Jared Wells traded for Cha Seung Baek

[Rennie Stennett]

Cha Seung Baek was born May 29, 1980 in Pusan, South Korea.

September 25, 1998: Signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent.

December 14, 2005: Released by the Seattle Mariners.

February 6, 2006: Signed as a Free Agent with the Seattle Mariners.

His ML debut was August 8, 2004. Baek picked up five starts in 04. He had a 2-4 record in 7 appearances. Baek was a late season call up in 06 and he went 4-1 in six starts covering 31 innings with a 3.67 ERA. His biggest stay in the bigs was in 2007. Cha Seung Baek was 4-3 in 14 games, 12 as a starter with an ERA over five in 73 innings. In 2008, he pitched well in Spring Training and he made the club as a long man, mostly due to the fact that he was out of options, which put RA Dickey on the roster bubble. In 2008, Baek made one start out of his ten appearances. His second to last appearance this year, he gave up the farm for three or four runs in spot middle relief. The next day, he pitched like three scoreless innings and was optioned the same day.

Baek never really got the shot he deserved. He was always the guy to come up and spot start if someone was hurt or he made the September call up. In 2006 at triple A Tacoma, Baek was sick. He had like a 13 -3 record before his September call up. I can't find the minor league stats for that year, so the 13-3 is a guess, but I remember it was pretty awesome. His 162 game average is 188 innings pitched.

I believe he would make a great number five starter for San Diego. Pitching at Petco and the pitcher hitting in the NL should help him. Many have said that he's fine two times through the lineup but the third time the hitters start figuring him out.