Hyeon-Soo Kim: Fit for the Orioles? Outfielder Ah-seop Son?

[Aristotelian]

Lefty with some pop. Free agent (no posting fee), only 27 years old. "Only" .406 OBP lifetime but coming off .438 with 100 walks last year. Doesn't have much power and I know absolutely nothing about his defense. Could he project as a poor man's Nick Markakis?

Per MLBTR:

Korean outfielder Hyeon-Soo Kim (or, alternatively anglicized, Hyun-soo Kim) has reached free agency and hopes to sign with an MLB club, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes. (Because he is a free agent, he will not need to go through a posting process.) The 27-year-old corner outfielder doesn?t quite have the power numbers of Byung-Ho Park, but has delivered good pop in the hitter-friendly KBO while taking walks more than he strikes out. He?s a .318/.406/.488 lifetime hitter, suggesting a nice blend of contact, patience, and pop, though he?s more of a 20 home run threat than a 40+ bomb KBO masher. Passan cites at least one scout that sees the left-handed-hitting Kim as a possible regular left fielder, and says he could have significant earning power this winter.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=kim---004hye

Can't find any more info on this guy, Google or Youtube.

[Pickles]

Lefty with some pop. Free agent (no posting fee), only 27 years old. "Only" .406 OBP lifetime but coming off .438 with 100 walks last year. Doesn't have much power and I know absolutely nothing about his defense. Could he project as a poor man's Nick Markakis?

Per MLBTR:

Korean outfielder Hyeon-Soo Kim (or, alternatively anglicized, Hyun-soo Kim) has reached free agency and hopes to sign with an MLB club, Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports writes. (Because he is a free agent, he will not need to go through a posting process.) The 27-year-old corner outfielder doesn?t quite have the power numbers of Byung-Ho Park, but has delivered good pop in the hitter-friendly KBO while taking walks more than he strikes out. He?s a .318/.406/.488 lifetime hitter, suggesting a nice blend of contact, patience, and pop, though he?s more of a 20 home run threat than a 40+ bomb KBO masher. Passan cites at least one scout that sees the left-handed-hitting Kim as a possible regular left fielder, and says he could have significant earning power this winter.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=kim---004hye

Can't find any more info on this guy, Google or Youtube.

Well if his earning power is truly "significant"- depending of course on the definition of the word- I'd rather go w the sure thing.

But this is the kind of thing that comes down to scouting.

Does his game translate?

[oriole]

If the O's can get him real cheap while he tries to prove himself at the major league level then I could live with that. He is a roll of the dice with a presumably small price tag.

[DrungoHazewood]

I'm in. I think he's a good Parra replacement. He's probably a mid-.700s OPS guy in the majors, but with substantial chance of variation on either side of that. I'm good with taking on performance risk with potential upside at moderate cost. Just don't think he'll get within 2000 miles of a .300/.400/.500 line in the majors - Korea pumps a lot of hot air in the numbers.

[El Gordo]

The high BA and OBP might translate pretty well. If he can field decently he sounds good to me.

[jamalshw]

As a 20 HR bat in the KBO, it's likely he's more of a doubles power guy with maybe 10 HR pop in the majors.

That's, obviously, not a deal breaker, but you need to be sure there are other useful skills. I would want to know about his defense and his speed. Assuming he's at least average defensively and on the base paths, he could fill in as a serviceable #2-type hitter.

[Camden_yardbird]

It all comes down to defense. He is not even a consideration for the Orioles front office unless his defense is ++.

[DrungoHazewood]

It all comes down to defense. He is not even a consideration for the Orioles front office unless his defense is ++.

You mean like defensive specialists Mark Reynolds, Travis Snider, Delmon Young, Nelson Cruz, Gerardo Parra, and Chris Davis the third baseman?

[weams]

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mykxCuXOBZ0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

USA v. Korea

[Bahama O's Fan]

Isn't walk rate something that should easily translate from one league to another? Basically you have a good eye for the ball or you don't?

[weams]

Isn't walk rate something that should easily translate from one league to another? Basically you have a good eye for the ball or you don't?

You can't walk out of AA. Many lesser leagues do not emphasize walks. And Umpiring in leagues can vary greatly.

[Can_of_corn]

Isn't walk rate something that should easily translate from one league to another? Basically you have a good eye for the ball or you don't?

You can't walk out of AA. Many lesser leagues do not emphasize walks. And Umpiring in leagues can vary greatly.

If the pitcher has no fear of you then they feel free to attack the strike zone.

If the pitcher respects your power then they will be more careful pitching in the zone.

[weams]

If the pitcher has no fear of you then they feel free to attack the strike zone.

If the pitcher respects your power then they will be more careful pitching in the zone.

Power begets walks. Especially at an MLB level.

[DrungoHazewood]

Isn't walk rate something that should easily translate from one league to another? Basically you have a good eye for the ball or you don't?

No, that's something that varies greatly by level of competition. Jung Ho Kang walked in 13.5% of his PAs his last year in Korea. In Pittsburgh he walked in 6% of PAs. Brian Roberts walked in 9.7% of MLB PAs, 12.8% in the minors. Kim will walk substantially less in the majors than he did in Korea.

[weams]

http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2015/11/15/orioles-may-try-for-korean-outfielder-ah-seop-son/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-is-korean-outfielder-ahseop-son-a-fit-for-the-orioles-20151112-story.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter