Calvin Pickering

Pickering did indeed sign with the SK Wyverns. For more read this press release in Korean at the SK team site.

Also, Pickering was drafted in the 35th round by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1995 amateur draft. Pickering soared through the Orioles minor league system, and made his major league debut in 1998.

Though, Pickering quickly had problems never really progressing far pass the incumbent Will Clark in 1999 and was let go in 2001 on a trade to the Reds. Pickering played 4 games with the Reds before being claimed off waivers by Boston. Pickering went on to spend the 2002 season on the disabled list. He went on to spend the 2003 season with Veracruz of the Mexican League, and after having a big year there, was later purchased by the Reds and finished out that year with AAA Louisville. Pickering then went onto to Kansas City as a free agent at the end of the '03 season where he finally got a chance to blossom somewhat. In, 2004 he batted .246 with 7 HRs and 26 RBI. The next year, in 2005, Pickering made the opening day roster, though quickly struggled and was optioned off to AAA Omaha.

Pickering finished with a career .223 average, 14 HR, and 45 RBI. Pickering is still fairly young at 29. He will be probably the most interesting foreign player to watch in Korea, along with Brian Myrow.

[Baseball-Reference]

He certainly is quite the slugger. This is news? Yawn.

There was a mild rumor that Benjie Molina might come to Japan for big bucks, since the bottom fell out of the market for catchers in MLB. Anyone else hear this? He's very good, but gee, I wonder if his lack of Japanese language skills would be an obstacle?

(sarcasm)

- There was a mild rumor that Benjie Molina might come to Japan for big bucks, since the bottom fell out of the market for catchers in MLB. Anyone else hear this? He's very good, but gee, I wonder if his lack of Japanese language skills would be an obstacle?

Yes, there was a mild rumor, back in 2002-03 off-season, that Ivan Rodriguez would play in Japan before signing with the Marlins. That also never came to frutition. For the same reason, too, lack of Japanese language skills. But Rodriguez at the time also had injury problems (which seemed to have gone away).

Didn't the Marlins give I-Rod 10 million reasons not to sign in Japan that year?

How much money could Molina get in Japan?

If anyone is interested in seeing Pickering in action with the Wyverns, here is some photos of Pickering [SK Wyverns Official Site - in Korean].