Unable to Make a Trade, The Heroes Search for a New Sponsor

The way things are run at Heroes HQ, Vandelay Industries is a natural fit for their sponsor. The Vandelay Heroes. Just change the "W" in the logo to a "V" and they're all set.

Let's review. These guys looked awful on the field, lost their sponsor thanks to a corporate game of chicken and now, they can't even make a trade. After a leaguewide protest, the commissioner's office nullified the Heroes trade of Jang Won-sam for cash(3 billion won) and warm body, Park Sung-hoon, with Samsung.

This is the first time in the league's 26-year history that a trade has been nullified. Personally, I'm torn on the decision. I was really excited of at the prospect of having Jang leading the Lions rotation next year, but the trade was fairly one-sided. League integrity has to count for something. If this was a fantasy league, the same thing probably would have happened. 7 of the GM's would have rattled off nasty emails to the commish, while the two involved parties would shrug their shoulders. Finally, the embattled commish would cancel the trade and ask the two parties to try again.

We did get this image out of this fiasco. Jang Won-sam walking around in a Lions jacket. This would be like having Jake Peavy strutting around the South Side of Chicago with a White Sox jacket, only he signs an extension with the Padres the next week. A Naver search for Jang Won-sam, turned up this doozy. Our ace, ladies and gentlemen!

Aaron at the EWC also puts his spin on this situation.

Also, the Lotte Giants will bring back Karim Garcia for another season and the Samsung Lions have re-signed shortstop Park Jin-man (korean only).

Asia Series Championship Roundup and News

What I'll remember most is the CheerBabes.

I heard some team in Japan won a game or something...

Seibu Lions 1, Uni-President 7-11 Lions 0
W - Shinya Okamoto, L - Pan Wei-lun

The game was a 0-0 tie heading into the bottom of the 9th. With two outs a runner on first, Seibu outfielder Tomoaki Sato lined a double into left field and Yoshihito Ishii beat the throw home by a good 10 feet. Ishii never stopped sprinting until he went into his slide. With the walk-off double, Sato was awarded the MVP award.



Uni Lions starter Giancarlo Alvarado tossed 6 shutout innings. Alvarado allowed only 4 hits and 0 walks with 1 K. Seibu ace Hideaki Wakui threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Wakui allowed 4 hits and 3 walks with an impressive 10 K's.

Shady Trade?!? What shady trade?

I'm not sure how to feel about this. On the one hand, I am thrilled that the Lions landed a legit ace to head their rotation, but I'm worried about what this might mean for The Heroes.

From the article, “If we were desperate for money, we would’ve traded Jang a long time ago,” Lee said. “We fielded about 10 offers for Jang during the season and we mulled over the Samsung deal for a month. The 3 billion won will be used for players’ salaries.” The Lee in question is The Heroes GM. I'm sure the 3 billion will be used for players' salaries. The Heroes will probably have a roster that winds up costing exactly 3 billion won.

The Samsung Lions GM makes me smile. “I know the critics would say we flaunted our wealth to get a player but we showed that trading for a player could be more effective than signing free agents,” Kim said. “This is a win-win proposition for both teams. We have a young, talented left-handed starting pitcher, and the Heroes have some cash.” Sure. Win-win. We get one of the top lefties in the league to head our embattled rotation and the shadiest team in the league gets a few billion won.

Also, The Heroes manager, Kim Si-jin, chimed in with this, "The ownership promised they would not trade any more players for cash and I’ve got to believe them.” He has to believe them because, well, he is stuck leading this motley crew.

Asia Series Day 3 Round Up and News

Seibu Lions 16, Tianjin Lions 2
W - Kohji Onuma, L - Chen Wei

Seibu banged out 13 hits and took advantage of 2 errors, numerous fielding mistakes and 11(!) walks to slaughter an overmatched Tianjin squad. 4 Seibu batters finished with at least 2 RBIs and both Takeya Nakamura and Ginjiro Sumitani hit homeruns.

Uni-President 7-11 Lions 10, SK Wyverns 4
W - Lin Yueh Ping, L - Chae Byeong-yong

For some reason, this game resulted in SK being eliminated from the tournement despite having the same record as Uni and Seibu. From what I understand, the tiebreaker is defensive runs per inning and not run differential. I guess "defensive runs per inning" comes down to runs allowed. SK allowed a few more than Uni did. Whatever. It's a silly tiebreaker. Good luck today, Uni. You're going to need it.

