Felix Jose

Actually, the Dragons have backed off Jose and are now looking at Karim Garcia, a former Dodger who is now with Cleveland. Apparently, the Korean league (KBO)says that Jose's rights belong to that league, which caused the Dragons to back off. Chunichi has had a lot of dealings with the KBO (Sun don-yol, Jong-beom Lee, Samson Lee, etc) and doesn't want to offend them (maybe that indicates they will take a shot at Seung-yeop Lee?).

Speaking of Samson Lee, he recently retired from baseball after going to spring training with Oakland and spending two seasons in the boston organization. According to the Korean press, Lee is just "tired" and is giving up his quest of being an MLB hurler.

The news about Samson Lee retiring is very interesting. I have always wondered what happened to him after he left Japan. I know that he got into a few games with Boston (2 years ago I believe), but he never seemed to find his niche in the U.S. like he did here in Japan.
Felix Jose might've been OK, but he's old so he doesn't have too many productive years left in him. Garcia is a lot younger so I think he'd be better for the Dragons than Jose.

>but he(Lee)never seemed to find his niche in the U.S like he did in Japan.

How ironic! Kevin Jarvis, whom Lee replaced him in '98 when Jarvis pitched for the Dragons, found his niche and pitched a season opener for the Padres. Karim Garcia was traded for Luis Gonzalez. This was the worst trade that the Detroit Tigers ever made,whereas it was the one of best trades that the D-Backs ever made.

That's a good point about Kevin Jarvis. He has done well in the majors since his Dragons stint.

The Dragons had another gem before back in '93 in Matt Stairs but let him go after only half a season. He has had a nice MLB career since going back to the majors, even though he had to spend time in AA in '94 even though he had already established himself in AAA in the Expos' chain before coming to Japan.

Just a revision on Samson Lee, he is going to pitch in the Korean League after all. His original team, iirc, retains his rights.

I also came across an interesting tidbit about Jong-beom Lee, who was with the Dragons. The Yankees offered him a two year deal worth a total of $1.3 million (the minimum for his first year, a million if they picked him up for a second year). Lee wisely turned the deal down and joined the Korean League in mid-season and is the league's highest paid player, getting even more than Seung-yeop Lee.

That's pretty interesting. I am interested in Korean baseball just because so many players have played in both Japan and Korea (especially in the last few years). I personally think that Jong-Beom Lee was given a raw deal by the Dragons. He had the tools, but they couldn't figure out where they should play him and they seemed to just give up on him after he got hurt a few times.

It seems like the only Korean player who has done well is Son. The Giants never gave that one player (M.C.Chung) a chance, and the jury is still out on #21 of the Giants (I forgot his name already).

Do you mean Cho Sung-min? He was a guy the Dodgers were after in a big way and they were rather disturbed when the Giants got him instead. Cho then goes and blows his arm out, from what I understand, and hasn't done much since. Yet, he is apparently a big star in Korea and his marriage to an actress, a Ms. Choi, was apparently a huge affair that was covered obsessively in the media there.

Also, it appears that Jeon (Chung?) Min-chul is back in the Korean league. I know rather little about him, though, so I could be wrong. I'm trying to find more info about the KBO in english (since I don't know Korean), but it's tough to come by.

Furusawa-san of Baseball Monthly has started a sporadic series on the KBO, so I'm looking forward to see hos he portrays it as the season goes on.

- Do you mean Cho Sung-min?

By "Son," I believe he he was referring to Dong Yeol Sun, who was the most effective closer next to Yokohama's Daimajin (Sasaki). Sun matched Sasaki's 38 saves in 1997, sharing the record for most saves in a season until Sasaki saved 45 the following season.

Yes Mr. Garland, the #21 of the Giants that I was referring to was Cho Sung-min or S.M. Cho (on his uniform). He was a promising pitcher until he encountered problems with his arm. The Japanese girls sure thought highly of him, with some saying that his looks were worthy of him being signed by the famous talent-producing Johnny's Jimusho. His actress wife is smoking hot, that's for sure.

The Son that I was talking about was indeed Son (or Sun) Dong Yeol. Koo is pitching well for Orix these days, but I think Son is the only Korean player who really established himself in NPB.