Earlier in South Korea, police said no explosives had been discovered at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome after a bomb hazard was issued before Major League Baseball’s opener between the Dodgers and San Diego Padres.
“It’s unfortunate that the risk of a bomb is even a possibility. I have full confidence in Major League Baseball and safety here to make us feel safe,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said before the game.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts added that he told him he “will keep running in the baseball game. “
Needless to say, today’s match will go according to plan.
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As if there was any doubt about Seoul’s biggest star this week: A fan sewed a depiction of Shohei Ohtani, his wife Mamiko, and their dog, Dekopin, in cross-stitch.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — As they emerged from the fog of their 14-hour flight to Korea, the Los Angeles Dodgers entered a sea of sparkles at Incheon International Airport. Fans camped here among the charges and did so for hours, causing a stir for each of baseball’s galactics. They sang Freddie Freeman’s call as if he were poking around in the batter’s box at Dodger Stadium.
If the hordes of cameras and reporters camped out in the parking lot this spring practice were the appetizer, the Dodgers got their façade Friday afternoon. Hospitality was a portion of what you may be expecting on your trip of a season.
A Korean fan base clamored for the franchise that introduced Chan Ho Park, the first Korean-born wonder player, 30 years ago. And in a way, the Dodgers fought back, spending more than $1 billion this winter on Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
For weeks, Dave Roberts has been comparing the media frenzy awaiting the Dodgers in Korea to the arrival of the Beatles.
Now, the “Deatles” — or the “Sho-nas Brothers” — have their first excursion at Seoul’s Gocheok Skydome, whether or not they’re in a position to do so.
“I think we’re starting to get used to it a little bit, but I don’t know if anyone can get used to things like this,” Freeman said at a news conference Saturday as he joined fellow MVPs Ohtani and Mookie Betts on the podium. As Freeman spoke, each and every word seemed to be cut off by the endless refrain of the damn camera shutters.
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The Deatles? The Sho-nas brothers? Dodgers welcome rock to Korea
It’s an age-old question that’s come up on bar stools, berms, and BarcaLoungers. Who has the most productive starting rotation this year?In locations closer to San Diego, the journey is more personal: Now that Dylan Cease has joined Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Michael King, how do the San Diego Padres compare to other groups of entry-level pitchers in the sport?
Numbers get a bad rap, but without them, this task is much more difficult. You’ll have to play a giant game of “Would you rather. . . ?while hitting all the Padres players opposite their comparative starter on some other team. As departmental rivals and one of the most productive teams in the league, the Los Angeles Dodgers are an easy pick for the first comparison.
Maybe you’d rather have the young duo of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow at the top, but you’re already starting to wonder: How many rounds of Glasnow?Do we credit Darvish and Musgrove for bouncing back from difficult, injury-plagued seasons?And then you start comparing Cease and King to Bobby Miller (with a short track record) and. . . Who do you consider your room? Veteran James Paxton?Or how many rounds of Walker Buehler? And does it matter how you order those two?Who has the most productive depth? Is it for this conversation?And what will Clayton Kershaw be for the Dodgers this year?
It’s a whirlwind and I just tried it with another team. I have to repeat this 28 more times to get it right. Feel comfortable if that’s your method.
Enter the numbers and it will be a little less difficult and faster to solve, but you still have questions. Are we last year’s numbers or are we projections, which take into account the fact that players are bouncing back all the time and a kind of hesitation around a true skill point from one season to the next?
FanGraphs took pitches and then assigned innings to starting pitchers, all the way up to the 12th starter (or beyond). Try to consider the threat of injury in this process, as well as talent. Here’s a human-touch detail, however, it’s based on projections, and FanGraphs has consistently performed the task for all 30 groups. Here are the 10 most sensible groups based on their projections of winnings above substitution, FanGraphs intensity tables for playtime breakdown:
Read the full research here.
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With Dylan Cease in the fold, where does the Padres’ rotation rank among the most productive in the league?
SEOUL, South Korea — Tyler Glasnow’s homeostasis is delicate, a balance between extremes. He is 6 feet 8 inches tall, but has a build as if each of his limbs is stretched out. He fends off sentimentality, but commemorates his love of rap with hidden words. Tattoos: one on the inner lip and one on the sole of the right foot. His tantalizing ability led the Dodgers to sign him and give him a nine-figure extension this spring; However, career injuries meant he never went over 120 innings at a station.
