Chan-Ho No. 1 In FA Ranking

What do `the Korean Express` Park Chan-Ho (LA Dodgers), Jason Giambi (Oakland Athletics) and Barry Bonds (San Francisco Giants) have in common?

They are all currently gaining the great fame in the Major League and will be a free agent (FA) after this season.

The first baseman Giambi is slugger who was a MVP in the American League, and Bonds is the power hitter who is running up the leader in the home run race by blasting his 46th arch yesterday.

Park Chan-Ho was selected as the possibly most expensive player among both pitchers and fielders who will be a free agent this winter, exceeding the great players such as Giambi and Bonds.

Park ranked the first place in the top 20 potential free agents which the US`s baseball magazine, `Baseball Weekly` selected.

The Baseball Weekly reported that `` The Dodgers decided last winter to wait to sign him. Big mistake.`` And `` with the free-agent pitching croping down more than the Nasdaq, Park likely will become the richest pitcher, exceeding Mike Hampton`s eight-year, $121 million deal,`` it analyzed.

Considering the pitchers` salaries are relatively lower than the hitters` in the ML, the Baseball Weekly`s evaluation proved again the heightened Park`s status in the ML.

Giambi and Bonds ranked the second and the third respectively, following Park. Besides Park, another pitcher in top 10 is Aaron Sele (Seattle Mariners) who ranked 6th.

Kim Jong-Seok kjs0123@donga.com