Ending a prolonged courtship involving several teams, 22 year-old right-handed reliever Lo-Chia Jen has finally fit an MLB glass slipper, signing a deal reportedly worth $250,000 with the Houston Astros. The hard-to-get Lo rebuffed earlier offers from the Red Sox, Twins, and Angels. Lo is the first Taiwanese sign for the Houston Astros.
The 5′11 righty previously sat on 90-93 MPH, but apparently elation with his new deal has bumped his velo up to 96 on several pitches in a recent college tourney. Lo is best suited to a setup or closing role, and primarily pumps fastballs. He occasionally mixes in a hard curve and split-finger as show-me pitches, but lives and dies with the heater.
The Astros were apparently unfazed by Lo’s notorious meltdown in the 2008 Beijing olympics in which he coughed up the lead to the vaunted Chinese team, eventually leading to the heart attack death of a 75-year old long-time Taiwanese baseball fan.
Good luck to Lo as he heads over to the land of Nolan, Olajuwon, and the Geto Boys.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jupiter, Perfect Game, Scouting, Ft. Myers, Perfect Game USA, mike schmidt, jerry stiller, spring training, CPBL, D media T Rex, gambling | // Oct 28, 2008 at 6:28 am
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2 Fred Knows Best // Oct 28, 2008 at 6:09 pm
This seems to me to be a very interesting story. If I am understanding this correctly, this pitcher has a “killer” fastball. I should like to follow his progress in future years.
3 chris // Nov 4, 2008 at 5:35 am
Ghetto-Boys?… What about Earl Campbell, Yao Ming, Warren Moon, Clyde Drexler, Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone… Ghetto Boys…?
One of these things just doesn’t quite fit…
4 Jackson // Nov 4, 2008 at 9:30 am
Don’t forget Jim Petersen, who went to my high school (St. Louis Park, MN) and has a small tribute area to him in the gym foyer.
I love the Geto Boys, I couldn’t help myself there. I happened to be listening to “My Mind’s Playing Tricks on Me” earlier that day. Scarface is one of my favorite rappers of all time.
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