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=== Up To Speed, Dept. ===
Lonnie of MC gives the following Executive Summary:
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Some of you may have heard of Ji-Man Choi, and some of you may not have. No matter, I planned on rehashing his story for you all anyway...
Back in the summer of 2009 a group of Seattle scouts attended a pitching demonstration in South Korea by a High School pitcher with the name of Seon Gi Kim. Catching him that day was converted third baseman Ji-Man Choi. The Mariner scouts liked what they saw from young Seon Gi Kim and signed him to his first professional contract. The kid behind the plate also impressed the scouts and he too was signed with little or no fanfare.
Both young men started their professional careers in the Arizona Summer League at Peoria. Seon Gi Kim ran a high ERA, but impressed a lot of folks with his periphials.
Meanwhile, Ji-Man Choi was doing something that no one expected; he was killing the ball. While in Arizona as an 18 year old Choi ran a .378/.459/.541/1.000 slashline. He showed a phenominal batting eye with his 27/39 BB/K rate.
Since he was so new to catching the M's brass decided to move him into the position slowly, so he spent that first year in Arizona playing 1b for 29 games, and catcher for 10. The combination of his defense and his offense got more than a few of us excited about the possibility of actually having a catcher who is a complete package.
Late in the 2010 season Choi was given a surprise promotion all the way up to A+ High Desert where he played 1B and DH. In 50 plate appearances he went from an interesting and exciting player to a bona fida prospect. While with High Desert Choi put together a slashline of .302/.380/.442/.882. Not many 18 year old kids can make the transition from the Arizona Rookie leagues to the uber competative A+ Cal League with such aplomb.
Based upon his performance in 2010 a lot of us were really excited to see where Choi would end up in 2011 and if he would be a full-time catcher or not. Gordon (G_Moneyball) and I saw Choi in ST in March of 2011 and were gidddy to see him walking around in catcher's gear. He looked about as good as any kid could look in the early stages of ST and when we both left we felt that for sure that Choi would break camp with either Clinton or Everett, but it didn't work out that way...
Sometime during the later stages of ST in 2011 Choi started to experience pain in his back. I don't have all of the particulars, but such was the pain that Choi did not play a single game in 2011, and in December a broken bone in his back was discovered (again, no details). Choi had two screws and a metal rod placed in his back and was shelved for several months beginning in 2012. Finally, sometime in March/April he had the screws and rod removed and was allowed to start practicing and begain playing baseball in earnest when he was assigned to Clinton.
Choi made his 2012 debut playing DH on May 19 and went 2/4 with a double and a ribbie and hasn't slowed down much from there. So far in 2012 Choi has played 30 games at 1B, and 27 as the DH. Through the 57 games that he has played in, Choi has put together a slashline of .306/.421/.497/.927 in a predominantly pitcher friendly league. Choi has a batting eye of .653 (.500 is the baseline for a good prospect. Anything north of their is gravy.) with 32 walks and 49 K's. He has a walk rate of 12.3%, which is bloody awesome, and a strikeout rate of 18.85% which is just as awesome.
The issue at the moment with Choi is will hit for enough power to be a legitimate 1st baseman. So far this year he has hit 12 doubles, 1 triple, and 8 homeruns. His isolated power(slugging - average) is .191. If he is able to keep this sort of production up then, yes, he can be viewed as a legitimate 1B.
It's too bad that Choi will most likely never play catcher again. As a catcher, his potential was off the charts.
Lonnie
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That'll do for us too.
Actually, enough is never enough for SSI, so here came an SSI February 2011 two-parter on Choi. The bumper sticker extract: Choi's talent was special, but he was labeled. Not enough power for 1B, not enough glove for other positions.
His first year in pro ball, 2010, he was out of scale, with a .459 OBP in 39 games. There comes a point where you're not learning anything as a kibitzer. What would John Jaso's OBP be in rookie ball next year? .400, .500, .600? Probably about .459.
Then in 2011 he had the back surgery. Leaving us where in 2012? He was an ex-catcher, like John Cleese's ex-parrot. Choi, with a year's worth of rust, went to the pitchers' Midwest League in A ball and hit .300/.420/.460.
A .420 OBP is also pretty much out of scale. Choi had about 7 walks and 8 strikeouts every ten games; when you're going that deep in counts in the low minors, there are a lot of different things that could be going on.
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=== Didn't Know They Allowed TV There ... Oh, It Was SOUTH Korea, Dept. ===
Choi had 8 homers and 14 doubles in 66 games, which translates to about 20 homers and 35 doubles over a 162-game season. We checked out the swing.
