5 Dominicans to play in Korea Baseball Organization in 2011

The eight teams in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) have signed 16 foreign players for the upcoming 2011 season, and 5 of the imported players are Dominican.  Like many lower tier sports leagues throughout the world, the KBO has a limit of 2 foreign players per team.  The Dominican Winter Baseball League limits it's teams to 5 foreign players at one time, and other sports leagues such as Major League Soccer also have limits on foreign born players, so this is a common practice designed to ensure that local teams have a majority of local players.

Thanks to True Stories of Korean Baseball for the list of foreign players.  Here are the Dominican players scheduled to appear in Korea this season:

Radhames Liz, P El Seybo, Dominican Republic

Ramon Ramirez, P Puerto Plata

Aquilino Lopez, P Villa Altagracia

Julio DePaula, P Santo Domingo

Oneli Perez, P Bonao

Radhames Liz and Ramon Ramirez both have big league experience.  And The Dominican Baseball Guy has seen several of these players show up in the Dominican Winter Baseball League (LIDOM).  They all have some experience in the LIDOM and Ben Jukich, another player on the list, also spent the whole 2009 year in the LIDOM with Aguilas.

Interesting that they are almost all pitchers.  A lack of quality arm strength in domestic players leads the teams of the KBO to import pitchers with 90 mph stuff.

Radhames Liz in 2010 spring training with the Padres, by SD Dirk on Flickr