The Korean baseball career of Jose Lima came to a quiet end yesterday as the Kia Tigers released the 36-year-old pitcher, replacing him with Kane Davis who made 15 starts for the Syracuse Sky Chiefs in 2008, and has appeared in 102 games for a handful of MLB teams.

Lima hasn’t been that bad for Kia since being demoted to the second-level team in May. He had a terrible start on June 13 vs. SK in which he failed to get out of the first inning, surrendering six runs and taking the loss, however, he hadn’t given up more than three runs in seven of eight starts since his recall. In June he posted 1-3 record, but had a solid 3.38 ERA. I have to believe that there was more to it — that there was some kind of conflict (or possibly some deviant behavior). The fact that Kia had Davis ready to go and announced his signing the day Lima was released makes me think they’d been waiting to make this move for a while.

However, as one dies a newborn emerges and yesterday saw the major league debut of a former KBOer, one Cedrick Bowers, known only as the surname-less Cedrick in Korea. Bowers was a non-roster invitee to the Colorado Rockies extended spring training, and after impressing there was assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs where he posted a 4-1 with a 2.97 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 39.1 innings for the Sky Sox. He was called up to the big club over the weekend and yesterday pitched an inning in relief during an 8-1 Rockies win over the Padres.

Bowers was never all that impressive in Korea, going 11-13 with a 4.15 ERA and a 7.46 K/9. He always had pretty good stuff, but frequently struggled with his control and was not given the ball when Hanwha faced off against Samsung and then Doosan in the playoffs last year. My guess is that he would have resigned with Hanwha had he been given the opportunity. Still, it’s nice to see him work his way back and get a shot in a big league bullpen (to the extent that we can call the Rockies pitching staff “big league”). That makes two players who have seen their careers advance following a subpar Korean career, the other being Wilson Valdez, who was released by Kia last month only to sign with Yakult in NPB.

Davis will be used as a starter for Kia, although it’s possible the team will break him in slowly as the Tigers have with Felix Diaz. In Syracuse Davis went 6-7 with a 4.15 ERA in 86 2/3 innings. His contract will pay him $160,000 with a signing bonus of $40,000.

Interesting tidbit on Davis: In 2000 he was part of a Cleveland Indians trade that sent him along with Paul Rigdon, Richie Sexson and a player to be named later to the Milwaukee Brewers for Bob Wickman, Steve Woodard, and Jason Raspberry Bere. The PTBNL ended up being Marco Scutaro.