Jeeho Yoo on covering the KBO

On this episode of the Sports Info Solutions Baseball podcast, Mark Simon (@MarkASimonSays) is joined by Yonhap News reporter Jeeho Yoo (@Jeeho_1). Jeeho is based in Seoul, South Korea and covers the KBO on a daily basis. He explains fan reaction to the return of baseball (2:27) and what it’s like to cover baseball in the age of Coronavirus (4:46). He also gives his impressions of the season so far, why Preston Tucker is off to a good start, and which American and Korean pitchers have fared well (6:42). That leads to a discussion of how we should translate stats from KBO to MLB (9:02), how Korean teams use analytics (10:49), and how the hitting approach of a Korean batter differs from MLB counterparts (12:51). Jeeho also points out how much defensive tracking goes on in the KBO and who the top defensive players are (14:40), and how shifting hasn’t necessarily caught on quite as much (16:18). He also explains what he’s seen in terms of an early increase in injuries (20:20). Lastly, he shares a few fun facts and stats he has compiled (23:17), explains why he doesn’t want to jinx no-hitters by mentioning them on Twitter (25:22), and gives some things for viewers to keep an eye on for the rest of the season (26:16).

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Useful Links

Statiz (Korean-Language Analytics Site)

MyKBOStats (English-Language KBO Site)