Let’s be frank, it’s been a dismal year for Koreans in Major League Baseball. Choi Hee-seop floundered in the minors for a month before coming back to Korea with his tail between his legs.

Choo Shin-soo, who over the winter was being tabbed by some as a possible 2007 rookie-of-the-year candidate, had a short callup with the Indians in late April, got injured, came back and played a few games in AAA Buffal, and was not called up by the big club when the rosters went to 40. Park Chan-ho? The less said the better. Kim Sunny-Sun-woo? Stuck in Lodi…I mean, Fresno again.

The top Korean in the majors this year? Kim Byung-hyun, who bounced from Colorado,to Florida, to Arizona, before getting released and ending up back with the Marlins again. That’s right, in a landslide Kim is your Korean MLB player-of-the-year.

But one Korean player is a candidate for MVP and is leading his team on a quest for a championship. The player formerly known as Seo Jae-weong, now just Seo Jae, or rather Jae Seo in the U.S. (maybe Jay-S as a rapper?) is having a terrific year for the International League’s Durham Bulls.

After an awful start in Tampa Bay’s rotation (an 8+ ERA), Seo has rebounded in AAA Durham, sporting a 9-4 record and a 3.69 ERA in just under 100 innings. His control, which had gone missing for two years is back, resulting in just 14 free passes on the year.

During the final week of the season Seo had wins over Norfolk and Charlotte, giving up one run on seven hits in 13 innings, netting him his third pitcher-of-the-week award on the year. The victory over Charlotte was the division clincher for the Bulls who were 10 games out of first place as late as July. They will start the playoffs against the back-to-back Governor’s Cup champion Toledo Mudhens on Thursday.

Seo has shown flashes of being a very solid No. 3 or 4 starter in the bigs since coming over from Korea (he went to the same Gwangju high school as Choi and Kim) in 1998. In 2005 he peaked, going 8-2 with a 2.59 ERA down the stretch for the Mets.

Seo still throws in the low 90s, has a hard slider when it’s rolling, and an above-average changeup. He does tend to thrive (and sink) on emotion, and has always been prone to big innings. His 2005 success only came after being demoted by the organization that brought him to the U.S.

Since being traded from the Mets to the Dodgers (in the Duaner Sanchez deal) Seo has bottomed out. His HR/9 ballooned from .90 to 1.88 in LA where he posted a 5.78 ERA in 67 innings. Then he was dealt to Tampa where he proceeded to go 1-8 to end the year.

But in Durham Seo seems to have regained his previous form. His HR/9 is back down in the .70 range, along with the aforementioned pinpoint control. His contract ends after this year and the fact that the Devil Rays didn’t call him up in September leads one to believe he doesn’t fit into the team’s future plans. He is only 30 and will certainly compete for a starting spot in a major league rotation next year.