Byung Hyun Kim Re-emerges
Byung Hyun Kim is back. The Rakuten Golden Eagles have announced the signing of the Korean righty, who played last season for Orange County of the independent Golden League. Kim will earn $400k and wear 99.
Commentor DeGavph called this one back in December. And speaking of comments, January has already set a new record for the most comments in any month since the inception of the site. There’s been some great discussion here lately and I’m happy to be a part of it, so I wanted to say thanks to all those who take the time to leave comments.
26/01/2011 at 12:21 am Permalink
I hope Hoshino still has it in him despite to his age. With the legendary stuff Kim has done to Boston fans and other people, I expect some hilarity will ensue between him and Hoshino as early as February or March.
26/01/2011 at 8:22 am Permalink
It seems like I read somewhere that his velocity was WAY down.
26/01/2011 at 12:55 pm Permalink
What legendary stuff? I don’t recall… Except for the gopher balls (Arizona if i’m right)… Can you specify please?
26/01/2011 at 12:55 pm Permalink
Since passerby mentioned, I resorted wiki. Kim was impressive, battling pain and injuries (what an ass the Red Sox management looks like, I bet the update-r must be a Yanks fan). I actually thought you meant “legendary stuff” as in the humor and jokes he made in the clubhouse (LOL).
It’s also curious I found this line belied with the facts:
“Kim remained as a starter through June, but the Red Sox needed him as their closer because the Red Sox’s closer-by-committee approach implemented following the advice of statistician and Red Sox adviser Bill James was failing.”
Yeah, Bill James sucks. LOL
Patrick, I must admit your Data page really brought me back more frequently than I used to. It’s been a great tool, and fine record of NPB. Thank you for keeping it updated! Stats don’t lie, but people who misuse stats lie to themselves.
26/01/2011 at 2:07 pm Permalink
Thanks for the kind words about the data site. With a little luck and free time, there will be more to look at this year. I have a lot more data collected, but it’s sitting in a db on a computer at home, because I haven’t written a front end for it yet.
26/01/2011 at 6:52 pm Permalink
I think passerby meant “legendary stuff” as stuff like him raising his middle finger in the middle of Fenway Park at Boston fans.
I always liked Kim because he was so insane. And he had that slider – the nastiest one I’ve ever seen an Asian pitch.
Anyway, I wouldn’t expect too much from him just now. This isn’t a guy recovering from injuries, but a guy coming out of two years of retirement. And from what I can gather from the Korean press, Kim views Rakuten as a sort of rehab course to get back to the Big Leagues. Rakuten signed him because Kim was in incredible shape “for a guy who’s been retired for years”, so I think it’ll be safe to assume that we won’t be seeing him in ichi-gun for a couple of months or so.
His velocity is way down, but that “way down” seems to be still in the range of normal velocity for underhanded pitchers. After all, this guy did throw 93 miles underhanded when he was in his prime.
The reasons he came out of retirement in the first place, and the deeper reasons he bailed out of the SF Giants Minors a few months ago and finally ended up signing with Rakuten are amusing indeed. But this comment is getting way too long, so I think I’ll share that another time if anyone’s interested.
26/01/2011 at 7:53 pm Permalink
Thanks, finger in the air is legendary enough for me…
27/01/2011 at 7:58 am Permalink
Thanks for the update. As a life long Yankee fan, Kim will be remembered fondly although it seemed like he struck out anyone whio did not homer off him. i must point out that while Tino hit the fist memorable homer, it was Scot Brossius (not O’neil) who hit the second.