Bloops: Shin-Soo Choo helps South Korea win gold, gets a reprieve
Posted by Andy on November 21, 2010
Following up on our earlier Bloop about Shin-Soo Choo, he has had his military service requirement waived thanks to South Korea's victory in the Asian Games and is free to return to play MLB in 2011.
November 21st, 2010 at 1:12 pm
I am a baseball fan in Taiwan. The gold medal game was like a torture.
Choo totaled, I think, 8-for-12 with 1 2B, 3 HR and 5 walks in the tournament.
It seemed a little ridiculous that early in the gold medal game (Taiwan vs Korea) our pitcher (or manager?) still decided to pitch to him with runners on second and first base empty. Not once, but twice.
Of course, he singled the runner home both times.
Oh, that's still much better than what happened in the prelimenary round, because in that game Choo hit a pair of 2-run homeruns in his first two trips to the plate.
Our pitchers were hammered by Korean hitters throughout the gold medal game. (17 hits and 3 HRs. They scored relatively few, "only" 9 runs.)
All but one hit were hit hard. One of the homeruns must travel nearly 500 feet because I never saw how that god-damn thing went out of the park...
November 21st, 2010 at 2:16 pm
I have to say, just as a general baseball fan, this is fantastic news. I think a lot of us look back on the careers of guys like Ted WIlliams and Joe DiMaggio and wonder what their careers, in toto, may have looked like had they not had their prime years interrupted by their dedicated service to our nation. Thankfully, we will not have to ask that question about Choo. While it is silly (at this point) to put him in the same conversation as guys like WIlliams and DiMaggio, Choo is certainly a very talented player that few people would be surprised to see win an MVP at some point in the next few seasons, presumably with the prime of his career directly in front of him.
Congratulations to South Korea on winning gold, and congratulations to Cleveland fans for not having another opportunity to say "what may have been" tacked onto an already long list.
November 21st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I approve of the decision heartily. It is more than just likely that Choo did far more in the service of his country in the Asian games than he would peeling potatoes {do they have KP in Korea?} or digging latrines.
November 21st, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Also, to #3;
Your point is well taken.Maybe the Indians fans my age can especially appreciate it,having lost Rapid Robert {Feller} to the Navy.
November 21st, 2010 at 4:31 pm
This is good news. Now the Indians will suck slightly less next year.
November 21st, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Korea is really really serious about their military service. There are regular scandals where a famous person tries to duck their requirements. Japanese fans were pissed off during the last WBC (until they won) about the Korean government saying they'd wave requirements if Korea won the tournament. "How can we compete with people fighting for a year of their life?"
November 21st, 2010 at 9:15 pm
@1, Herlin -- I'm curious about pro baseball in Taiwan. Do you know of any good websites and/or books on the subject? Thanks.
November 21st, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Disordered thoughts and questions about Shin-Soo Choo:
1. His career .360 BABIP is tops among all active hitters with at least 1,000 PAs. In fact, it's the highest BABIP since the '30s, and the 3rd highest in modern history. In each of the 4 years that he's had 100+ PAs, his BABIP has been at least .347.
2. He hit fairly well against lefties in the past (OPS of .800 and .825 in 2008-09), but this year struggled to a .670 OPS and just 1 HR in 216 PAs. And opposing teams tried to exploit that weakness; while Cleveland as a club faced a lefty in 27.5% of their PAs, Choo saw a southpaw 33.4% of the time. And yet, despite frequently facing a lefty reliever in the late innings, in the 7th-9th innings he batted .309 BA with a .429 OBP.
3. Can anyone explain why Choo spent most of 2007 in the minors? After joining Cleveland in 2006, he hit .295 / .373 / .473 in 45 games, much better than the regular LF, Jason Michaels (.267 / .326 / .391). Yet in 2007, Choo -- who had also hit .323 in AAA in '06, with 26 SB in 30 tries -- played just 6 games (4 starts) with Cleveland, all in the last week of April. Meanwhile, the corner OF spots were manned by Michaels, who virtually repeated his poor '06 stats, and the fast-fading veteran Trot Nixon, who was even worse.
4. How good a player is Choo? During his 3 full years in the bigs, Choo's 144 OPS+ is 2nd only to Manny Ramirez among all outfielders with at least 800 PAs. He ranked 2nd in the AL in overall WAR this year (6th in offense, 5th in defense), after being 9th the year before. He's also the only player to go "20/20" each of the past 2 years.
5. His top 10 in Similarity Score, besides 6 contemporary players, are Smead Jolley (I never get enough of that name!), who had a strong though brief MLB career and was a minor-league legend; the tragic figure of Austin McHenry, who put in 4-1/2 fine years with the Cardinals before being diagnosed with a brain tumor that took his life scant months after his last game; Earl Webb, the single-season record holder with 67 doubles in 1931 (almost half his career total); and Jim Greengrass, who hit .285 / 20 / 100 as a rookie in 1953, yet finished a distant 6th in the ROY vote, and near the end of a strong sophomore campaign, injured an ankle and was never the same. I hope and expect that his big-league future is brighter than those.