The Dodgers staged a reception for Hee Seop Choi on Tuesday morning, welcoming the Korean slugger to town with a ceremony at a Koreatown playground. After nearly an hour filled with speeches, photographs and autographs, a little girl shuffled across the dirt toward General Manager Paul DePodesta.
The little girl hesitated at first, then glanced up and smiled shyly, speaking quietly.
"Why did you trade away Paul Lo Duca?" she asked.
"To get Hee Seop Choi," DePodesta said, returning the smile with one of his own.
The little girl shuffled away, apparently unconvinced.
In this town, she is not alone.
Yet DePodesta expresses amazement that the first baseman has gotten lost in the four-trade weekend shuffle that had Guillermo Mota, Juan Encarnacion, Dave Roberts, Tom Martin and the popular Lo Duca leaving Los Angeles and Steve Finley, Brad Penny and Brent Mayne joining the Dodgers.
DePodesta says he acquired a terrific young power hitter in Choi and dismisses critics who deride him as a risk, a platoon player who strikes out too much.
"The people that are saying that don't know what I think I know and what the rest of the Dodger executives think they know about Hee Seop Choi," DePodesta told the Koreatown crowd. "To me, it's not a risk at all."
Choi, 25, is batting .270 with 15 home runs. He has walked more often, and struck out more often, than any of his new teammates.
He might have been the first player whose introduction to a playground crowd included his on-base percentage, slugging percentage and number of walks, statistics paramount to DePodesta.
In an era when young, cheap talent is in demand, the Chicago Cubs and Florida Marlins have traded Choi within the last nine months.
His career average against left-handers is .135, albeit in 52 at-bats. Manager Jim Tracy indicated that Choi will not start against left-handers for now -- he did not Tuesday, against Oliver Perez of the Pittsburgh Pirates -- but DePodesta said he expected Choi to develop into a full-time player in coming years.
"I think we've acquired one of the better offensive players in the league," he said.
DePodesta said he sent this text message to his old boss, Oakland General Manager Billy Beane: "Nobody's talking about Choi in this deal." Beane's reply: "I'll take him."