From Lin Yueh Ping's wikipedia page, "At the end of 2006 season, he was diagnosed with a heart condition, and underwent surgery in May 2007. Afterward, he recovered quickly and was able to do limited pitching in late season." That's right. The Wyverns got beat by a pitcher with a bad heart. This would be like the Minnesota Twins losing to this guy.

Chae Byeong-yong was awful. He pitched like he had spent all week camped out at an All-You-Can-Eat buffet and showed up at the stadium ten minutes before game time. Uni banged out 4 homers against Wyverns pitching. Lui Fin Hao hit two of them. He hit a 3-run bomb in the 4th inning to start a 5-run rally and another 3-run bomb in the 8th to finish a 4-run rally.

You know what? I'm not upset by the Wyverns loss anymore. With the way they played last night they didn't deserve to be in the final. There. I'm done being bitter over this game.

The action continues today at 2pm local time. The Seibu Lions will face the Uni-President Lions for the Asia Series championship. Wakui should be throwing for Seibu. I have no idea who the

Asia Series Day 2 Roundup and News

Everyone's favorite cartoonist, Choi Hoon, offers his take on the Asia Series.

As does the KT.

SK 15, Tianjin Lions 0
W - Lee Yeong-wook, L - Chen Wei

Um, yeah. The Tianjin Lions got spanked. Badly. This is what happens when professionals play amateurs. If you were watching this game, 15-0 makes the game sound close. Tianjin didn't get very much right. If groundballs weren't an adventure, throws were. Pitches were succesful if they were caught. Everyone looked overmatched at the plate. I could go on, but I'd like to keep this short.

A 7-run 3rd inning doomed the Lions. SK sent 11 men to the plate and recorded 7 hits, 3 stolen bases and 1 walk. Starter Song Eun-beom tossed 4 scoreless. Kim Jae-hyeon made sure the Lions were beaten with a 3-run bomb in the 7th. The game only took 7 innings to finish thanks to the tournement's slaughter rule.

Seibu Lions 2, Uni-President 7-11 Lions 1
W - Takayuki Kishi, L - Pan Wei-lun, S - Chikara Onodara

This game was all about Seibu ace, Takayuki Kishi. The Japan Series MVP worked 8 strong innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits with 10 K's. Uni scored its only run in the 4th inning thanks to Tilson Brito clubbing a sac fly. Seibu also scored in the 4th inning thanks to an RBI single from outfielder Hiroyuki Ohshima. The Lions took the lead in the 5th on an RBI double from leadoff man, Shogo Akada. Onodara tossed a 1-2-3 9th to nail down the save. Uni ace, Pan Wei-lun, pitched well enough to win, but didn't get much help from the Uni offense. Pan threw 6 solid innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits with 4 K's.

Asia Series Day One Roundup and News

Lee Seung-yeop admits that he was terrible. The world, somehow, keeps spinning.

I can't believe I missed this. The KBO announced their free agents for this off season and vowed to follow the rules that they have set. The rules are ridiculous and virtually guarantee that top players will start bolting for Japan. I'm going to go more in depth on this in the next week or so.


Uni! Tianjin! Seibu! SK! This week in Tokyo. Asian Series Fever! Catch it!

According to the Korea Times, the SK Wyverns brought more bats than the Seibu Lions did. I didn't notice any flying mammals on the field, but if the KT says it, well, it could have happened.

Uni-President 7-11 Lions 7, Tianjin Lions 4
W - Tseng Yi-cheong, L - Lu Jiangang

I freely admit, I was at work during this game and I have no idea what happened or who did what. I do know that The Uni Lions had their CheerBabes in attendence and all of Asia is grateful. Especially me.

I don't know what the deal is with the moonboots, but the tanktops and hotpants make me smile.

The Uni Lions were losing 4-3 in the 9th inning, but they managed a 4-run rally off the Tianjin bullpen to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat.

SK 4, Saitama Seibu Lions 3
W - Lee Sung-ho, L - Hoashi Kazuyuki


The Seibu Lions also brought their CheerBabes. The more I live in Asia, the more I get used to the idea of baseball teams having CheerBabes.

Seibu got the party started in the first inning with an RBI single from Seibu's Haroshi Harao. Kim Kwang-hyeon didn't look very sharp in this one. I get the feeling he was more than a little rusty and he didn't have his usual catcher. Jung Sang-ho got the start over Park Kyeong-wan. Park Jae-hong tied the game in the 2nd thanks to a, erm, questionable homerun. It was a ball hit down the left field line that was ruled fair. The replay showed that it was, well, obviously foul. In the 4th inning, Lee Jae-won hit a two-run bomb that managed to juuuust stay inside the fair pole to give the Wyverns a 3-1 advantage. Later in the inning, SK's Park Jae-sang would hit and RBI single to expand SK's lead to 4-1. The Lions mounted a fake 2-run rally in the 5th inning to make the score 4-3 and that would be where the game would finish. The SK bullpen shutdown the Seibu offense. Yoon Gil-hyeon, Jeong Woo-ram and Lee Seung-ho would toss 4 1/3 scoreless to secure the victory for SK. This victory should give SK a clear path to the final.