The Dodgers are paying Glasnow to be an ace and named him the starter for Game 1 of their series in Seoul, South Korea, before he even threw down his uniform. Glasnow is the superstar manager Dave Roberts calls “cerebral” and who is looking for precision.
For the pitcher, good luck means being somewhere in between with a spirit that embraces extremes. You’ll analyze your exits and the horizontal and vertical movement of your terrain with the informality you’d likely show when ordering a sandwich. It’s a testament to his love of numbers fostered during his standout years with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Then there’s Glasnow, who follows the same regimen every day before going to the stadium and every night before bed. He sits down, concentrates on the breath, in the center of his mind, and sets his home in meditation. It’s a practice that started nine years ago when he was in Double-A in the Pirates’ system. What began as a suggestion from his uncle, Wade, to cope with the strain of being a minor leaguer has a ritual component to each and every thing the now 30-year-old does.
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The Dodgers are informed of the balance they can bring out in Tyler Glasnow
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SEOUL (AP) — It was just an exhibition, a glorified scrum played on an elevated stage, but in some ways, Monday marked the culmination of Ha-Seong Kim’s decade in professional baseball. Facing off against his first manager of the Korean Baseball Organization in his old home stadium. , the San Diego Padres shortstop hit two home runs and 4 runs in a 5-4 win over the LG Twins.
“I can’t write better,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
“Some things are meant to line up,” point guard Xander Bogaerts said.
For the past three seasons, Kim has been perhaps San Diego’s most beloved player. In recent days in Seoul, Los Angeles Dodgers superstars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have attracted a lot more attention. A look at the T-shirt-clad enthusiasts who flocked to the Gocheok Sky Dome suggests that Kim’s close friend Jung Hoo Lee, even before his official debut with the San Francisco Giants, remains South Korea’s most popular active primary player.
However, as this country prepares to host its first games of the MLB regular season, it is Kim who seems destined to serve as the emotional pivot of a historic series.
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Postcard from Korea: Ha-Seong Kim of the Padres shines on his homecoming
The Padres announced their Opening Day roster, confirming they had decided on the contracts of rookies Jackson Merrill and Graham Pauley, while also revealing a notable exclusion. Reliever Woo-Suk Go, one of the closest additions to the Korean Baseball Organization in recent seasons, decided to go to Triple-A in El Paso after struggling this spring.
In other moves, the Padres decided to apply the contract of Tyler Wade, opted for catcher Brett Sullivan in El Paso and placed pitchers Glenn Otto (major right-round strain), Luis Patiño (right elbow inflammation) and infielder Tucupita Marcano (in ongoing knee rehab). ). surgery) on the list of victims.
The inclusion of Merrill and Pauley on the list indicates an expected organizational shift toward greater reliance on youth. Merrill, who turns 21 next month, has been virtually secured to open the season as a Padres midfielder for weeks, a position he had never played before this offseason. Officially, the shortstop prospect has 211 plate appearances on the A-ball. Pauley has 88 plate appearances on the A-ball. Se expects the 23-year-old to spend time at third base, first base and designated third baseman Manny Machado continues to expand his arm after elbow surgery in October.
Go, 25, signed a two-year, $4. 5 million contract in January that required the Padres to pay a small payment to the LG Twins, the right-hander’s former team in the KBO. While team officials hoped Go would want time to adjust, Go allowed six runs in four 0. 33 innings in the Cactus League. In an exhibition Monday at the Gocheok Sky Dome, he gave up a two-run homer to former LG Twins teammate Jae-won Lee.
Go’s contract stipulates that he cannot be assigned to the minor leagues without his agreement for the 2025 season. I knew I was in the roster bubble to start the 2024 season.
“First I have to be on the opening day roster,” Go, speaking through interpreter Leo Bae, said this month when asked if he would play in his home country again. “That’s my purpose right now. “
The Seoul Series Dodgers’ roster is as remarkable to those on it as it is to those who are. Blake Treinen will open the season on the disabled list with a lung contusion he suffered on his return to the mound just days before the club left for Seoul; although he was deemed healthy enough to fly, he did not play in any of the Dodgers’ exhibition games.
Michael Grove, who in the combine for the fifth starting spot that finally gave Gavin Stone, will open the season in the Dodgers’ bullpen, alongside promising pitchers Kyle Hurt and Landon Knack. While the latter two are still projected as long-term headlines in the eyes of the organization, they will have to provide the mandatory duration after an abbreviated raise. Hurt made his major league debut as a reliever last September; Knack would make his major league debut.
