Korean Baseball Changes Ball Size

I only have this story as a couple of tweets from Sung Min Kim. Link to his 1st tweet above, quoted here for discussion:

Sung Min Kim (Verified account) @sung_minkim

The KBO is implementing a new baseball. It is 1 mm bigger and 1 g heavier, hoping that it could help neutralize the high-offense environment that the league is known for. According to a simulation run by the SK Wyverns, the ball resulted in 20% less home runs than the previous one. The KBO teams are currently in Spring Training so I’d assume they are working on getting used to the new baseballs at this moment. We’ll see how it works out not only on the home runs but also the spin rate metrics from Trackman.

And a reply:

JMan @yakball26
Replying to @sung_minkim @Buster_ESPN
Does the simulation adjust for additional strain on pitchers and injuries? It doesnt seem like much ... but 1 g can and will take a toll.

In Korean baseball, opportunity beckons not only players, but a scout

Like most scouts who wandered a sprawling casino in Las Vegas at the winter meetings this month, Aaron Tassano’s goal is to find the best players to fit his organization. What makes Tassano stand out is the destination — both his own, and his targets’.

Tassano has been a scout for almost a decade and a half. With Houston from 2013-18, he performed the job as conventionally envisioned: he moved to Arizona in 2014, watching players moving through Major League Baseball’s pipeline. Backfields were often his charge.

Before joining the Astros, Tassano lived in South Korea, where he scouted for the Cubs and Rays. He searched for both professionals and amateurs who could make the jump to the U.S., venturing into Japan and Taiwan as well.

So, if scouts start to engage in free agency between leagues, will that mean bidding wars for their services will emerge?

Former Phillie Tommy Joseph is headed to Korea

A 22-home run season doesn’t mean what it used to.

Former Phillies first baseman Tommy Joseph, who hit 21 homers in 2016 and 22 in 2017, has agreed to a one-year, $1 million deal to play in Korea, according to Jeff Passan.

This just isn’t the era for a major-leaguer whose lone defining skill is power, especially if first base is the only position you can play. It seems like everyone has power these days. There were exactly 100 players with 20+ home runs this past season. Just five years ago, in 2013, there were 70.

Question, for those who are more familiar with Asian baseball than I am: Is it just me, or does it seem that Korea has become now what Japan had the image of being in the 1980s, as the place American players go for a last hurrah?