FanGraphs Audio: The KBO Preview Episode

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April 9, 2021

Episode 917

On this week’s episode, Brendan Gawlowski is joined by Patrick Dubuque of Baseball Prospectus to discuss the Korea Baseball Organization’s 2021 season.

Brendan and Patrick each recently wrote KBO previews, and they spend the episode going over what to expect from the league this year. How will Shin-Soo Choo fair in his return? Who are the most exciting rookies? And why does Patrick think Brendan is wrong about the KBO playoff structure?

The pair also discuss the normalization of bat flips, the weirdest rule in the KBO, why Patrick won’t speak ill of Matt Williams, and the biggest differences between the leagues.

Finally, Brendan and Patrick run down all 10 teams and where they expect them to finish this season.

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Audio after the jump. (Approximate 1 hour 21 minute play time.)

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Dylan assists in producingFanGraphs Audio, Effectively Wild, and the FanGraphs Live Twitch channel. He also enjoys the Waxahachie Swap (RIP), the Air Bud principle, and the Oxford comma. You can Tweet him about any of those things @dhhiggins.

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pedeysRSox
4 years ago

About what Patrick said at about 24 minutes about Merrill Kelly not walking anyone, that’s not particularly accurate as he had a 2.7 BB/9 in three of the four seasons he spent in the KBO. Still above average, but not that great for 2016 anf 2018. It was a 2007 draft but the draft situation occured with Chan Ho Park and I think Byung Hyun Kim and Jae Weong Seo first before Choo. Ah Seop Son is Lotte’s guy. He can hit for average and steal bases, while his power can be lacking at times. Machado actually had 3.25 WAR inspite of a 102.5 WRC+ so his defense and baserunning was good. Seung Hwan Oh is the reliever everyone seemed to forget after he went back to the KBO.

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