"It's in da bag!"

The action continues at 12pm local time when the Tianjin Lions face the SK Wyverns. The series continues at 6pm local time when the Uni President 7-11 Lions face the Saitama Seibu Lions.

Asia Series Preview

I freely admit, I'm a sucker for this. Any time you can get the champions of 4 leagues together for a round robin championship, I'm interested. This is also the first year China isn't sending an "All-Star" team. I can't wait to see what these guys look like.

The EWC has a shorter preview, but Aaron is going to Tokyo to watch the tourney. I'm painfully jealous.

On to the preview...


Tianjin Lions

Honestly, little is known about these guys. The Lions finished 19-2 on the season. They posted a perfect 12-0 home record on the season. I get the impression that these guys are capable of hitting the baseball, but I don't think they have enough pitching. Actually, I think they can avoid embarrassing themselves at the plate, but I don't think they can avoid embarrassing themselves on the mound.

They swept the Beijing Tigers in 3 games to win their 3rd consecutive CBL championship. They led the league in runs scored(178), team batting average (.340) and stolen bases(57). They were also the only team in the league to post an ERA under 4.00. They finished at 3.52 for the season.

I don't really know much about these guys. I know their cleanup hitter is an individual named Yang Guo Gang. I also know that their leadoff hitter, Wang Chuo, won a batting title in 2007. They also have the rights to the players that have spent time in the Yankees farm system. One of them, catcher Zhang Zhen Wang, is back with the team and playing as their DH. I honestly don't know if he'll be available for the series. Seriously, I couldn't pick these guys out of a lineup if I tried. If you're at all interested in reading up on the CBL, I reccomend their English website. The weekly updates are at least as well written as this blog is and MUCH better written than anything these guys have done.

What the CBL lacks in available info on its players, it makes up for in theme songs. Here's a flash video of the league theme song, Show Time. Of course I'm including a picture of the singer, Lei Qian.



Uni-President 7-11 Lions


Tainan City's Uni-President 7-11 Lions finished the '08 season 67-33. They faced the Brother Elephants in the CPBL championship series. It took them 7 games, but they managed to defeat the Elephants and repeat as CPBL champions.

The Lions are lead by manager, Lu-Wen Sheng. Lu took over the club in 2007. He has won championships in his first two seasons. 3rd baseman Tilson Brito, 2nd baseman Shin Yang and outfielder Wu-hsiang Pan were on the 2008 CPBL Best 9(or 10, there was also a DH). Wu finished 3rd in the CPBL in batting with a .346 BA. Wu also clubbed 13 homers this season. Tilson Brito led the league in RBI(102) and homers(24). 1st baseman, Kuo-Ching Kao also had a fine season at the plate. Kuo hit .332 with 28 doubles, 7 HR and 74 RBI. DH Len-Hung Chen also drove in 65 RBI while hitting .314 with 13 homers.

On the mound, Wei-Lun Pan posted a solid 2008. He finished 3rd in the league with a 2.76 ERA. His final record was 12-2 and in 111 innings he struck out 87 and only walked 10. The Lions have two foreign ringers that will probably follow Wei in the rotation. Luther Hackman and Giancarlo Alvarado both sound like your normal foreign pitchers in Asia. Closer Yueh-Ping Lin finished 2nd in the league with 17 saves.

Seibu Lions

The 2008 Saitama Seibu Lions defeated the mighty Yomiuri Giants in 7 games to win their 13th Japan Series in club history. 1st baseman, Takeyo Nakamura led the Pacific League in homeruns(46), was 3rd in RBI(102) and 1st in strikeouts(162) while posting a line of .244/.320/.569. Shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima lead the Lions in hitting with a .332/.410/.527 line. Nakajima was Mr. Everything for Seibu this year. He stole 25 bases and clubbed 21 homers. Nakajima combined with 2nd baseman Yasuyuki Kataoka to make Seibu very strong up the middle. Kataoka finished the year with a .286/.322/.371 line and 82 runs scored. Takumi Kuriyama managed to stay healthy and with the big club for a full season. The Seibu outfielder made the most of it. He posted a .316/.376/.450 line while scoring 76 runs, driving in 72 and hitting 11 homers. GG Sato had a solid season in the outfield. Sato finished the year with a .301/.368/.546 line, 62 runs scored, 62 RBI and 21 homers. Seibu has a lineup with more than a few free swingers. Seibu finished with 4 of its hitters in the league top 10 for strikeouts.

