Scouting
August 13, 2006 @ 12:24 pm | Listen to this postAs a Royals fan on the other side of the world (Korea), I get a good view of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) leagues. The depth is nothing like the MLB, but there’s still a good amount of players. One being left-handed hitting Lee Seung-yeop. Just hit his 400th career homerun in asia before turning 30. He also has the record for most homeruns in a season, 56. A Korean born player who currently plays for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan. I’m not going to go into all this stats and history. You can read that here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Yeop_Lee
He makes 210M Yen (~$1.8M) in Japan and is a free agent at the end of this year. He’s a great fit for the Royals. He can play a corner outfield or a left-handed glove first base. He’s shown consistent power and he’s clutch. If you watched the World Baseball Classic, he was the one with multiple key at bats. Plus he led the Classic with the most homeruns. Overall he’s got a great eye with a sweet swing.
I don’t think there would be a problem for him to face major league pitching. The real question is does a team want to go overseas and pay the money for him. BUT I SAY YES! Sometimes you have to take risks, but this isn’t even a risk. He’s got the tools to play in the majors. Also the country loves him here in Korea, so Royals merchandise would probably quadruple in sales. If I see the Yankees sign him as a pinch hitter or for some crazy amount of money, then I will be PO’d!