Treinen, Stone, Bobby Miller, Miguel Vargas and Hunter Feduccia are the team members who traveled to Seoul but won’t be active for the games.
The list announcement also included headline points about two Dodgers who didn’t make the trip. Brusdar Graterol has complained of hip compression that has caused some shoulder discomfort, and will open the season on the disabled list despite initial optimism that he could simply be fit to compete on National Opening Day. Emmet Sheehan will begin the season on the disabled list as scheduled.
SEOUL, Atlanta (AP) — Milton High School, north of Atlanta, has produced four elementary league players. The leader, Kyle Farnsworth, pitched for nine teams over 16 seasons. The second, Dexter Fowler, played in an All-Star Game and won a World Series that same year. The third, Bobby Scales, reappeared with the Chicago Cubs after 11 seasons in the minors and then put his reporting as farm manager of the Los Angeles Angels to good use.
The fourth, Dylan Cease, moved from the Chicago White Sox to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday, and then from Phoenix to Los Angeles and Incheon International Airport two days later.
“I have to believe it’s pretty historic: You show up for the first time, you get traded and you meet your club in Seoul,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said.
On Sunday in Seoul, Cease necessarily shrugged his shoulders when asked about his grueling journey. The 2022 American League Cy Young Award finalist arguably wouldn’t start the Padres’ two-game season opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers here. and the club may have simply forced him to stay in Arizona to face minor league hitters (which is precisely what Dodgers pitcher James Paxton does), before making a short trip to San Diego. Instead, he flew alone on a transpacific flight.
“I think there are a lot of benefits,” Cease said. At its best, it’s a great experience. Yes, it’s great to acclimate to the team and staff and see how everyone handles their affairs. “business and how things will be and what is expected.
Read the full story here.
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Why Dylan Cease and the Padres Made the Decision That the Pitcher Deserves to Take a Single to South Korea
SEOUL (AP) — Shohei Ohtani was set to be a central figure this week, with his Los Angeles Dodgers debut scheduled for Wednesday night against the San Diego Padres at the Gocheok Skydome in Seoul, South Korea. Still, the most important progression for the two-time MVP’s long two-way career will come when the club returns to Los Angeles this weekend.
Ohtani, who will serve as the designated hitter in his rookie season after signing a record 10-year, $700 million contract this winter, is set to begin a pitching progression once the Dodgers return home, manager Dave Roberts showed Monday morning.
It will be Ohtani’s first time throwing a baseball since his second elbow ligament reconstruction surgery on Sept. 19. And while Roberts reaffirmed what he, Ohtani and Ohtani’s agent, Nez Balelo, had been saying in the spring: that Ohtani probably wouldn’t pitch. everything for the Dodgers in 2024: It opens the door to the next step in his new tenure with his new club.
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Shohei Ohtani will begin to progress when the South Korean Dodgers return
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Agent Scott Boras on Tuesday morning denounced Harry Marino’s attempt to overthrow the leadership of the Major League Baseball Players Association, saying Marino and his supporters had waged a “coup d’état” that “will never be carried out. “
Marino responded that Boras’ candidacy for CEO Tony Clark deserves to be considered “alarming” and suggested that Boras’ effectiveness was waning.
Some player leaders within the union are aggressively pushing for Marino, who briefly worked in the MLBPA, to update Bruce Meyer, the union’s assistant manager. If Marino and his fans are successful, Meyer’s departure will most likely mean Clark’s departure as well. Clark held a video call that lasted about 3 hours Monday night in which player executives fought over Meyer’s long-term and Marino’s viability.
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Scott Boras Slams MLBPA ‘Hit’ as Players and Agents Take Sides
Every spring, I write an article about “small group” candidates, but this year I took it a step further and created a 26-player roster of players I think have the highest chance of having “small group” seasons. A getaway candidate is simply a player who I expect to perform at a point particularly higher than his major league record, or to burst onto the scene and blow up the rookie pool. Breakaway players exhibit common traits, adding the ability to adapt and adapt, a superior baseball IQ, and super-physical and intellectual abilities. In addition, he is a player who is 26 years old or younger.
Here’s my list of 26 players, a position-by-position review of the players who are in position for small group seasons in 2024. There were at least a dozen more who could have been part of that team. Who would you choose? Let me know in the comments.
Read the full story here.
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Bowden’s 2024 MLB breakout team: A list of promising players to watch
In honor of the Seoul Gocheok Skydome Series this week, we thought it would be fitting to introduce the Dodgers and Padres to one of South Korea’s toughest global diplomatic and export tools: K-pop.
