The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization re-signed right-hander Nick Kingham and left-hander Ryan Carpenter to new one-year contracts earlier this month. According to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News, Kingham will receive $900K in guaranteed salary, while Carpenter gets $750K. The new deals represent nice raises for both pitchers, as Carpenter signed for $300K and Kingham for $250K last winter.
Kingham missed much of the 2020 season due to elbow surgery, and made only two starts for the SK Wyverns before the KBO club released him in July 2020. Looking to rebound with the Eagles, Kingham largely stayed healthy (except for a month-long absence with a lat injury) and posted a 3.19 ERA and 22.16% strikeout rate over 144 innings last season. As Kingham told Yoo in a recent interview, he believes he can pitch even better in 2022, as he enters the new year focused only on normal offseason preparations without any injury rehab.
After pitching for the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2020, Carpenter performed well in his debut KBO season. The southpaw posted a 3.97 ERA and 23.99% strikeout rate over 170 innings for the Eagles, starting 30 of his 31 games.
Both pitchers looked for a fresh start overseas after appearing in parts of the 2018 and 2019 MLB seasons. Kingham, a former top prospect during his days in the Pirates farm system, has a 6.08 ERA over 131 2/3 career Major League frames with Pittsburgh and Toronto. All of Carpenter’s big league experience came in a Tigers uniform, as he posted an 8.57 ERA over 63 innings (starting 14 of 15 games) with Detroit.
Does anyone know if there are any sites similar to Baseball Reference that include statistics for KBO and NPB performance? I often wonder how former MLB players have fared in foreign leagues, especially when they have been overseas for multiple seasons.
mykbostats.com/stats
Also Statiz.kr, kbo fancy stats (limited to 2014 and later though)
BBREF has a link to click on for international and foreign leagues. It’s right above pitching splits if you were too click on either pitchers name in this article it takes you right to BBREF.
If you go to npb official page there is a database of players from the beginning season 1930’s to the last season for stats
sure not going to miss the kobo and likes updates
If you scroll down to “More (player) pages” you get those stats. Maybe you meant more than just BR
Nick Kingham mention…lol
He was supposed to be a can’t miss.
One of many failed draft picks by NH and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
@3. I don’t think Nick Kingham was ever rated higher than 6 overall in the Pirates organization.
Was 67 in the Baseball Prospectus top 100 prior to the fateful 2015 season when he ended up having TJ surgery. .
He was actually supposed to make his MLB debut before Taillon. Had TJ surgery in 2015 and was never the same pitcher since.. He was can’t miss until the arm injury.
And he’s making a million a year next season how much do you make in a year?
I’ll always remember Kingham for his debut in 2018 that sent fantasy baseball owners into a tizzy.