Shin-Soo Choo
From BR Bullpen
Shin-Soo Choo
- Bats Left, Throws Left
- Height 5' 11", Weight 178-205 lb.
- High School Pusan High School
- Debut April 21, 2005
- Born July 13, 1982 in Pusan, South Korea
[edit] Biographical Information
Shin-Soo Choo has been in the American major leagues since 2005.
He was named MVP and Best Pitcher in the 1999 and 2000 President's Cup, a Korean high school tournament. Choo was a member of the Korean Junior National Team which won a gold medal at the 2000 Junior World Championship.
Choo was signed out of Korea by scouts Jae Lee and Jim Colborn for the Seattle Mariners in August 2000. He worked his way up the Mariners minor league organization, hitting mostly over .300 with moderate power. He was a minor league All-Star in 2001, 2002, and 2004, and in 2002 was the Mariners Minor League Player of the Year. He had a cup of coffee in the majors in 2005, and was also brought up briefly in 2006 when Jeremy Reed was injured.
As a player on the AAA Tacoma Rainiers, he had with an average over .320 and slugging of approximately .500. He was traded to the Cleveland Indians organization on July 25, 2006. In his first seven games with the Indians, he was hitting .440. He hit .295 for the season for Cleveland that year. In 2007 he appeared in 58 games with the Buffalo Bisons and 6 with the Indians.
In 2008, Choo finally hit his stride. Playing in left and right field in the majors, he amassed 28 doubles and 16 HRs in 317 ABs, finishing with a line of .309/.397/.549, all three of them the best on the Indians. Though he played sporadically at first, he gradually worked his way into the lineup, appearing at both outfield corners and hitting fifth. His power, batting eye, and outfield versatility has made him one of Cleveland's bright young stars, and the best Korean-born hitter in the major leagues.
Choo was the main DH for South Korea in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, usually hitting 5th behind Hyun-soo Kim and Tae-kyun Kim. The lone active major leaguer on the runner-up team, he hit .188/.409/.563 with 5 runs and 4 RBI in 7 games; two of his 3 hits were home runs. He hit a 3-run homer off Carlos Silva in the semifinal win over Venezuela and a solo shot against Hisashi Iwakuma in the 5-3 finale loss to Japan. With the Indians in 2009, he picked up where he left off the previous season, spending the entire season as a regular and as one of the team's best hitters, playing mostly right field. He hit .300 with 20 home runs and 38 doubles, while scoring 87 runs and driving in 86 in 156 games.
Choo was the right fielder for South Korea when they won Gold at the 2010 Asian Games; the Korean government had promised military service exemption if the team won Gold, meaning that Choo would not miss any major league time to military service. His statistics in the majors in 2010 were virtually the same as the previous year's: a .300/.401/.484 batting line in 144 games, with 22 homers and 90 RBI.
On May 2, 2011, Choo was arrested in Sheffield Lake, OH on suspicion of driving under the influence. He was already the sixth major leaguer caught in such circumstances since the start of spring training, prompting calls from fellow players for Major League Baseball to start meting out penalties to future players guilty of such conduct. The arrest affected him, and he struggled at the plate in the season's early months, hitting only .244 through late June. He explained that the source of the problem was "between the ears" as he let criticism for his off-field behavior affect his on-field performance. His trying season took a turn for the worse on June 24th when he was hit by a Jonathan Sanchez fastball on his left thumb, putting him on the disabled list. He was re-activated on August 12th. Choo later explains that a lot of his struggles that year were a result of being the sole Korean player in the major leagues and the star of his country's national team, putting additional pressure on his shoulders. He added that he had received counseling to help him deal with the condition, and he hit much better after returning from the disabled list. He finished the 2011 season with his worst statistics yet since becoming a starter, a batting line of .259/.344/.390 with 8 homers and 36 RBI.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- 20-Home Run Seasons: 2 (2009 & 2010)
