailing the extraordinarily high pitch counts Korean high schoolers are sometimes subjected to. It’s reported in the article that in April of 2006 Jung threw 13-plus innings (242 pitches) in a single game for Jinheung High School of Gwangju. Jinheung’s baseball program has a reputation of being one of the toughest and best high school baseball programs in Korea. Players often subjected to military-style training regimins inconceivable (not to mention possibly illegal) in U.S. high school baseball.

Jung was not drafted, but signed a $1 million contract as a free agent by Angles pacific rim scout Charlie Kim. Jung made a good impression in Angels camp, and was even labeled the Halos #4 overall prospect (only behind higher profile and better known quantities Brandon Wood, Nick Adenhart and Eric Aybar) by Baseball America. In the same article he was tabbed to be their 5th starter by 2010.

“Jung’s ball seems to speed up in the last few feet before entering the hitting zone, and when it explodes into the catcher’s mitt it’s like an anvil meeting concrete,” wrote BA’s Alan Matthews in the October 2006 article
Jung topped 93 mph on the gun and also showed “the makings of usable offerings in his changeup and splitter.”

This year the Angels assigned Jung to the Orem Owlz, the team’s advanced rookie A team in Utah. Unfortunately Jung managed just 9 innings in three starts before being shut down for the season in July with elbow problems.

There were rumors that Jung would have to have elbow surgery, but according to Stephen C. Smith, author of the informative Halos prospects blog Futureangels.com said a recent press report quoted Angels farm director Tony Reagins as saying Jung should pitch in the Fall instructional league in Arizona.

Smith hopes to make it down to Tempe for some of the league so hopefully we’ll have a further update on Jung in the not too distant future.