Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Cha Seung Baek possible comeback?

Cha Seung Baek, who hasn't pitched in professional baseball since 2010, has been working out lately and some scouts even consider him MLB ready. The Korean Sensation is best known for his 1.83 ERA with the Seattle Mariners in 2010. At the end of the 2012 season, as the ace of the Mariners rotation, he retired do to a combination of personal reasons and dissatisfaction of his own personal performance. The Seattle Mariners invited him back as their pitching coach for their next few years, but was replaced with most of the coaching staff when they fired Don Wakamatsu in 2015. Since then, he decided to devote to try to be a pitcher once again, knowing that based on his age this would be his final chance to play baseball professionally. He and his family moved to Calgary, and in 2016 he began to pitch for the Calgary Vipers of the North American League.  With the Vipers, he quickly and surprisingly returned to his old form.  In 2016, he ended up with a 8-2 record and a 4.15 ERA.  In 2017 he won 10 of his fifteen starts with an ERA of 3.44.  2018 showed some proof that Baek had been reinventing himself.  As he led the league not only in wins with 11, leading the Vipers to the North American league championship, he also led the league in strikeouts with 110.  He had always been known as a pitch to contact pitcher and not a strikeout pitcher.  in 2018, he had a shockingly low ERA of 2.29.
At the age of 39, Baek considers this his last chance to attempt to play at the highest level of professional baseball once again.  Baek who has always been a mysterious pitcher, as many scouts believe his whole career performance is pure magic, could either perform very well this season and pitch for a few more seasons, or breakdown really quickly.  The few that see promise in Baek's return think he could turn out to be similar to Jamie Moyer.
Baek has stated that he would prefer to stay near the north west of the US, and would prefer to rejoin Seattle over any other club.  Baek is also willing to accept a small contract as his only desire is to pitch in the majors one last time in his life while he is still in good condition.  However it is stilla question if Baek will get permission from the commissioner Bud "DJ" Selig to re-enter the league.

Player Profile:
Favorite Team: Seattle Mariners & Lotte Giants
Favorite Color: Black
Favorite Food: Bulogoi
Favorite Current Player: Fletcher Conyers (SEA) & Lee Hak-Ju (LAD)
Favorite Athlete non-baseball: Lee Ho-Suk (Speed Skater)
Favorite activity besides baseball: Taekwondo
Favorite Band: 레인보우 (Rainbow) & Far East Movement





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