Zac Petrillo
@zpetrillo
Post Production at ABC. Adjunct at Northeastern. SABR member. Korean baseball book coming soon. If you are into the KBO, let’s be friends.
It’s extremely rare for a young catcher in the KBO to become a regular, but In-seo Heo, hitting .289/.359/.500 with 15 home runs, is doing just that this season. He’s running away with Rookie of the Year and helping the Hanwha offense stay in the playoff race. Really fun player.
Been Gwak continues his Choi Dong-won Award campaign, going six innings, striking out 10, and surrendering no runs in today’s win over Hanwha. Gwak would be only the second Korean given the best pitcher award in the past 10 seasons.
KBO games remain wiped out by the heat wave, but at least Denae Benites and her .889 batting average plays baseball today.
Rakyung Kim gets the ball for New York in the very first WPBL game. Fantastic story for Korean baseball.
Much of Hyun-min Ahn’s sophomore season has been derailed by injuries, but when healthy he’s been excellent. He’s healthy now. Two home runs today as KT moves to .5 games out of first.
A laser by Do-yeong for his league-leading 31st homer of the season, and fourth in the last five games. KIA is suddenly only 3.5 games behind Doosan for third place.
Boston's 4th overall pick, Hyeonah Kim, went 6-for-16 with 6 RBIs in the tournament. She's going to be fun to watch behind the plate in the WPBL.
Both of the South Korean players on WPBL rosters had solid performances at the Women's World Cup. San Francisco's Jua Park hit Korea's first-ever homer in an international tournament and then closed out the final game on the mound.
Old friend Hyun-soo Kim is still raking for his new club. The Wiz stay within striking distance of first place.
Hanwha’s offense has been a blast to watch all season, and now their 19-year-old rookie Jae-won Oh has come alive, batting .447 in July. The Eagle bats are keeping them in the playoff hunt.
Bligh Madris went 3 for 5 with a homer in his second game since signing with SSG. It’s a lost season for the Landers that could use any spark it can get.
The LG Twins have looked mortal for the first time in a season and a half. Today they dropped their sixth in a row and fell to third place. Ju-won Kim (of course) led the way for NC with his ninth three-hit game of the season.
In his 62 innings back from a three-year absence, Woo-jin An leads the KBO in FIP, and is second in both K% and K/9. He’s the best Korean pitcher in the world. Being on the Heroes holds him back, but no understating how excellent this come back has been.
Fun that the State Department is using AI to write their nonsense reports.
Chris Paddack dominated his first KBO. Six innings, seven strike outs, one hit, one runs allowed.
Min-seok Choi lowers his era to 2.19 with another outstanding start for Doosan. The 20-year-old went 6 innings, struck out 6, and gave up no runs. This was his seventh consecutive quality start. Korea desperately needs good young starters and Choi has delivered so far.
A Korean pitcher is poised to win the Choi Dong-won Award (KBO Cy Young) for only the second time since 2017. Been Gwak is the favorite, followed by Min-seok Choi, Adam Oller, and Woo-jin An. (Graphs from KBO Fancy Stats)
Do-yeong Kim is the favorite to take home his second KBO MVP award in two seasons. Here's how he compares with his closest completion, Austin Dean, Ju-won Kim, and Seong-han Park, going into the second half.
I have no idea if Kang will be good in MLB, but I promise he will be very funny. The KBO All-Star Game remains undefeated.
Been Gwak has been awesome as Doosan is suddenly a serious threat again. Gwak has give up one earned run or fewer in seven of his last eight starts. He has 55 Ks over that span. He’s on pace for the best season of his career.
Another two home run game for Baek-ho Kang, this time against the best team in the KBO. Over his last seven games, Kang has 13 hits and six home runs. He’s batting .324 with 23 home runs and 85 RBIs. MLB should get ready for the Baek-ho experience. He’s coming.
Four more hits, including his 21st homer of the season, for Baek-ho Kang. He’s on pace for 37 home runs and 148 RBIs.
With scouts in attendance, Woo-jin An had 11 Ks, gave up one hit and no runs through 5.2 innings.
