It’s been a little while since I wrote about Rhee Dae-eun – mostly because he was shut down toward the end of April due to some tendinitis in this arm. After taking a month off he’s come back strong and made his third consecutive start on June 11 against the Quad Cities River Bandits.

The news on Rhee’s arm is that there’s really no news. He was experiencing some light pain, but the DL stint and month long layoff was nothing more than the Cubs being extra-cautious with a 19-year-old arm with a lot of potential. In his last three starts he’s gone two, three and four innings, for a total of nine. He’s given up five hits and no earned runs — which puts his season ERA at 1.38.

He’s reportedly throwing the ball well, steadily improving in all areas — specifically his change up which has been getting better both in quality and command. In his recent start he ended up throwing 58 pitches over the four innings. In the first inning, after setting down the first two batters, the third reached on an error. The next batter also reached, as a Chiefs outfielder lost a ball in the sun, allowing an unearned run to score.

Rhee’s splits are impressive — lefties are hitting just .195 against him and righties .185. Over those last three starts he’s walked three and struckout five and his K/BB for the year stands as 21/8 over 26 innings. 

Another very positive bit of information is that his English has improved a great deal since joining the Chiefs. He’s apparently adjusting to life in the U.S. — which is also his first time away from Seoul — very well.

The Midwest League’s allstar break coming up Rhee won’t go again until toward the end of next week as Peoria takes on Beliot, against whom he had one of his better stats of the season, striking out a season-high seven batters in five innings of work.