If there was going to be an Asian winner in this year’s Olympics—likely the last time we’ll see the sport in Olympic play for at least eight years, if ever—everyone expected it to be Japan. As we have seen from the success of Japanese imports like Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and Daisuke Matsuzaka, the quality of the players in Japan is close, if not equal, to our own Major League Baseball players. And, unlike Major League Baseball, Japanese teams don’t mind their players leaving in the national interest, even in the middle of a pennant run.

If Japan didn’t snatch gold, then everyone expected defending champion Cuba to emerge as the top baseball team. With its top talent only available to major-league teams via defection, Cuba retains some of the best non-MLB talent in the world. Even the United States team, devoid of talent above AAA, was only an outside shot. Native China, with a neophyte team, would have been a feel-good story, but an incredibly unlikely one, despite coaching by American star and former MLB manager Jim Lefebvre.

But that’s why they play the games.

Instead of things running as predicted, South Korea showed up and ran the tables, winning the gold with a stunningly perfect record. Not even a blip on anyone’s radar—certainly not in the States, where their top stars have been Byung-Hyun Kim and Chan Ho Park—South Korea won the way you’re supposed to, with steady fielding and strong pitching and by not making mistakes.

The two teams faced off today at Wukesong Baseball Fields, with lefty Ryu Hyun-Jin on the rubber for South Korea and Norberto Gonzalez for Cuba. It didn’t seem like a pitcher’s duel at first, with Lee Seung-yuop rocketing a two-run homer in the top of the first, and Michel Enriquez answering with his own solo bomb in the bottom of the frame.

But the score froze until the teams swapped runs in the eighth, leading to a climactic confrontation in the ninth. Trailing by just a run, Cuba loaded the bases on a single and two consecutive walks; the second walk came on a controversial call that led to the ejection of South Korea’s catcher Kang Min-ho.

With only one out, South Korean manager Kim Kyung-moon called for Chong Tae-Hyon to face Yuliesky Gourriel. Chong induced a 6-4-3 double play, and the game was over. Exuberantly, the South Korean team surged onto the mound, where they threw manager Kim in the air before their victory lap around the ballpark.

Because of Major League Baseball’s refusal to allow its players to participate in the Olympics, this will be the last year for baseball and softball (tarred with the same brush, though it lacks a comparable pro league) until at least 2016. With MLB unlikely to back down on its refusal to alter the season schedule once every four years, this element of the equation is not going to change. (Even though, in spite of this supposed talent deficit, the U.S. still managed to beat Japan for the baseball bronze yesterday).

But with South Korea showing that Cuba and the U.S. aren’t the only places where baseball is played right, along with Japan’s amazing upset of the U.S. team in softball, the USOC might change its tune. With so many American sports—basketball, golf, as well as baseball—looking Eastward for new talent, perhaps the Olympic committee might decide that the participation of U.S. players doesn’t exclude the best players in the world.

South Korea sure went a long way towards proving that notion right.

Since returning from a month-long stay on the disabled list, Toronto’s Shaun Marcum has struggled.  On Saturday, the Blue Jays looked to fix the problem by sending Marcum to Triple-A Syracuse.

This season, Marcum has been two different pitchers.  Before his injury, the 26-year-old went 5-4 with a 2.65 ERA in 15 starts.  A right elbow injury sidelined Marcum after a start on June 18 and he missed just over a month of action.  Since his return, Marcum is 3-2 with a 6.19 ERA in seven starts.

While Marcum works on finding his groove, the Blue Jays recalled left-handed pitcher John Parrish to fill his spot in the rotation.  Parrish has made seven appearances with the Major League club this season including four starts.  He is 1-0 with a 4.05 ERA.

—–

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Geoff Jenkins went down in Friday night’s game against the Dodgers and on Saturday was placed on the 15-day disabled list.  The Phillies filled his roster spot with infielder Andy Tracy from Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Jenkins strained his hip beating out a grounder for an infield single in the third inning. 

Tracy was recalled to reload the Phillies with a left-handed bat which they lost due to Jenkins’ injury.  At Lehigh Valley, Tracy hit .288 with 21 home runs and 84 RBI in 120 games.  Tracy, 34, has not played in the Majors since a late season call-up as a Colorado Rockie in 2004.  In 136 Major League games, Tracy is hitting .224 with 13 home runs and 41 RBI.

—–

Here’s a quick rundown of the other returns and activations on Saturday:

• The New York Yankees activated pitcher Carl Pavano from the 60-day disabled list on Saturday.  Pavano was entered into the rotation to make the start against the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates recalled Tom Gorzelanny from Triple-A Indianapolis and activated closer Matt Capps from the 15-day disabled list on Saturday. 
• After missing 39 games, the Atlanta Braves activated reliever Manny Acosta from the disabled list.

Most non-Phillies fans may only vaguely recognize the name. That’s because this catcher hasn’t done much at the Major League level. In nearly 700 career at-bats, he has a OBP/SLG line of .330/.362 (77 OPS+). This season, he has a .321 OBP/.292 SLG. The average MLB catcher has a .330 OBP and .391 SLG, which means that Ruiz is more than 100 points of OPS behind a league-average offensive catcher!

Despite Ruiz, the Phillies still have a MLB rank of 19 in catcher OPS (.697), but that’s only because of Chris Coste (.332 OBP/.469 SLG). Coste is 15th among all catchers in VORP.

69 catchers have had at least 50 plate appearances at the Major League level this season. Ruiz comes in at #61 in VORP (-6.0). The only catchers who are worse and had a comparable amount of plate appearances are Jose Molina, Paul Bako, and Kenji Johjima.

