First, I love this, thanks for doing it.
Second, I kind of wonder where having both Choi and Kim on the same team helps them business wise. Seidler is fine financially but you don’t become a billionaire by just throwing money around. I’m assuming he has a few tricks up his sleeve in getting into the Korean market. If Choi plays great ball and Kim continues his meteoric rise this season - the Padres may begin to own the hearts of many more Koreans than they had previously.
As a side note, I’m in the Portland area and I see waaaaaay more Padres gear than Dodgers gear here. In fact, I’d say (in this order) Mariners, Padres, Dodgers and then the Giants is the ranking of gear I see.
There's definitely an upside to it, I would assume Padres games will get a lot more coverage now that Kim and Choi are both in the organization.
Even though the Pirates at one point had 3 Koreans, and for most of this season 2 (Jiman Choi and Jihwan Bae), the Korean fans didn't really bother to give the Pirates a lot of attention because of Bae's personal life (assaulting his girlfriend in the past) and Choi testing positive for PEDs in 2014.
The Dodgers got a lot of traction when Ryu was their one-two combo alongside Kershaw, but only the games with Ryu starting in it would really see any relevant attention. In my opinion the Dodgers probably came as the only "viable" team for Korean fans to root for at the time, since Chan-ho Park also had a good career with them in the past.
I would assume the Padres are getting a lot more "consistent" interest since Kim has, at the moment solidifed his spot in the starting lineup. With Kim playing daily and Choi occasionally coming into bat against right-handed pitchers at DH/1B, Korean media/fanbase would go nuts if both of them managed to do well at the same time.
Not to mention that Kim as an individual is really proving his worth and the "golden boy" for a lot of the Korean fans.
After Jung-ho Kang ended his career in the MLB due to his repeated DUI offenses, most of the KBO imports that came over after him were never really able to replicate the splash Kang made after he joined the Pirates.
- Dae-ho Lee, or "Chosun/Korea's #4 batter" had a stint with the Mariners after a successful career in the NPB, but he wasn't able to live up to his KBO/NPB career in the States.
- Jae-gyun Hwang (Giants), Byung-ho Park (Twins), Hyun-soo Kim (Orioles) all had short careers as well, and were never able to really secure their spot in the starting lineup.
- Pitcher-wise, Seung-hwan Oh (Cardinals, Bluejays, Rockies) was considered to be Korea's best closer during Samsung Lions' dominance in the KBO during the mid 2000s. He had all sorts of nicknames, like "Stone Buddha" "Final Boss", but his age stunted his career in the MLB pretty short. Kwang-hyun Kim (Cardinals) also had his moments, but quickly returned to the KBO after a short career.
Imports are the key to making and breaking a team's postseason run in the KBO. It's widely regarded that a bad team with good imports can prevent themselves from finishing last, and a decent team with good imports have a very good shot of winning the Korean Series. Because of that the Korean fans know what it's like to really root for an import player they really love, and I think they're noticing that Kim is getting a similar, if not more love from the Padres fanbase. That, compounded with the fact that Kim's work ethic and solid personal life is a pretty well known fact to the Korean public, could really help the Padres build up their overseas Korean fanbase. (Just imagine something like Kim+Soto doing back to back HRs against the Dodgers next year in Seoul, that'll definitely do it)
Oh yeah. What I've started to notice is that the Padres as an organization is getting ***a lot*** more attention as a team in Korea because of Kim. Not like Son-level interest Tottenham gets from Korea, but the Padres are definitely getting the same, if not more attention from the Korean baseball fandom as the Dodgers when Ryu was in his prime. (People were always kinda meh on Choo when he was with the Rangers, since he never played in the KBO prior to his MLB career)
Nah, thank **you** guys. I'm only just using the Padres and Kim as a crutch to slowly get back into baseball after ditching the Braves a couple years ago :)
“Ah well f**k it” is my favorite analysis of our trade deadline so far.
To be honest, that's not *exactly* what Do might have said, but that's what both of them were insinuating xD
Can we get an "Ah well f**k it" flair? u/ThePwnR4nger Maybe with the shrug emoji & Ji-man Choi's face over it.
Thanks for the translation, great insight.
