Chan Ho Park - Pitching Style

Pitching Style

In his prime, Chan Ho was essentially a power pitcher, his biggest weapon being a four-seam fastball in 95-98 mph range. Mixed with a two-seam fastball, a slider, a curveball, and a changeup, he had five consecutive seasons of 10+ wins with the Dodgers. Being a power pitcher, however, he constantly revealed control problems, especially early in the game. He got many strikeouts, yet also allowed many bases on balls and hit batsmen that contributed to his lower than average strikeout-walk ratio of less than 2. This hindered him from achieving low ERA (He never had league top 10 season ERA except his career best season 2000 of 3.27 that was just 7th in NL by playing in pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium.) He was also a flyball-pitcher that benefited a lot from the huge Dodger Stadium outfield; however his style all added up and later backfired when he played in other teams. After unsuccessful seasons with Rangers, Padres, and Mets, he added a two-seam fastball learned from Orel Hershiser. Fox play by play announcer Matt Vasgersian once said about Park's two-seam fastball, "You can only see a two-seamer like that in PlayStation 2". In his career in Philadelphia he also used a cutter and a sinker, learned from Kevin Brown. Park's 2008 comeback season was marked with a return to complete health for the first time in years, allowing him to combine his crafty veteran style with a renewed ability to pitch effective fastballs in mid-90 mph.