Nice piece on Baseball Analysts about Guys Who Should Come Play in Asia, entitled Yokohama or Omaha in 2009?. Ironically, while watching some of tonight’s SK/Woori game, the camera showed a scout from Hanshin, who was apparently watching SK starter Jung Byung-doo.

There’s an article by Yonghap news this evening talking about the Hanshin scout, as well as a scout from Yakult, both who have apparently spent the weekend in Korea  watching Doosan thirdbaseman Kim Dong-joo, and also Bears pitcher Lee Hae-chun. Kim’s desire to move to either Japan or the states has been public for nearly a year, but the idea of Lee moving abroad is a new one. All three are free agents at the end of the season.

The article also mentions Lotte’s Son Min-han, who is also a free agent. Son is having a very solid year and was probably the KBO’s top starter through the first half of the year. He’s struggled to win games in the second half and is only 11-4 on the year, but his ERA is still a solid 2.94.

Looks for Japanese teams to sign at least one or two Koreans this offseason following the success of Lim Chang-yong, whose success in Japan has surprised me. At times he’s seemed unhittable in Japan and has racked up 30 saves this season.  

The Baseball Analysts is mostly an overview of position players who have spent extended time in AAA, many of whom are so-called AAAA players. Really, I think it’s hard to guess who will or won’t be scouted and signed by Japanese (or Korean) teams and  it’s even more difficult to predict who will or won’t have success.  One name the writer throws out is Tony Clark. I could see him helping a team in Japan. He also throws out Kevin Mench, who’s hit a grand total of four HRs this year in AAA. Not so sure I can see that working.