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[DODGERS DIGEST] 2014 S. Korean MLB prospects

November 3, 2014

 

Kang Jung-ho will be eligible to sign to an MLB team after the 2014 season is over.

Kang Jung-ho is one of the top MLB prospects that S. Korea has to offer.

[DODGERS DIGEST] Prior to 2013, the Dodgers went out and got themselves Korean lefty Hyun-jin Ryu, and you might say that’s worked out really, really well. Despite the initial uncertainty from some corners of the baseball world — totally understandable for a player making the jump from the other side of the planet to the big leagues, of course — Ryu has been just fantastic for the Dodgers, ranking No. 9 in FIP across his two seasons, surrounded by some of the biggest stud pitchers in baseball. Last year, they reportedly showed interest in Masahiro Tanaka, who was dominant for the Yankees before missing three months with an elbow injury. They’d also been sniffing around teen sensation Shohei Otani, who unfortunately ended up staying in Japan. (He has an .862 OPS and a 10.3 K/9. Good lord.)

Clearly, international spending — Ryu, Cuba’s Yasiel Puig & Alex Guerrero, Mexico’s Julio Urias & Julian Leon, etc. — has been a big component of the Guggenheim plan to revitalize the team from the dark days of the McCourt ownership. So as the 2014-15 offseason nears, are there names we should know as potential Dodger targets?

Yes, there are. Here are names. Know them. We’ll start with Korea, which has supplied the majors with 13 pitchers — most famously Chan Ho Park, though Ryu and Jae Weong Seo have also appeared for the Dodgers — and just two hitters, Hee-Seop Choi and Shin-Soo Choo. We’ll look at Japan separately, and soon.

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