After all, you can’t spell bats without BTS.
So, what exactly is K-pop? Contrary to popular belief, it is not a genre, but an entire musical subculture, although the word is now used as an umbrella term for the most popular music coming out of Korea.
Although its influence in the West may be less visual to the average sports fan, K-pop is already well entrenched in primary leagues around the world. Its stars are global NBA ambassadors, official World Cup performers, and veteran MLB pitchers. And their enthusiasts and followers attract millions of glances and even more money.
In other words, it’s an industry and sound tailor-made for sporting events.
With that in mind, we had a good laugh and assigned a K-pop song to each and every player projected on the Seoul Series rosters, adding at least one who will be home once the season starts.
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From Betts to BTS: K-pop songs for the Dodgers and Padres Seoul MLB Series
Are the most positive fans in baseball in 2024 fans of the reigning World Series champions (Texas Rangers)?Or the team that spent $1. 2 billion this offseason (Los Angeles Dodgers)?)?
No, no and no.
The Orioles are the new No. 1 pick in the Hope-O-Meter, our annual fan optimism poll. A record 22,000 readers participated in this year’s edition (thank you!) with written responses ranging from 0 letters (Rangers fan, Ryan: ” ? “) to 5,446 (Guardians fan, Dominic).
Yes or no: Are you positive about your team? The query can be answered in other ways. It’s through design. Maybe you’re hoping to win a World Series title, or maybe there’s a rebuild underway. Across the League, optimism is waning than in previous years; 64 percent chose “Yes,” up from 75 percent in 2023 and even down from 66 percent post-lockout in 2022.
Keep in mind that this investigation was opened just before the signing of Matt Chapman by the Giants and the extension of Zack Wheeler by the Phillies, and well before the Dylan Cease trade, Gerrit Cole injury, and the signing of Blake Snell, so the news will possibly not be reflected in the fan vote. Below, we’ve indexed each team’s optimism score and exactly 4 reader responses, some of which have been edited for clarity and length.
Check out the full standings here
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MLB Hope-O-Meter Results: 2024 Fan Optimism Rankings for All 30 Teams
PHOENIX — Flags only fly if you raise them.
In Odgertown, the ancestral home of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Vero Beach, Florida, a mural celebrating the six World Series winners greeted visitors. The team has won the National League West 11 times since moving its spring education base to Arizona in 2009, but the franchise doesn’t commemorate mere playoff spots. The Dodgers had intended to build a monument to the 2020 World Series champion team, but pandemic-related structure delays put the task on the back burner and the organization moved forward. There are no artwork or banners, no portraits of protocol-abiding perseverance. If commemorative decorations are ignored, triumph in a 60-game season may well not exist.
When Mark Walter, owner of the Dodgers and CEO of Guggenheim Partners, met with two-way star Shohei Ohtani last winter, he tried to sell a vision based on those contradictory truths, the immense pride and the deep frustration within él. la franchise. The Dodgers have had a colossus since Walter’s organization took over in 2012: a perennial contender, playing in front of crowds that dominate the sport, running a slot now valued at around $5 billion. Still, this good fortune may not make up for the defeats. in October. A series of early playoff exits since 2020 had disappointed Walter and members of his baseball operations department. In describing the dichotomy, Walter sought to emphasize something to Ohtani: The owner saw his tenure as head coach of the Dodgers as a failure. in the field.
“We’ve only done it once,” said team president Stan Kasten, who was present when Walter spoke with Ohtani. “And we want to do more than that. “
Read the full story here.
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SEOUL — When Peter O’Malley arrived in this city in September 1993 to recruit a talented but hard-to-understand school pitcher named Chan Ho Park, the president of the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t come to a foreign country as a complete stranger. Malley had already made several visits to South Korea and some of its neighboring countries.
He traveled to Asia and other parts of the world campaigning for the inclusion of baseball as a medal-winning game at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He built baseball fields for youth and adults in Tianjin, China. who led South Korean conglomerate Samsung Group and hosted the Korean Baseball Organization’s Samsung Lions for spring education in Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida.
As a foreign pioneer and owner of a mythical franchise, O’Malley dreamed of the odds on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Now, as Major League Baseball hosts its first regular-season game in South Korea on Wednesday, he and Park are continuing to make those dreams a reality.
“We’ve come full circle,” O’Malley, 86, said earlier this month. “Chan Ho comes (to the U. S. ), he does what he does, and now the Dodgers and the Padres are playing a genuine game, a meaningful game. in Korea of the Sur. Es important. That’s what Hollywood videos are made of. He just thinks he’s Chan Ho.
