As I ease into this whole scouting world I’m getting a better picture of how it might translate for East Windup Chronicle. Scouting tends to be pretty low-key, if not altogether hidden, behind-the-scenes work. Not exactly conducive to the hey-look-at-me world of blogging. Still, I’m hoping I can bring the two worlds together at least a little. One way I can is by offering news and views of players already signed, sealed and delivered. In camp, on teams and starting their path toward playing professionally for the Chicago Cubs.

I didn’t scout Rhee Dae-eun. I’ve only read his scouting report and seen some video. He was signed last year and is currently playing for the Class A Peoria Chiefs. He made his professional debut last Friday and threw five shutout innings, yielding just two hits and striking out five en route to a win. My bosses are really excited about Rhee and I’m looking forward to charting his progress here.

Rhee is from Seoul, South Korea and went to Shinil High School, a private Christian school in Seoul. He just turned 19 two weeks ago and if you look on the Chiefs’ roster page you’ll find he’s by far the youngest player on the team. This is important to our story because the Cubs don’t typically send players to Peoria at age 19. In fact, the last pitcher sent there at such a young age was a guy named Greg Maddux. Rhee is no ordinary prospect folks.

He’s listed as 6′2 and 195 lbs, which is 10 lbs. heavier than his signing weight. He throws right-handed and his birthdate is 3/23/89. What makes the team really excited about this kid is the fact that he’s already throwing three pitches well and is working on a fourth. His best pitch is a tailing four-seam fastball that usually comes in between 87-93 MPH. He can locate it to both sides of the plate and has very good control overall. He throws a well-developed 11/5 curve that drops as low as 73 and a less-developed splitter in the 77-82 range. The fourth pitch is a power slider.

Rhee is obviously young and raw. He has a great “baseball body,” and the team expects him to continue to grow more and fill out. As is often the case with young Korean players he’s mentally balanced, with a fantastic work ethic and strong desire to succeed. Like I said before it’s going to be a lot of fun to follow this kid. He’s got the potential to be something very special.