Orioles Scouts Banned in Korea

This is not a new story, but I wanted to update it with the fact that Orioles Scouts were in fact banned from all Korean Baseball Association (KBA) sanctioned games, which include the national high school and college tournaments as well as pro games.  The picture above is actually hanging outside stadiums in Korea right now.  I don't know why they needed an exclamation point for the Korean version of the message, but not the English version.  From the version that I can understand, it's certainly clear enough without it.  I guess they really wanted to make their point to any Orioles scouts that could maybe speak some Korean.

Let's take a step back here and talk about what actually happened to lead to the scouts being banned.  On January 17th, the Orioles reached an agreement with 17 year old Seong-Min Kim to sign with the team for $550,000.  Almost immediately, the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) protested the signing.  The KBO filed an official protest to Major League Baseball saying that the Orioles didn't follow the proper protocol in signing the player.  Their protest was successful, and MLB ended up not approving the contract.  The KBA also suspended Kim from playing and coaching in Korea indefinitely for making contact with a pro team before his final year of high school.

Apparently, if a major league team wants to sign a Korean player, the team has to submit a status check on the player to MLB, which would then forward the request to the KBO.  The KBO would determine whether the team can contact the player, and tell MLB whether the team has it's permission.  Then, MLB would tell the team whether they could in fact get in contact with the player and sign him.

The Orioles did not follow this protocol.  They signed Kim with out going through the proper channels.  Reportedly, Kim didn't even have an agent and the team worked out a contract directly with Kim's parents.  Dan Duquette was known for signing many Asian players during his tenure with the Red Sox.  The fact that he didn't know and/or didn't follow the proper protocol in this case is troubling.  The international market was supposed to be one of Duquette's strengths. 

Duquette issued an official apology during February.  From Roch Kubatko of MASN: 

"On behalf of the Orioles organization, I offer a sincere apology to the Korea Baseball Organization and the Korea Baseball Association for the club's unintentional breach of protocol in failing to tender a status check in the process of signing Seong-Min Kim. The Orioles respect Major League Baseball's recruiting policies and the governing bodies and people that contribute to the growth of baseball around the world."

I am troubled by the Orioles front office's lack of knowledge in the way the international signing game is played. However, there's another aspect to this story that's just as troubling. Baseball America reported that the player the Orioles tried to sign, Seong-Min Kim was considered a non-prospect by the other organizations they spoke with. From Baseball America: 

Baseball America surveyed 11 other teams that scout Asia (two of which did not have a report on him on file) and could not find any organization that had interest in signing Kim or had a similarly glowing scouting report. While scouts often disagree about the futures of international teenage prospects, most of the other teams' reports on Kim's present ability and future potential were consistent with each other.

According to the other teams, Kim's fastball ranged from 78-85 mph. The maximum velocity another team had on Kim was 87 mph. Other scouts called his breaking ball a slurvy curveball in the mid- to high 60s and graded it from 20-30 on the 20-80 scouting scale, which rates as well below average. Scouts say he's likely an inch or two shorter than his listed height of 5-feet-11, has little projection and some funkiness in his arm action.

Many believed the Orioles were the only team interested in Kim. Several teams turned him in as a non-prospect.

This is the part of the story where I become really concerned. Are we supposed to believe that the Orioles scouts saw a different player than the scouts from other organizations that Baseball America talked to? According to reports, Orioles scouts recorded Kim throwing 88-90 mph with a plus curveball. Obviously, there's a big difference between a kid throwing 78-85 mph and 88-90 mph. The Orioles did a lot of shuffling around in their front office this winter. This makes you question how successful they were in getting the right people in the right spots.

Reportedly, the Orioles will again attempt to sign Kim once they are allowed to. It isn't clear when that is going to be. In the meantime, Kim is going back to high school in South Korea and is banned indefinitely from the Korean Baseball Organization so he can't play professional baseball in Korea. That severely limits his options as a 17 year old. I'm not familiar with how often Korean players go play in Japanese or Taiwanese leagues, but I doubt it would be his first choice.

The Orioles are left with a lot of egg on their face in this debacle. The sign outside Korean baseball stadiums is just an ugly reminder of this episode. The KBO doesn't strike me as an organization that forgives and forgets easily so this ban could last for quite some time. This wasn't the start to his Orioles tenure that Dan Duquette was hoping for. Let's hope it gets better from here.