Impressive Buildup
Baseball Season Full of Storylines
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
It's still a full month before opening day, but this is already shaping up as one of the most interesting baseball seasons ever.
Was there any other year with this much to talk about before the first pitch was thrown at Jamsil Stadium?
For starters, Seoul is getting its third franchise, the Woori Heroes, believed to be the world's first professional baseball team with players running around in cigarette logos.
Then there is the impact of next month's Olympic qualifying tournament in Taiwan ― where a South Korean all-star squad will compete for a Beijing ticket against tough foes such as Mexico and Australia ― assuring that the baseball season will begin with either an injection of euphoria or disappointment.
And what about the mass influx of new talent, from high-profile teenagers to veterans returning from their Major League Baseball (MLB) adventures, which should surely promote parity throughout the league and restore the excitement in playoff races.
Just adding to the spice, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) is scrapping the 12-inning limit on games from this season, meaning that draws would no longer appear next to the win-loss column. Fans are now presented with the possibility of intense, all-out matches with record-breaking length.
``The idea of limiting innings was to prevent the games from getting too long, but throughout the 26-year history of the league, only 10 games went beyond 15 innings," said Jeong Keum-jo, KBO's chief manager of baseball operations.
``Lifting the innings limit will surely encourage coaches and players to play with an increased level of intensity in the extra innings, which would benefit the fans paying for the tickets.''
It remains to be seen how much of an impact the Heroes, inheriting the roster of the now-defunct Hyundai Unicorns, bring to the current order of the league.
The Heroes, who will call Mokdong Stadium their home, revealed their uniforms in a much-anticipated news conference in Seoul Thursday. However, deciding the team colors had to be the least of concerns on the minds of front office officials, who are now feuding with players over salaries.
Centennial, the Seattle-based investment firm which owns the Heroes, has been elaborating on drastic pay cuts for its players, with high-paid veterans such as catcher Kim Dong-soo or outfielder Jeon Joon-ho offered a slash of more than 70 percent of their 2007 paychecks.
In response, the players have been threatening to boycott spring camp, adding further disruption to a team that has yet to sign its foreign players.
If the Heroes manage to get on right track, they are projected as a mid-tier team with an outside chance to squeeze into the playoffs.
Should the team manage to re-sign American Cliff Brumbaugh, who led the club with 29 home runs and 87 RBIs last season, the Heroes will have a formidable lineup supported by home-grown bashers Song Ji-man and Jeong Sung-hoon.
The starting rotation built around Kim Soo-kyung, Jang Won-sam and Hwang Doo-sung is solid, although they are endangered of being taxed by a shaky bullpen.
The defending Korean Series champion SK Wyverns have most of their core players intact, re-signing slugger Lee Ho-joon and 17-game winner Kenny Rayborn.
Without any significant acquisitions, manager Kim Sung-keun is gambling on the projected growth of his young players, including flame-throwing lefty Kim Kwang-hyun, and hoping that the 35-year-old Rayborn continues to defy his aging body.
There is greater uncertainty for the Doosan Bears, the Korean Series runner-ups last season, who lost 22-game winner Daniel Rios to Japan's Yakult Swallows in the winter.
Manager Kim Kyung-moon still has the reliable Matt Randel, who went 12-5 with a 3.12 ERA in 2007, and hopes that American Gary Rath, former San Francisco Giant Kim Sun-woo and Philadelphia Phillies flameout Lee Seung-hak could combine for a deep starting rotation, although none of the last three could be regarded as a surefire product.
The Samsung Lions look to be more of a threat than the Bears to challenge the Wyverns' supremacy, with the return of ace starter Bae Young-soo and the addition of American outfielder Jacob Cruz, who batted .321 with 21 home runs and 85 RBIs for the Hanwha Eagles last year.
The last-place Kia Tigers actually don't look that terrible now, with Tampa Bay Ray flameout Seo Jae-weong combining with strikeout artist Yoon Suk-min to give the team a strong starting rotation at the top, although Jose Lima is probably the league's biggest enigma.
It bears further watching how former Milwaukee Brewers manager Jerry Royster would fare with the Lotte Giants, a team filled with talented overachievers, although the lineup anchored by slugger Lee Dae-ho and former New York Yankees star Karim Garcia would obviously rank among the league's scariest.