Twins Win Posting for Korean LHP Hyeon-Jong Yang

The southpaw debuted as a 19-year-old in 2007 and started the year in the rotation but was moved to the bullpen as the season progressed due to struggles with his control. It was the same story in 2008, but he broke through in 2009, posting a 3.15 ERA with 139 K and 58BB in 148.2 IP. He also led the Kia Tigers to a Korean Series victory. He regressed a bit in 2010, getting 16 wins but taking a step back in individual statistics like ERA (4.25). He had similar mediocre results from 2011 through 2012 as he continued to struggle with his control.

He bounced back in 2013 though he missed time with a pretty serious rib injury. And in 2014, while his individual statistics don’t look spectacular, he did so in a high offense season in the KBO. He has also trimmed his walk rate over the last two years to a more respectable 3.9 BB/9. (It was over 5 for almost every other season of his KBO career.)

This year, despite pitching for a struggling Kia Tigers team (they finished 52-74), he won 16 games and KBO’s version of the Cy Young award, the Choi Dong-won Award. This is the first season it has been awarded. That being said, it’s not clear from his statistics just why he won. Looking at KBO stats last year, it looks like several pitchers had a better year across the board.

Amazin Avenue’s Steve Sypa cautions readers to take the projection of Yang as a #2 or even #3 starter with a large grain of salt. That projection was made by an anonymous scout to Daily News writer Mark Feinsand, but Sypa lists several others who are not as optimistic.

The primary discrepancy surrounds Yang’s fastball, which is sometimes reported as reaching the mid-90s, but is also is listed at times as topping out at 91 or 92 mph (like in this scouting report, which also has a lot of information on his other pitches). His best pitch is his slider, but he doesn’t throw it very often, reserving it as a strikeout pitch. He also has a changeup, which has a nice velocity differential, but its movement is inconsistent. (I get the sense he has trouble keeping it low in the zone.)

But the key concern about Yang is his control. His overall BB/9 in the KBO is 4.7, which is terrible. His pitches can have inconsistent movement. It sounds like his fastball can be thrown a few different places in the zone. His slider, when working, breaks down, but can also tail away from lefties. In the scouting report above, he was noted as occasionally pitching aggressively inside, but he wasn’t among the league leaders in hitting batters.

This year, Yang is joined in being posted by fellow KBO pitcher Kwang-Hyun Kim. Kim was just posted and won by the Padres for $2 million last week. Kim and Yang have had parallel careers since they were pitching together on the South Korean National team, and Kim was ranked as the 32^nd best free agent by Hardball Talk before the season began. Feinsand lists Yang as a better bet than Kim, but it’s not clear from their careers that there is much difference.

Both are following the lead of Dodgers pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu, who was posted and signed two years ago and has posted a 3.17 ERA over 344 IP in those years. His success has renewed interest in KBO players, particularly pitchers.