“But Bill,” you call, “Catchers aren’t there just for their offense. Defense and their ability to handle a pitching staff and call a game are arguably more important.”

That is absolutely a valid point. Unfortunately, there’s no great way to measure a catcher’s ability to handle a pitching staff and call a game. There is a statistic called “Catcher ERA” which is basically the ERA of the pitchers when a specific catcher is behind the plate. It’s not a great indicator of an ability to call a game because catchers on teams with bad pitching will naturally be slighted by it.

Regardless, Ruiz has a CERA of 3.90 according to The Hardball Times. If he had enough defensive innings to qualify, that would tie for eighth in the Majors. Not bad, but the Phillies’ pitching staff has been decent and Coste’s CERA is 3.91.

In terms of throwing out runners, Ruiz is near the bottom at 19.7%. If he had enough defensive innings to qualify, that would rank 14th out of 18. However, according to Chris Dial’s DRS, Ruiz’s overall defense is second-best in the National League behind only Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves. The metric says that Ruiz is worth an additional 0.7 runs defensively (about one-tenth of a win).

Counting both offense and defense, where does Ruiz rank? Out of 29 MLB catchers with 250 or more plate appearances this season, Ruiz ranks 27th at 2.3 Wins Above Replacement Player. Only Yorvit Torrealba (1.9) and Paul Bako (1.6) are worse.

What can the Phillies do to get more production out of the catching position? The obvious answer is simply to give Chris Coste more playing time, as they currently have about an even split in at-bats, Ruiz’s 250 to Coste’s 224. Coste is slightly above-average both offensively and defensively (0.2 in Dial’s DRS), so more playing time would really boost the offense without hampering the defense.

With the trading deadline long gone and David Ross recently signed by the Boston Red Sox, the Phillies aren’t going to be able to look outside the organization until after the season is over. As September 1 nears (when MLB rosters expand), they can look at their two catching prospects: Jason Jaramillo (AAA) and Lou Marson (AA). Last November, Baseball America ranked them as the Phillies’ 10th- and 8th-best prospects, respectively.

Jaramillo may provide a slight offensive boost over Ruiz but it wouldn’t be that significant. He only has a .701 OPS for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, and we wouldn’t expect that number to go up immediately at the MLB level. His walk rate is down 2.5% from last season but his isolated power (ISO) is up 20 points from .090 to .110. Jaramillo’s defense has always been highly-touted, and it’s shown in his 36.1 CS%.

Marson doesn’t have quite as much power as Jaramillo but appears to be much more adept overall as a hitter. He has an .857 OPS in AA currently and that includes a .434 OBP. His walk rate has jumped from 12.3% in 2006 and 11.7% in ‘07 to 17.0% in ‘08. Like Jaramillo, Marson has also thrown out more than 36% of base-stealers.

Marson would appear to be the Phillies’ best bet for a significant upgrade at catcher, but he’s only in AA and the lower you go in the Minor Leagues, the less accurate your predictions and projections will be. No one really knows if his AA numbers will translate well in the Majors, but his walk rate and ISO (.109, .120, .104 from ‘06-08) are appealing.

Ruiz, meanwhile, is on a bit of a hot streak, as he’s 6 for his last 20 with a .917 OPS. In that span, he’s raised his OPS seven points, from .606 to .613! The Phillies are getting out the congratulatory balloons and streamers. And Chris Coste wonders what more he has to do to get a little respect.

…Congratulations to Team USA who beat Japan to claim the Bronze Medal at the Olympics in Beijing. The USA put on a power display hitting three home runs to power the attack, with the final score of 8-4. And thus ends Baseball’s run in the Olympics, IOC president Jacques Rogge was there for the game and unless the US starts sending it’s top baseball players - it might be a while before Baseball returns to Olympic play.

Here’s what US Manager Davey Johnson had to say.

“Baseball in the United States is a huge business. And unless they find a way to have a couple weeks’ break, I don’t see them letting their best players leave,” he said, drawing perspective from 13 years as a player and 14 as a manager in the majors.

“You might take two or three players from a club and they may not win the pennant. They may lose the pennant because of it. I’d love to see big-league players in the Olympics, but I don’t see that happening in the near future.”

Major League Baseball isn’t the NHL (so maybe we can blame Gary Bettman) where they can shut down the league for two weeks and send the best players. The IBF is going try and petition for the 2016 games, but even that sounds like a pipe dream at this point.

…According to Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez is opting to have surgery on this big toe to remove a bunion. This maybe the end of the line for El Duque as it’ll take almost a full season for it to heal, and he may opt to retire.

…The Atlanta Braves have signed pitcher Rodrigo Lopez to a Minor League Deal. He last pitched for the Colorado Rockies before having Tommy John Surgery and to repair a torn flexor tendon. He has a 2009 option in his contract and will be invited to Spring Training.

…Everyone’s second favorite Stienbrenner (Hank) says that he expects Joba Chamberlain to return to the mound before the end of the season. Though he’s not sure if it should be in the bullpen or the starting rotation.

“I don’t know yet,” Steinbrenner said Friday night at the Yankees’ spring training complex. “It’s up to [manager Joe] Girardi and [pitching coach Dave] Eiland, how they want to do it. They know what they’re doing, and the doctors obviously know.”

…What’s a Short Hops, without talking about looming instant replay. The Players and Owners are close to reaching an agreement regarding instant replay now that the World Umpires Association is on board. The announcement on the start of instant replay could come as early as next week according to ESPN.com.