Yomiuri Giants 9, KIA Tigers 4

Lee Seung-yeop meets 2009 KBO MVP Kim Sang-hyeon. "You guys won the Korean Series? Seriously? No effing way."

What, exactly, is it going to take for Korea to win one of these effing club championships? It's gotten increasingly more frustrating the longer I live in Korea.

The best news that came out of this weekend was that next year the 4-club Asian Series should return! I really dug the Asian Series and thought that it made for a fun weekend, even if it was promoted terribly. Supposedly, next year's tourney will take place in Taiwan. I'm all for Japan not getting home field advantage for one of these tournaments. They've had home field advantage for both WBCs and all of the Asian Series. Enough is enough. Hopefully, the KBO will finally get funding for a dome or two and be able to host an Asian Series in November or a WBC in March.

On to a quick recap...

HT to the Japan Times for a much better recap than the Korea Times offered. Hey, if the English language press in Korea were remotely competent, I wouldn't need to blog.


Yang Hyeong-jong about to unload on an unsuspecting Japanese hitter. Just because he wears glasses doesn't mean he sucks.

KIA actually held a 3-1 lead heading into the 7th, but the KIA bullpen collapsed and surrendered 7 runs(!) to the Giants. Yang Hyeon-jong got the start for KIA and looked solid. Yang threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings. Yang gave up only 3 hits and 1 walk while striking out 6 before he was lifted. Relievers Kwak Jeong-cheol and Jeong Yong-woon allowed all the damage during the 7th inning. I guess KIA forgot to bring their bullpen on the trip. We couldn't bring in Yoon Seok-min for a batter or two? Yoo Dong-hoon was unavailable? What better way to send SK another great big "EFF YOU" than to succeed where they failed? Whatever. At least the game was over before 5 o'clock.

KIA broke through in the 1st inning on an RBI single from DH Na Ji-wan. KIA added 2 more in the 5th inning on a Na Ji-wan single with the bases loaded. KIA fake rallied their way to a 4th run in the 9th inning on a Lee Hyeon-gon RBI double. Hopefully, the Tigers got to do some sightseeing and/or buy some presents for the kids back home. I guess Na was the only guy that didn't spend all night at a karaoke bar.

Odds and Ends...

This first free agent signing of the 2009/10 off season happened yesterday. KIA catcher Kim Sang-hoon a 1 year deal for 225 million won(about 200k American) to return with the Tigers..

The Korea/Japan Club Championship takes place in Nagasaki on Saturday November 14th at 1 PM Korea time. The KBO champion KIA Tigers will face the NPB champion Yomiuri Giants. I have no idea who is pitching or who will play. It's too bad the Asian Series went belly up. It was cool watching some of the best talent in Asia actually face each other and at least pretend to care. I'm not sure what kind of effort we can expect at this "Club Championship."

It sounds like Lee Beom-ho wants to stay with Hanhwa. I guess the Hanhwa brain trust wants to win 30 games instead of 20.

First Time For Everything: Japan's Playoffs to Feature Two Korean Players

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Lee Seung-yeop of the Yomuiri Giants and Lee Byung-gyu of the Chunichi Dragons will be facing each other in Japan's version of a League Championship Series. This is the first time two Koreans have played against each other in Japan's playoffs.

The numbers on these guys are as follows.

Lee Seung Yeop: .273 BA, 541 AB's, 84 runs, 29 doubles, 30 HR, 74 RBI, .322 OBA, .501 SLG.
Lee Byung Gyu: .261 BA, 478 AB's, 43 runs, 23 doubles, 9 HR, 46 RBI, .295 OBA, .370 SLG

Lee Seung-yeop has been battling injuries all season. First, he hurt his thumb in June and his back has been bothering him to the point that he had to cancel a press conference for treatment this week. This is actually a down year for him.

On the other hand, Lee Byung-gyu has been battling the fact that he is not very good all season. I think this will continue to plague him in the playoffs.