Some three decades later, the power of inspiration will be fully revealed. This week’s two-game series between the Dodgers and Padres will feature Japan’s Shohei Ohtani, arguably the greatest baseball player of all time; his compatriot Yoshinobu Yamamoto, owner of the largest contract ever achieved by a pitcher; and South Korea’s Ha-Seong Kim, the first Asian-born infielder to win a Gold Glove. Kim’s close friend, midfielder Jung Hoo Lee, recently signed a $113 million contract with the San Francisco Giants before playing a trade on U. S. soil.
Read the full story here.
SEOUL – One day in the spring of 2020, some time before the Korean Baseball Organization became the focal point of a pandemic-stricken sports world, Seoul resident Daniel Kim earned a direct message on Twitter. Karl Ravech and Boog Sciambi, two ESPN announcers who introduced themselves (Kim, a KBO analyst and former scout for South Korean primary league teams, had met with Sciambi but not Ravech) and explained that they were looking for someone to help them with a project: an unprecedented task. What they proposed seemed intriguing, ambitious, and full of unknowns. Still, Kim gladly agreed to receive help.
“Besides,” Kim said recently, “I had nothing else to do. I just like everyone else.
About a week later, Kim found himself on U. S. national television. Netflix, from watching Netflix on their couch to remotely joining ESPN’s Opening Day broadcast on KBO. For Kim, it was a couple of rounds of baseball communication on an unforeseen platform. For Ravech, calling play-by-play from his home in Avon, Connecticut, and ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez, offering color-watching from his garage in Miami, it was an enterprising first step toward bringing some semblance of normalcy to live sports viewers. .
Kim has proven to have good luck with the world leader. Over the next few months, while ESPN aired six KBO games a week, Kim logged approximately 90 appearances alongside a rotating team that included Ravech, Perez, Sciambi, Jessica Mendoza and Kyle. In the midst of his remote immersion in the culture and customs of Korean baseball, Kim’s new colleagues described him as a regular guest and a reliable tour guide.
“Whether it’s the user we’re talking to directly or the user directing us to other people, it’s surely an integral component of everything,” Ravech said. “He’s definitely the most familiar face, and in a lot of ways, other people are looking for credibility. He’s the one who provided it.
“Daniel is probably the Most Valuable Player in KBO’s coverage,” said Phil Orlins, ESPN’s vice president of production.
On Wednesday night in Seoul (6 a. m. ET Wednesday), the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres will open the 2024 season with the first of two games at the Gocheok Sky Dome. Regardless, Major League Baseball is playing its first regular season competitions in South Korea, as the progression of the game around the world has become a renewed precedent in recent years; because Shohei Ohtani and Ha-Seong Kim redefined the odds for Asian baseball players; because Padres advisor and former Dodgers pitcher Chan Ho Park has become the first Korean-born player in the major leagues 3 decades ago; and perhaps also because, just 4 years ago, a transpacific link was born from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Who knew when we were on ESPN that he would take us to Seoul, South Korea?”said Ravech, who will team up with Perez, his Sunday Night Baseball component, to convene the Dodgers-Padres series on the spot. “I think part of that comes from the connection we had with the KBO. “
This bridge was built by a classy generation and with abundant help from Kim, who will reunite with Ravech and Perez as ESPN’s support reporter for the series. For Ravech and Perez, the games at the Gocheok Sky Dome will be a long-awaited opportunity to revel. live baseball in the presence of enthusiasts on Korean soil. For Kim, it will be the culmination of an unlikely adventure that spans two continents and thirteen time zones.
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No words were uttered in the Dodgers’ bullpen. It would have been useless to try. Chan Ho Park, who was 20 years old at the time, with a baby face, spoke almost no English. And bullpen coach Mark Cresse didn’t know any Koreans.
Instead, the much-vaunted South Korean prospect informed what his team needed with a giant cheat sheet. No translators were allowed in the box at the time. Park’s only form of communication with the coaches, therefore, consisted of pre-written Korean sentences. .
“Chan Ho, stand,” Park recalled reading Cresse’s message.
“How many more places do you want to prepare?” said another.
“I’m fine,” he was able to reply, prompting him to get into the game a while later.
On this day, April 8, 1994, Kent Mercer pitched a hit for the Braves at Dodger Stadium. But the lasting effect of this game could have come quietly in the presence of the Los Angeles reliever who allowed two runs in a single inning of cleanup.
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