Seung-hwan Oh
From BR Bullpen
Seung-hwan Oh
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 5' 8", Weight 203 lb.
- School Dankook University
Seung-hwan Oh is the closer for the Samsung Lions and holds the Korea Baseball Organization record for saves in a year.
Oh was a superstar hurler in college. In 2004, he won a couple awards for his performance as an amateur.
Seung-hwan debuted professionally in 2005 with the Samsung Lions. He debuted on April 3 against the Lotte Giants, got his first save 24 days later and went on to a fine year, making the All-Star team. He went 10-1 with 16 saves and allowed a miniscule 46 hits in 99 IP. He walked 20, fanned 115 and had a 1.15 ERA. As he had 11 holds, he had what in South Korean baseball circles is called a "triple double" (holds, wins and saves). He led the KBO in winning percentage, was fifth in strikeouts and sixth in saves. In the 2005 Korean Series, Oh pitched 7 scoreless innings, striking out eleven. Oh won both the Korean Series Most Valuable Player Award and Korea Baseball Organization Rookie of the Year award. He almost won the Korea Baseball Organization Most Valuable Player Award too, finishing second in voting to Min-han Sohn.
Seung-hwan was on the South Korean team for the 2006 World Baseball Classic. He pitched three hitless, walkless innings in four games, marred only by a hit batsmen. He saved one game and struck out three and tied Francisco Rodríguez for the most innings without a hit or walk in the tourney.
In his sophomore season, Oh went on to even bigger things. He went 4-3 with 47 saves, breaking the Asian baseball record held by Hitoki Iwase (Nippon Pro Baseball with 46); the old KBO record had been 42. He made another All-Star appearance. His ERA was 1.59 and he walked only 12 (one intentional) in 79 1/3 innings while striking out 109 (9th in the KBO). He gave up just 43 hits and one home run. He finished third in MVP voting behind Hyun-jin Ryu and Dae-ho Lee.
Sources: Korean wikipedia player page, Samsung Lions Player page, 2005 Samsung corporation annual report, pg. 86, World Baseball Classic website