On the mound for Seibu, they have three solid starters to use in the tournement plus former LA Dodger, Kazuhisa Ishii. Lefty Kazuyuki Hoashi has been the ace for Seibu this season. In 174 2/3 innings, Hoashi posted an 11-6 record with a 2.62 ERA. He struck out 115 while walking 38. 2nd year man Takayuki Kishi improved on a very successful rookie campaign. Kishi tossed 168 1/3 innings for Seibu while recording a 12-4 record with a 3.42 ERA. He struck out 138 while walking 48. 22-year old Hideaki Wakui couldn't match the production of his previous seasons in the NPB, but he was still solid. The 3-year vet posted a 3.92 ERA with a 10-11 record for Seibu. Wakui tossed 173 innings with 122 K's and 51 walks. He also surrendered 16 longballs.

Things aren't looking that rosy for Seibu right now. Their foreign players left the country after the Japan Series and that could leave them thin in the back end of the bullpen. The offense is most intact but key injuries to their catcher and shortstop could leave them short handed. Both are likely to skip the tourney.

SK Wyverns

The SK Wyverns steamrolled the KBO en route to their 2nd consecutive league championship. This team was, by far, the class of the KBO this season and this is their chance to show that they're the class of Asia.

The key for SK is its pitching. We all know about the Wyverns 20-year old ace, Kim Kwang-hyeon. Kim is probably going to have to beat the Seibu Lions twice if the Wyverns are to win the first Asia Series for the KBO. Chae Byeong-yeong will either start the 2nd game or be a key kog in the Wyverns bullpen, its unknown how he's going to be used. Chae finished the year with 10-2 record and 2.70 ERA. He struck out 81 and walked 43 in 136 2/3 innings. I honestly don't know if Kenny Rayborn is going to travel with the team to Tokyo. I remember him pitching there last year, if that's any indication. He may or may not start game 3. Song Eun-beom is probably next in line for a start if Kenny is unavailable or Chae pitches out of the bullpen. The KBO bullpen was lead by Jeong Woo-ram. Jeong racked up a league best 25 holds in 2008. He also posted a 2.09 ERA in 85 appearances. Jeong Dae-hyeon was the SK closer during the regular season. He racked up 20 saves in that role.

Korean Series MVP, Choi Jeong, should have done better in the MVP voting last week. He was arguably the best hitter on the best team in the KBO. That should count for something. The SK 3rd baseman posted .328/.410/.480 line last season. He scored 71 runs and drove in 62. SK's boasted 6 hitters with BA's of .300 or higher last season. These guys were constantly getting hits and getting on base for each other. Park Jae-hong lead the team with 19 homers. That's really SK's one weakness. They don't really have that much power, but they are patient. 8 SK regulars had OBP's of over .370 last season. Kim Jae-hyeon led the team with a .426 OBP.

My prediction? SK all the way. They have the deepest pitching staff and play the best team baseball that I've seen from any team in any league this season.

The action starts tomorrow at 12pm local time at the Tokyo Dome. The Tianjin Lions face the Uni-President 7-11 Lions. Then, at 6pm local time at the Tokyo Dome, the SK Wyverns face off against the Seibu Lions. I'll be here with a full roundup of the days' action.

And the winner is...

The KBO has named it's award winners for the 2008 season.


"They told me it was chocolate."

The SK Wyverns lefty ace, Kim Kwang-hyeon came in first in the voting with 51 votes. Doosan Bears left fielder and batting champ, Kim Hyeon-su finished 2nd with 27 votes. Kim Hyeon-su's 1-21 performance in the Korean Series probably effected his standing with the voters. Kim Kwang-hyeon finished the year 16-4 with a 2.39 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He struck out 150 and walked 65 in 162 innings pitched.


"If I could rewrite the alphabet, I would put 유 and 아이 together."

Samsung Lions outfielder, Choi Hyeong-woo won the Rookie of the Year award in a landslide. The 25-year old Choi earned 71 of the possible 94 votes. Choi finished his first full season with a .276/.364/.487 line. He managed 19 homers, 71 RBI and 68 runs scored in 384 AB's.

Korean Series Game 5 Roundup and News

The fans showed more grace in defeat than the players did.


Because "pouting" is not an effective strategy for scoring runs.