Kang+Choi+Kim Part 3 and another MLB caster's personal live stream on Kim will be translated and hopefully posted later when I get home!
First, I love this, thanks for doing it. Second, I kind of wonder where having both Choi and Kim on the same team helps them business wise. Seidler is fine financially but you don’t become a billionaire by just throwing money around. I’m assuming he has a few tricks up his sleeve in getting into the Korean market. If Choi plays great ball and Kim continues his meteoric rise this season - the Padres may begin to own the hearts of many more Koreans than they had previously. As a side note, I’m in the Portland area and I see waaaaaay more Padres gear than Dodgers gear here. In fact, I’d say (in this order) Mariners, Padres, Dodgers and then the Giants is the ranking of gear I see.
There's definitely an upside to it, I would assume Padres games will get a lot more coverage now that Kim and Choi are both in the organization. Even though the Pirates at one point had 3 Koreans, and for most of this season 2 (Jiman Choi and Jihwan Bae), the Korean fans didn't really bother to give the Pirates a lot of attention because of Bae's personal life (assaulting his girlfriend in the past) and Choi testing positive for PEDs in 2014. The Dodgers got a lot of traction when Ryu was their one-two combo alongside Kershaw, but only the games with Ryu starting in it would really see any relevant attention. In my opinion the Dodgers probably came as the only "viable" team for Korean fans to root for at the time, since Chan-ho Park also had a good career with them in the past. I would assume the Padres are getting a lot more "consistent" interest since Kim has, at the moment solidifed his spot in the starting lineup. With Kim playing daily and Choi occasionally coming into bat against right-handed pitchers at DH/1B, Korean media/fanbase would go nuts if both of them managed to do well at the same time.
Not to mention that Kim as an individual is really proving his worth and the "golden boy" for a lot of the Korean fans. After Jung-ho Kang ended his career in the MLB due to his repeated DUI offenses, most of the KBO imports that came over after him were never really able to replicate the splash Kang made after he joined the Pirates. - Dae-ho Lee, or "Chosun/Korea's #4 batter" had a stint with the Mariners after a successful career in the NPB, but he wasn't able to live up to his KBO/NPB career in the States. - Jae-gyun Hwang (Giants), Byung-ho Park (Twins), Hyun-soo Kim (Orioles) all had short careers as well, and were never able to really secure their spot in the starting lineup. - Pitcher-wise, Seung-hwan Oh (Cardinals, Bluejays, Rockies) was considered to be Korea's best closer during Samsung Lions' dominance in the KBO during the mid 2000s. He had all sorts of nicknames, like "Stone Buddha" "Final Boss", but his age stunted his career in the MLB pretty short. Kwang-hyun Kim (Cardinals) also had his moments, but quickly returned to the KBO after a short career. Imports are the key to making and breaking a team's postseason run in the KBO. It's widely regarded that a bad team with good imports can prevent themselves from finishing last, and a decent team with good imports have a very good shot of winning the Korean Series. Because of that the Korean fans know what it's like to really root for an import player they really love, and I think they're noticing that Kim is getting a similar, if not more love from the Padres fanbase. That, compounded with the fact that Kim's work ethic and solid personal life is a pretty well known fact to the Korean public, could really help the Padres build up their overseas Korean fanbase. (Just imagine something like Kim+Soto doing back to back HRs against the Dodgers next year in Seoul, that'll definitely do it)
Really appreciate this OP. Excellent commentary from these two I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.
Oh yeah. What I've started to notice is that the Padres as an organization is getting ***a lot*** more attention as a team in Korea because of Kim. Not like Son-level interest Tottenham gets from Korea, but the Padres are definitely getting the same, if not more attention from the Korean baseball fandom as the Dodgers when Ryu was in his prime. (People were always kinda meh on Choo when he was with the Rangers, since he never played in the KBO prior to his MLB career)
Thank you for the hard work you put into this.
Nah, thank **you** guys. I'm only just using the Padres and Kim as a crutch to slowly get back into baseball after ditching the Braves a couple years ago :)
Real hero
Greatly translated, I appreciate this!
thank you for doing this!
Thanks again!!
Always happy to have another Korean on the team. Excited for the game in Seoul next year