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During this offseason, Jung-Ho Kang received little fanfare in the media. Last season, in the KBO league, Kang hit 40 home runs and led the league in OPS. Predominantly, fielding from the shortstop position, he should be thought of as a valuable commodity at the Major League level. However, many stigmas/doubts exist in the minds of scouts of whether Kang can succeed. As the first Korean player to make the transition from the KBO to MLB, scouts have questioned whether his power will be exposed by the quality pitching at the Major League level. Many players have made the jump from Japan to the Majors with varying degrees of success. Kang represents a precedent for Asian baseball because he is not only the first KBO position player to come to MLB, but he is also seen as one of the first big power hitting Asian players to come into the league. Although Kang has only had a handful of at-bats in the big leagues, the Pirates will not make use of Kang as a bench player after signing him to a 4-year, $11 million deal with a $ 5 million option for a 5th year and additional $5 million posting fee. The major question is if his bat can translate from the hitting haven of the KBO to the pitcher dominant MLB.

In the KBO, over the course of his long career, Jung-Ho Kang has consistently proven to be a power threat. In the past three seasons, Kang has slugged over 20 home runs and driven over 80 runs. Last season, especially, proved to be a career year for Kang. He slugged 40 home runs and drove in 117 runs. In comparison to the league, his OPS of 1.198 was 92 % better than the league. Although the run scoring environment can be considered strong with league averages of 5.2 runs per game and OPS of .897, Jung-Ho Kang still proved to be far ahead the best hitter in the league with an OPS nearly 20 % better than the second best batter in the league. With Kang only being 28 years old, it is easy to drool at his KBO stats and see a shortstop in his prime that can rival the likes of Troy Tulowitzki and Ian Desmond.

Amongst scouts and analysts, the overall opinion on Jung-Ho Kang’s potential production is varying. Keith Law, a former scout for the Toronto Blue Jays and now senior baseball writer for ESPN.com, has commented that some scouts see Kang as an un-athletic corner infielder, whose power will not translate to the Majors. However, former KBO pitcher and teammate, C.J. Nitkowski has commented that Kang will be able to adjust to Major League pitching because the Korean league’s style of play is similar to the American game. These opinions definitely represent the extreme sides of whether Jung-Ho Kang can succeed. The attractiveness of Kang’s services is a combination of his ability to play shortstop and his power. Whether he can play shortstop will have to be determined in practice or with a larger sample size of play at the position in the Majors. The question that can be answered is whether he can match his power from the KBO at the Major League level.

The most noticeable aspect of Kang’s approach at the plate is his high leg lift. Being a fan of Japanese baseball, this is a common phenomenon amongst Asian hitters. Players like Ichiro and Nori Aoki have demonstrated high leg lifts in their swing during their stints in Japan. However, both have smoothly made the transition to the Majors and have adjusted their batting approaches to fit the different style of American pitching. As described in The Meaning of Ichiro, Ichiro eliminated, “the pendulum-style leg lift he had used all his years in Japan,” and began to use a more compact approach to the plate.

In the case of Jung-Ho Kang, he represents a departure from the playing style of players that have come over from Asia, besides Hideki Matsui, because of his enormous power potential. For Kang, the high leg lift plays a huge role in his power potential. After studying 200 MLB players with the most at-bats in 2014, 31% of these players had significant leg lifts in their swings. By running a multiple linear regression on run production, I looked at the relationship between leg lift (high or low) and run production (Figure 1). From my analysis, I found that the leg lift proved to be indifferent in its relationship to run production (Figure 1). Many batters such as David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Mike Trout, and Jose Bautista have proven to be successful with a leg lift in their swings. In particular, Jose Bautista represents a useful comparable for Jung-Ho Kang. From 2004 to 2008, Bautista toiled as a fringe Major League player with high power potential. It was not until he arrived in Toronto in 2009 that he experienced a series of breakout seasons by leading the Majors in home runs in 2010 and 2011. A noticeable change in Bautista’s swing is the timing of his leg lift with the arm movement of the pitcher. As the pitcher brings back his arm in preparation for a drive towards home plate, Bautista is able to utilize a high leg lift to propel more power into his swing. At this point of Kang’s transition to the Majors, he is still trying to figure out his timing of his swing. At times, he is utilizing a high leg lift. Other times, he is using a lower leg lift. However, the common theme in his approach to the plate is that his timing is off. If he can improve his timing at the plate, Kang can possibly deliver the 15-20 home run potential bestowed upon him by many pundits. Whether he can make this adjustment will ultimately dictate his success in the Majors.

Picture 1(Left) | Picture 2(Right)

In Picture 1, once the pitcher has brought his arm back during the delivery, Joey Bautista begins his leg lift. In Picture 2, as the pitcher’s arm is back during the delivery, Jung-Ho Kang has already committed to his leg lift.

The market for pitching in Asia has proven to be reliable with many great pitchers, such as Hideo Nomo, Hiroki Kuroda, Koji Uehara, Masahiro Tanaka, and many others, making the successful jump to the Majors. However, the market for hitting in Asia has not proven to be likewise. Many players of these players have not been able to translate their success in Asia to the Major League game such as Kaz Matsui, Kyuji Fujikawa, Kosuke Fukudome, and many others. Although Jung-Ho Kang did not cost the Pirates as much as previous Asian posted players, Kang essentially sets the precedent for not only KBO-transfer players, but all of Asia. With a leg lift in the form of many highly successful KBO and NPB baseball players, his ability to adjust to the American game will dictate how MLB teams will scan over the Asian market. Kang has demonstrated incredible ability to be the best power hitter in the KBO with video game like numbers. In spring training, he displayed the power that made him attractive to the Pirates, but also proved to be inconsistent with .200 batting average and a .280 OBP. The question still remains if Kang can make the necessary adjustments to the timing of his swing. If Kang does, he could represent an intriguing option at shortstop for the Pirates.

Figure 1

In this regression analysis, the leg lift proved to be insignificant towards run production with a P-value of nearly 68%.

References:
1. "Baseball Reference." Baseball-Reference.com. Baseball Reference, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015.
2. Law, Keith. "Max Scherzer Tops This Year's Free-agent Rankings - MLB."ESPN.com. ESPN, 25 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
3. Rymer, Zachary. "How Will Jung-Ho Kang Translate to the Major Leagues?"Minor League Ball. Bleacher Report, 06 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
4. Whiting, Robert. The Meaning of Ichiro: The New Wave from Japan and the Transformation of Our National Pastime. New York: Warner, 2004. Print.
NOTE: All statistics accurate as of 04/14/15

By Sanjay Pothula
AriBall.com

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