Seung-yeop Lee

From BR Bullpen

Seung-Yeop Lee (The Lion King)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 1", Weight 187 lb.

• High School Kyeongbuk High School

• Born August 18, 1976 in South Korea

Seung-Yeop Lee was one of the most prolific home run hitters in the Korea Baseball Organization. He is currently the firstbaseman for the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Lee hit .394 in the 1994 World Junior Championship with 5 doubles, 2 triples, 3 homers, 13 runs and 10 RBI to help South Korea to its second Gold Medal in the event's history. He somehow was left off of the tournament All-Star team despite finishing among the leaders in every category.

Lee won five MVP awards in the KBO before the age of 29, clobbering 324 homers in his Korean career, good for second on the all-time list behind Jong-Hun Jang. He set the league record with 54 in 1999 and then hit 56 in 2003, setting a new Asian home run record (Tuffy Rhodes, Sadaharu Oh and Alex Cabrera had all hit 55 in Nippon Pro Baseball). Lee led his Samsung Lions to the pennant in 2002 (.323, 89 BB, 47 HR, 123 R, 126 RBI that year) and hit a key 3-run homer off of Sang-Hoon Lee in the finale of the Korean Series. Lee also represented South Korea in the 2000 Olympics.

After his record-breaking 2003 campaign, Seung-Yeop declared his interest in playing in Major League Baseball. He had previously spent spring training with the Chicago Cubs in 2002 and the Florida Marlins in 2003. While he was given a glance by some teams, and offered minor-league contracts, he did not get the guarantee of an MLB job that he was looking for.

Lee opted instead to go to Japan, where he signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines. Lee was a clear bust in 2004, hitting only .240/.328/.450 with 14 homers as the Marines' DH. It looked like the American teams had been wise to pass on Lee. In 2005 Seung-Yeop improved while moving to left field part-time (which he shared with Matt Franco) while remaining at DH primarily. He hit .260/.315/.551 with 30 homers in 117 games. While his OBP was poor for a DH-LF, he was 7th in the Pacific League in slugging, 6th in homers and 8th in RBI. He starred in the Japan Series, going 4 for 4 with 2 doubles, a homer and all 3 Chiba Lotte RBI in the final game. The Marines and Lee split ways after the year, though, due to salary disputes, and he signed with the Yomiuri Giants, still saying he wanted to get a crack at the US majors one day. As he turned 30 during the 2006 season, it was unlikely many major league teams would be interested unless he had a breakthrough year. He did draw quite a bit of international attention preceding the 2006 campaign, and got his first popular exposure in the USA when he hit 5 homers in the first 6 games of the World Baseball Classic, all of which his South Korea team won. In 2006, he had the big year he needed, batting .323/.389/.615 (second in average behind Kosuke Fukudome, third in slugging and tied for 5th in OBP) with 101 runs (4th in the Central League), 30 doubles (tied for 4th), 41 homers (second to Tyrone Woods), 108 RBI (4th) and 322 total bases (4th). He was named by some as a MVP candidate during the year but finished a distant 9th, 4th among position players behind Fukudome, Woods and Tomoaki Kanemoto.

On August 1, 2006, Lee hit his 400th career professional home run. Only Sadaharu Oh and Alex Rodriguez had previously reached that level while in their 20s.

MLB teams were showing the most interest they ever had in Lee but he opted to re-sign with Yomiuri. He struggled in 2007, hitting .254/.312/.453 with 15 HR by July 12 and was demoted to ni-gun Korea Times article on Lee's demotion. Lee bounced back a bit in the final months to finish with a .274/.322/.501 with 30 HR and 84 runs. He tied Takahiro Arai for 7th in the CL in runs, tied for 7th in the CL in doubles (29), was 8th in the league in home runs, 9th in slugging and 4th with 119 strikeouts. Lee was held scoreless in the first-round playoff defeat to the Chunichi Dragons. An inflamed base of his left thumb was cited as one reason for the demotion; the problem had apparently been bothering him for at least three years. He had surgery on his thumb after the season. Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe was highly critical of Lee after the year.

Lee put on another excellent performance in international competition in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, helping South Korea earn a ticket to the 2008 Olympics. Lee hit .478/.500/.870 with 5 runs, 12 RBI, 3 doubles and 2 home runs in 7 games. He was 5th in the competition in average, led in RBI (four ahead of anyone else) and tied Matt Rogelstad, Carlos Valencia, Karim Garcia and Kuo-Hui Lo for second in home runs, one behind Nick Weglarz. He drove in four against Australia, 3 against Germany and 2 against Mexico.

Lee started off 7 for 52 with 2 RBI and no home runs in 2008 and was sent to ni-gun. He joined South Korea for the 2008 Olympics and came up with several key hits despite a .167/.265/.400 batting line; he drove in 6 runs in 8 games. Against the Japanese national team in the semifinals, he broke a 2-2 tie in the 8th with a 2-run homer off of Hitoki Iwase to help South Korea advance to the Gold Medal game. In that contest, he delivered a 2-run first-inning home run against Norberto González that was the big blow in a 3-2 win by Korea as they won Gold.

[edit] KBO Statistics

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	SAC	BB	HBP	SO	GIDP	E	AVG	SLG	OBP
1995	Samsung	121	365	55	104	29	1	13	73	0	9	33	4	54	4	8	0.285	0.477	0.345
1996	Samsung	122	459	57	139	32	6	9	76	4	6	34	5	42	10	5	0.303	0.458	0.354
1997	Samsung	126	517	96	170	37	3	32	114	5	5	49	6	79	10	4	0.329	0.598	0.391
1998	Samsung	126	477	100	146	32	2	38	102	0	8	78	5	97	4	3	0.306	0.621	0.404
1999	Samsung	132	486	128	157	33	2	54	123	10	4	112	12	114	7	0	0.323	0.733	0.458
2000	Samsung	125	454	108	133	33	0	36	95	4	3	80	7	113	5	2	0.293	0.604	0.404
2001	Samsung	127	463	101	128	31	2	39	95	4	3	96	12	130	6	4	0.276	0.605	0.412
2002	Samsung	133	511	123	165	42	2	47	126	1	2	89	15	109	11	4	0.323	0.689	0.436
2003	Samsung	131	479	115	144	23	0	56	144	7	6	101	10	89	11	5	0.301	0.699	0.428
KBO Totals		1143	4211	883	1286	292	18	324	948	35	46	672	76	827	68	35	0.305	0.614	0.410