The Cubs: Kings of the Pacific

Post #1 » by **GYBE** » Tue Apr 6, 2010 2:29 am

A few years ago, the Cubs made a concerted organizational strategy to aggressively pursue young talent from the Pacific Rim. In particular, they have scooped up pretty much every good Korean, as well as some Taiwanese players. It's a calculated move that suggests the Cubs front office believes Asian players are undervalued, or at least that Latin American prospects are overvalued (Starlin Castro wasn`t considered a star when he signed).

The Cubs did it again by signing 18-year old Korean RHP Kim Jin-yeong to a $1.2 million contract. That's 1st round money, so you figure he`s got a ton of upside. Really long stride, throws hard. He joins a huge cadre of Asian prospects. Most of you know the big ones, but there`s a lot of lesser known names you could be hearing about in a couple years.

Hak-Ju Lee
Dae-Eun Rhee

Na Kyung-min (fastest player in Korea)
Wang Yao-lin
Wang Tsu-en
Chen Pin-chieh
Kim Dong-yeop
Su Min-yung
Jae Hoon-ha
Hung Wen Chen

Bottom line, the Cubs have a Korean-Taiwanese pipeline going on and it just keeps flowing. If even a couple of the other guys pan out, the Pacific investments will have been well worth it. In a time when a lot of people (myself included) are questioning the current major league team, the minor league system offers hope. Last year we were ranked 26th. Now we`re 8th (by BP) and are actually using our money to buy a ton of talent in the international market. At least that part of the organization has really improved lately.

SportsWorld · Post #2 » by **SportsWorld** » Tue Apr 6, 2010 4:43 am

Can't be any worse than throwing money at good college football players.

Posey H8er · Post #3 » by **Posey H8er** » Tue Apr 6, 2010 11:20 pm

Excellent post GYBE. It will be very interesting to see how all of these players end up doing at higher levels of ball. I think Hak-Ju Lee has a lot of potential with his speed and ability to get on base.

SportsWorld · Post #4 » by **SportsWorld** » Tue Apr 6, 2010 11:40 pm

I weep for Len Kasper if he's still with us and some of these guys are in the big leagues.

Post #5 » by **GYBE** » Wed Apr 7, 2010 2:08 pm

Posey H8er wrote:Excellent post GYBE. It will be very interesting to see how all of these players end up doing at higher levels of ball. I think Hak-Ju Lee has a lot of potential with his speed and ability to get on base.

I think he's going to force Castro to move to 2nd base at some point. From what I've heard, Lee is a defensive wizard.

SportsWorld · Post #6 » by **SportsWorld** » Wed Apr 7, 2010 6:31 pm

Having good prospects like Lee and Castro who play the same position isn't a problem at all. Prospects are worth a lot in today's game. We can add a nice piece in the future if we choose to. Or we can play both of them as suggested above. Seems like a win/win in my book.