The KT "covers" last night's action. I expected just a photo with the words, "Team wins game," underneath.

While Aaron at the EWC gives last night's game a worthy write up. I wonder if the KT staff uses sports writing as a form of punishment? Like teachers use sticks. Only less painful.

The Joongang Daily doesn't have a write up for the championship yet, but they do have this article about Tomatoes curing cancer. Enjoy!

SK 2, Doosan 0
W - Kim Kwang-hyeon, L - Kim Sun-woo, S - Chae Byeong-yong
SK wins the series, 4-1

What I'll remember most about this game was the defense played by SK. These boys were throwin' some leather last night. The few times SK's pitchers got in trouble the D was there to bail them out with a circus catch or a clutch double play. The SK D put the team on its shoulders last night. Kim Kwang-hyeon wasn't nearly as good as his line suggested. Kim tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings(96 pitches, 52 strikes). He allowed 4 hits and 4 walks while striking out 3. He was good, but he wasn't ace good. He got a lot more help from the 8 guys playing behind him than I ever remember seeing. Doosan's Kim Sun-woo was the tough luck loser. Sun-woo had his best start in weeks and got an "L" to show for it. Kim lasted 6 2/3 innings(112 pitches, 66 strikes). He allowed 1 run on 2 hits and 3 walks. He added 4 K's and 2 hit batsmen.

The game was scoreless for the first 6 innings. Doosan's best chance to score came in the first and second innings. In both innings Doosan had runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs and failed to score. SK barely threatened until Kim Sun-woo started to tire in the 7th inning.

In the 7th, SK's Kim Jae-hyeon lead off with a walk. With one out, a Kim Sun-woo pitch was a little too far in and hit Choi Jeong on the elbow. SK had runners on first and second with one out. With a Na Ju-hwan at the plate and a 1-1 count, Kim threw a 58 ft. curveball that got away from Doosan catcher, Choi Seung-hwan. Both runners advanced. Then, with a 2-2 count on Na, Kim drilled him with a fastball to load the bases. The next batter, Jeong Geun-woo, hit a lazy fly ball to shallow left. The runner on third was unable to score. With two outs and the sacks packed, Park Kyeong-wan hit a sharp grounder to third. Doosan third baseman, Kim Dong-ju, was unable to find the handle on the ball and booted it. Kim attempted a bare hand, but couldn't find the handle there either. Kim Jae-hyeon was able to sprint across the plate for SK's first run.

SK added to its lead in the 8th inning. With two outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, SK's Choi Jeong swatted a single to left-center to drive in SK's 2nd run.

The SK bullpen would make things exciting in the late innings. In the bottom of the 8th, Lee Seung-ho struck out Yoo Jae-wong with runners on 1st and 3rd to end the threat. In the 9th inning, Lee Seung-ho stayed in and allowed a lead off walk. SK brought in Chae Byeong-yong to end the series. The first batter Chae faced, Kim Jae-ho, reached on an infield single to put runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. Doosan's Lee Jong-wook was next. He poked a single through SK's left side to load the bases with no outs. The next batter, Jeong Won-seok, hit a comebacker to Chae. Chae went home with it. He made the right decision. Not only did he get the force out at the plate, but he kept the double play in order. Kim Hyeon-su was up next. Kim was sporting a series line of 1-The Korean Series. He had one hit. The batting champ was sporting a batting average in the low 30's. This was Kim's big chance at redemption. He blew it. He it a sharp grounder back to Chae. Chae went home for the 2nd out and SK's catcher threw it down to first to end the game and the series.


Go crazy Incheon.




My pick for season MVP, ladies and gentlemen! To be fair, he had a brutal series and I'm sure the series ending double play must have really hurt. I really just hope we don't find him hanging in his closet in the next few weeks. Either way, baseball = no crying. I've hit into plenty of double plays and I distinctly remember a game ending strikeout that really stung in my first year of little league, but I never cried. If I had Kim Hyeon su's talent I definitely wouldn't be crying. I'd be driving all over Seoul with my batting title trophy as the hood ornament on my Mercedes. Kim, grow up. There are worse things in life than having a bad series.

Next up is the Asian Series. It starts sometime after Japan crowns its champion. I'm a little worried about SK's chances. If they win, it means they'll have won 8 consecutive ball games. That's a tall order considering they're probably going to play the Japanese champions twice. I am looking forward to seeing the Chinese team. This year the CPBL is sending one of its clubs instead of an "all-star" team. I think winning a game is too lofty a goal. The Tianjin Lions will probably have to stick with "Not getting embarrassed," as their goal.