Choo collected 4 hits in a game, is he still a bust?

Out of the four major sports in the U.S., the baseball boasts about the biggest number of "Free-Agent (FA) busts." The representative image of Korean major leaguers to the Texas Rangers’ fans probably is an FA bust. Park Chan-ho and Choo Shin-soo are the very cases. Both signed a long term FA contract to join the Texas Rangers team. Park struck a 5-year term contract for 65 million U.S. dollars in 2001 but showed poor performance from 2002, the first year of the contract. In 2005, Park was traded to the San Diego Padres even during the season due to the sluggish performance. He was 22-23 with a 5.79 ERA with the Texas Rangers.

Choo signed a jack-pot contract that exceeds Park’s. Thanks to high on-base percentage recognized, Choo got a 130 million-dollar contract to play seven years at Texas. Choo’s poor performance evokes stronger criticism as the team has fallen down to the bottom of the league. However, Choo may be different from Park. Sufficient chances to restore his reputation await him.

Scott Boras, a sports agent who brought jack-pot contracts to Choo and Park, struck a 7 year 126 million-dollar deal in 2010 between the Washington Nationals and Jayson Richard Werth, whose batting average never been over 0.3 during the past eight years. Criticism poured out from the baseball fans calling the contract "stupid." Werth’s poor stat in 2011, .232 batting average with 20 home runs, 58 RBIs and 69 scores, put the head of the Washington Nationals in an embarrassing position. However, Werth showed great performance last season with .318 batting average, 25 home runs and 82 RBIs, which quelled the "bust" criticism. With hitting stat of .282 batting average, 12 home runs and 63 RBIs this year, Werth contributes greatly to push the team onto the top of the National League East and enjoys Washington fans’ love.

Meanwhile, Choo had four hits in five at-bats with Houston on Saturday, recording more than three hits a game in 43 days. Choo’s hit on his fifth at bat in the ninth inning was his 100th in the season and 1,000th career hit since his debut in the Major League.