Choi's mechanics are HILARIOUSLY similar to Ichiro's. There isn't a way in the world that Choi did NOT consciously and painstakingly pattern his swing after that of #51. See G-Money's remarks here about the mindsets of ballplayers from that area of the world.
Two differences between Choi's swing and Ichiro's: (1) Choi's is considerably longer. Check the bat wrap at the 0:49 mark in this video. (2) Rather than being 5'7" and 150 lbs or so, Ji-Man Choi stands over 6 feet and weighs about 200 lbs.
So what do you get, if you take Ichiro's swing and give it 200 pounds? You get a Dr. D who has a rather different opinion than that of folks who project Ji-Man Choi to be a singles hitter.
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Wade Boggs -- a high-BB guy like Choi -- also had a low CG and good hip torque, but Boggsie used a Pete Rose pepper swing, short to the ball, short followthrough, mediocre acceleration. Ichiro's swing is not a pepper swing.
Chris Snelling - a high-BB guy also -- had a longer swing and a KBIZLT (keep the bat in the zone a long time) swing like Boggs, Seager, and Choi. (Note the relatively flat followthrough on Choi's swing and the way his hands stay inside the ball). But Snelling's lower half wasn't particularly engaged with his swing.
Ji-Man Choi has an exceptionally dynamic swing, with the lower body synch'ing like a PGA pro's does, or like ummmmm Ichiro's does.
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Dunno what Choi is going to turn out to be, a Boggs-ian 3B, an Olerud-type 1B, a Chris Snelling who panned out, a Shin-Soo Choo or a guy who spends a lot of his life sitting in a very soft chair. But I'd like to be his agent.
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It always frustrated me that the automatic assumption was that 1B-types had to mash HR's.
Hey, from '76-'85 Rod Carew was a 1B. Gimme some of that, please.
There are different ways to skin the 1B cat. If Choi is a .290-.370 guy with 30 doubles and 10 homers (and he looks to have more in him) he has tons of MLB value.
Alas, I almost forgot about him. Nice post.
moe
...if he could play some other positions, like a corner outfield spot. One would hope that a young man, presumably with some athletic ability, at 6'1" and 195, would have enough mobility to play somewhere besides first. But, at least he's a left-handed batter. All else equal, I would rather have a positionally challenged left-handed batter than a positionally challenged right-handed batter like our good friend Jesus.
You can be a battleship-class instead of an Aircraft carrier and still get the job done.
I've said I think Choi is following his countryman Choo as a hitter. Choo is a .290/.380/.465 hitter, which makes him a 132 OPS+ career hitter thus far- or FAR better than most first basemen.
Guys who were very effective 1B without a .200 ISO or a ton of HRs: Mark Grace, John Olerud, Don Mattingly, Mike Sweeney, Raffy Palmeiro (pre roid) et al.
If Choi has a good OBP with 40/20 power (which is Choo's 162 game average), he can be great. CAN he do that? Yes. Will he be like Casey Kotchman and not have the kind of bat that can hack the position once he gets to the bigs?
I dunno, but I can't help but admire Choi's start.
A-Ball stats:
Sweeney, age 20: .301/.427/.504, 55BB/43K
Grace, age 22: .342/.417/.520, 60BB/28K
Palmeiro, age 20: .297/.369/.459, 31BB/34K
Choi, age 21: .298/.420/.463, 39BB/55K
He's not embarrassing himself in that company.
If you take every player this year with Choo's # of ABs or more, he's 4th in the MWL in OP and tenth in BA, with one guy younger than him and basically no one less experienced. He's got so much more growth to get, but he's a strong kid with a pretty swing and great plate patience.
He's got a real shot to be special, and whether or not he's #10 on our prospect list I'm watching him VERY closely. A healthy Choi, like a healthy Snelling, is an asset.
Just gotta keep em healthy, first. Don't forget about him - he's got plenty of potential to surprise and amaze.
~G
...Choi may not be done yet as a catcher. I'll do a little digging, but I've got a smidge of a feeling that he may yet be able to play catcher at least on a part time basis. I'll let you all know what I find out.
With bat-first catchers like Jaso, Montero and Zunino and the M's recent fondness fo DHing them, having a third catcher on the roster is a realistic must. A guy like Choi (or Marder) that could step in if needed but not be restricted to the "third catcher" role could be really valuable to the team.