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PRETTY CONVINCING CGI ON THAT ONE, dept.
"Final Boss" being Oh's nickname in Korea. Dr. D has got to say, he prefers that one to "Great Demon God," or certainly to "Ganondorf," probably to "Kaiju," and even to the roided-up Bane Joker. As Pacific Rim monster closers go, this one looks relatively feasible.
The MLBTradeRumors squib on him lists 4 teams rumoured, those being the Yankee$, Pirates, Orioles and, um, Mariners. Sueng-Hwan Oh is a pure free agent this winter, and his reps have thrown a preemptive Bruce Lee stop-hit on any team that fancies a dance with Final Boss:
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“We first needed to talk with Hanshin, but our focus is on playing in the United States,” said Dong-Wook Kim, head of the Sports Intelligence agency that represents Oh. Some MLB teams have already been in contact about Oh’s services, though Kim said that “what’s important is whether the club can offer the environment where Oh can show his best ability.”
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If you just joined us, that means "Don't insult him by asking him earn the closer job." This makes more sense than you might think at first blush, if you picture yourself as Tom Brady sniffing out Euro football.
Okay, you're the second iteration of Kazuhiro Sasaki, give or take four inches and 30 pounds. (Give the inches, take the pounds.) And you want a closer job going in, or at very minimum, the inside pole on a wide-open closer spot. Hmmmmm, let me think here:
Yankee$: Andrew Miller, Dellin Betances, two other 10K relievers, and probably Goose Gossage lurking somewhere
Pirates: Mark Melancon, some Bastardo guy with 10K, and a 119+ pitching staff
Orioles: Zach Britton, three other guys comfortably over 10K per ballgame, and rather more distant from Korea than is Seattle
Mariners: Fernando Rodney's already-headshot zombie corpse
Dr. D is kidding. A little bit. But the point is, if DiPoto likes Oh, he can probably nab the guy. So, how scary is he?
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LEVEL 201 SCAN
The 'word' on Oh is that his arsenal includes a "stoneball" (HEH!!), a slider that is -6 to -19 MPH off his stoneball, and a change curve. As with Sasaki, we can comfortably assume that Oh could pick a Tzetze fly off the haunch of an Orix without any pause in grazing.
And if even that much be true, that Final Boss can locate a 91 fastball STEEERRRIKE ONE to start the 9th, well ... that intersects with Dr. D's firm opinion that three outs can be pretty easy --- > provided only that the reliever enjoys the 9th inning. Whattaya got to lose with this guy? That's the "template" way to get an orientation, at least.
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Oh didn't pitch in Korea the last two years; he pitched errrr bossed for the Hanshin Tigers. His stats are rat cheer. If you watched Lost for six years, you'll swear that this guy was one of the "Candidates" to replace the Archangel Jacob. If you watched NPB baseball, you watched him rack up Koji Uehara-like stats, albeit out of the bullpen.
Here's a completely awesome robo-translation that witnesses fever of Boss's 2014 playoff exploits in Japan:
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| Japan’s Kansai region, including Osaka and Kobe, is witnessing fever of post-season pro baseball events these days. For the first time in nine years, the Hanshin Tigers from Kansai has advanced to the Japan Series after sweeping four consecutive games against its archrival, the Yomiuri Giants from Tokyo ....
The player who contributed the most to Hanshin’s advance to the Japan Series is new relief pitcher Oh Seung-hwan from Korea. After playing in two games against Hiroshima on the CS First Stage, Oh took the mound in all four games against Yomiuri and successfully secured victory for his team. Including the last five regular-season games that he played, he pitched in 11 consecutive games and won all of them. He became the first Korean to receive the post season MVP award in his first year of the Japanese pro baseball, which is truly remarkable.
Banking on fast and heavy balls and strong gut, which enabled him to stay calm even in crises, Oh used to be nicknamed “finisher” and “Buddhist statue” in Korea. After moving to Japan this year, he garnered 39 saves in the regular season to become the "save king" of the league. Moreover, he pitched in all of the post-season games, and continued his winning streak, making instrumental contributions to his team’s victory, and taking the entire Japanese archipelago by storm. The Stone Buddhist Statue from Korea has earned the new nickname “stone god” in Japan.
In the late 1990s, Sun Dong-yeol, the relief pitcher of the Junichi Dragons, was like vitamin to this writer, who was then serving as a Japan correspondent, helping ease my stress from workload. Kansai is a region where many ethnic Koreans are living. Stellar performance by Oh Seung-hwan, the "guardian for Hanshin," will give joy of watching his games and pride in their motherland to ethnic Korean residents of Japan, dispatched employees from Korean companies and their families in Japan. Hanshin will set out on the seven-game Japan Series against the winner of the Pacific League from Saturday. It is hoped that Oh will continue his quality pitching in the Japan Series following the regular season and CS, and emerge as a legend in the Japanese pro baseball.
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If Dr. D never did anything else for you, other than copy and paste in this Buddhist ode to Oh's gut, you would owe him your very lives. Or, failing that, a petition to IcebreakerX to cough up the scouting report. :: lotus position circle fingers mmmmmmmmmmGUTTTTTmmmmmm ::
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LET'S! Go TO! the VIDeoTAPE! dept.
Here is a YouTube of a single save that Oh put on the Yakult Swallows. It's a little underwhelming at first, but you get to the 3:40 mark and you get the eye-widening slider. He comes right after hitters with an 88-93 fastball, isn't afraid to throw the 72 MPH change curve (odd for a closer), and ... at 4:55 he shows an Iwakuma-like splitfinger, too. Uses them on two straight pitches and gets two garbage arm-only swings from a lefty.
If you randomly looked at a single Trevor Hoffman inning, it might not leave a very different impression. 'course, you could say the same about a random Logan Kensing inning. What about the Daimajin comp? That's what Sasaki did: throw a 90-92 MPH fastball for a consistent strike one, and then when he had two strikes, here came The Thang. It looks like Seung-Hwan Oh does have the exciting offspeed finish pitches, so the comparison probably has legs.
No guarantees that the 34-year-old Oh is the next Uehara or Sasaki, but ... the M's just need somebody confident about getting three clean outs without giving up two earnies. You'd think Oh would be on their radar.
Be Afraid,
Jeff
