Pirates Shortstop Jung-Ho Kang homered in his debut on Tuesday afternoon, showing the power that netted him a $16-million guaranteed contract from Pittsburgh in January. The 27-year old took a Marco Estrada pitch over the right-center field fence for an opposite field home run. Although many batters went deep against Estrada last season, the early power display is surely encouraging for the club. Early reports out of Pirates camp show that Kang has also impressed in batting practice so far, launching several deep homers.
Kang’s outrageous season in the KBO (.356/.459/.739, with 40 homers) needs to be taken with a grain of salt, as the league is notoriously hitter-friendly. Even still, they are very impressive power numbers for a middle infielder to be putting up. There is some that believe that the Korean slugger can be a star in the Majors, but there are just as many skeptics.
The question of whether his power will translate to the big leagues will go a long way towards finding out what kind of player he will become. Is he a guy who can hit over 20 homers a year? Or are his numbers a product of the KBO? The only successful hitter to come out of Korea in recent memory has been Shin-Soo Choo; but he came up through the Minor League system and was much more of a known commodity. Kang probably has more power than Choo, but he probably won’t match any other part of the outfielders game.
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The 6 foot, 180 pounder’s defense is a question mark at this point, without knowing if he has the range to play shortstop in the Major Leagues. His arm is decent enough to play there or move over to third base, but his fielding ability remains to be seen and will determine his best future position. A move to rightfield could also be possible, but his offensive game doesn’t match up as well in the outfield as it does on the infield, especially at shortstop. There is also the issue of whether he can adjust to playing on grass. The KBO has artificial turf on all their fields, so it will definitely be something to get used to.
The Pirates envision Kang helping out in a utility role in 2015, but the youngster may be able to push Jordy Mercer for playing time with a solid spring. Mercer brings stellar defense to the position, with an improving offensive game. Kang has much more offensive potential, but the gap between his bat and Mercer’s will have to be wide enough to offset the defense.
You never know what you’re going to get with International players, so if Kang hits really well early on, it will be tough to keep him out of the lineup. I haven’t seen enough of him to determine whether he can be a regular starter, but his debut shows why the Pirates were so high on his power potential. We still have the better part of a month to see how his game will translate to the big leagues, and this promises to be an interesting story line heading into the regular season.
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