Playing Catch Up...

And volleyball. Some Lotte Giants enjoying spring training. I believe that Lee Dae-ho is the gentleman swatting the volleyball.


I've been enjoying the beautiful Chicago winter for the past week and I've been too busy stuffing my fat face with some nice home cooked meals to post.

First on our list, Aaron at the EWC has given a nice writeup to the foreigners coming to Korea for 2009. I'm intruiged to see Jon Adkins come to Korea. As a militant White Sox fan, I never felt big Jon ever got a real opportunity during his years on the south side. I'm also excited for CJ Nitkowski. CJ has a blog! I've added the link here and I only hope he continues to update during the season.

Former Lotte Giants reliever, Choi Hyang-nam has a spring training invite from the St. Louis Cardinals. He also doesn't consider Park Chan-ho a Korean pitcher. I have to admit Park has me fooled.

Samsung Lion's shortstop Park Jin-man is going to miss the WBC and it sounds like he might not be ready for Opening Day.

If the Korean national team makes it out of the Asian part of the WBC, they're going to play a few exhibition games against the Dodgers and Padres in America. I'm surprised the KBO can't get an MLB team to tour Korea. China was able to get the Dodgers and Padres to visit Beijing. Wouldn't a Phillies/Indians exhibition or series sellout any venue in Korea?

Chunichi Dragons outfielder, Lee Byung-gyu certainly sounds optimistic about next year.

Finally, an interesting article from MLB.com about how the Chicago Cubs and scouting in Korea. They seem to think awfully highly of the kids in their farm system. I can't tell if this is just the Cubbie hype machine...cough...Felix Pie...cough... or if these kids actually have what it takes. My guess is the answer lies somewhere in the middle. I am terrified that all 4 of these kids will come up at once and I'll start seeing Cubs hats everywhere in Daegu. Someone tell Kenny Williams to sign Kim Byung-hyun...NOW. Hat tip to the Marmot's Hole.