It appears the Cardinals have signed right-handed relief pitcher Hyang-Nam Choi. Here’s the low-down:

• Choi has had a taste of pro ball in America once before. Just in 2006 he pitched for the Indians AAA team and over 106 innings, he posted a 2.97 FIP with a K/PA rate of 23%. Pretty impressive, yet he didn’t get a call up.
• Weird story behind how he was signed. The Cardinals initially signed him for $70, 000 as a free agent but his team, the Lotte Giants, wanted to put him through the posting system. The Cardinals put in the only bid, a whopping 101 bucks.
• He’s 37 years old but don’t call him and oldhead. He’s a multiple degree black belt in Taekwondo and will probably take you out.
• He’s said to be in excellent shape, but his fastball rarely breaks 87 MPH. He also throws a slider.
• He spent last season in relief, where he posted a 3.58 ERA with 9 saves.

You can read more about Choi the East Windup Chronicle, where they also has some links to him in action. Hopefully there’s no relation to Hee Seop.  I’m glad the Cards are becoming more active in the Far East, even if it is just minor moves at the moment, although I still think they may have missed the boat by passing on Kenshin Kawakami.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 5:22 pm and is filed under Transactions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.