Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers is seeing a rise in his stocks, becoming one of the top rookies for this year’s Major League Baseball season.

“Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are the super-big money guys in the Dodgers’ starting rotation, but what Hyun-Jin Ryu is doing this season should not be overlooked,” Zachary D. Rymer of the Bleacher Report wrote in his recent article. In this week’s stock watch for 2013 MLB Rookies, he ranked Ryu at No. 4 among first-year players in the National League.

The 27-year-old South Korean is leading all rookies in innings pitched and no other rookie has started as many games as he did, according to the report.

Just a little more than a quarter into the season, Ryu has five wins under his belt with 3.30 ERA. The numbers are not monstrous, but they appear enough to snub people who thought the Dodgers’ recruitment of the left-handed pitcher was a gamble.

Some critics thought the Dodgers’ move was risky, given that Ryu is the first player to make the jump from Korea’s professional baseball league to the Major Leagues. Prior to the season, they expected Ryu to have trouble facing American hitters who are bigger and stronger than Korean hitters.



From news reports
(khnews@heraldcorp.com)