KBO Top 40 players of all-time

 I recently stumbled across this article where the Korean Baseball Organization put out their list of the Top 40 players of league history (it's the 40th anniversary of the league this year). I know almost nothing about Korean baseball, but I thought the artwork was too well done (regrettably, I haven't been able to find who the artist is to credit them yet), and fit the Showdown cards too well to not make a fun little mini set. 

Defensive stats are non-existent (or at least I wasn't able to find any) so I basically gave them great defense if they won the Gold Glove that season. Although, I learned rather late in the game that the Golden Glove Award in Korea is more equivalent to NPB's Best 9 (best player at each position) rather than the MLB Gold Glove which only awards defense (although we know that's not always true). Anyway, I wasn't too concerned about defense for this mini set, just something to bear in mind. 


I think they turned out really fun and there are a few players with MLB and/or NPB experience so there may be a few familiar names and faces. 

40. Chang-yong Lim - Pitched 6 games for the Cubs in 2013

39. Yong-soo Kim

38. Mets legend - Dae-sung Koo 

This play is legitimately legendary (especially with the commentary at the beginning). Unfortunately, the slide injured him and pretty much ended his career. 

37. Jin-woo Song- all-time KBO wins leader (210) and strikeout leader (2048).

36. Ty Woods. A familiar face from the NPB Super Season set. He first raked in Korea before doing more damage in Japan. 

35. Jung-soo Shim - 5 time KBO champion. 6th on the all-time homer run list

34. Dong-joo Kim

33. Jong-hoon Chang

32. Ki-tai Kim - regarded as KBO's best designated hitter ever

31. Byung-kyu Lee

30. Yong-taik Park - Korea's all-time hit leader with 2,504.




29. Joon-hyuk Yang - Known by the nickname, "Yangshin" (양신, 梁神), or "God, Yang". Which is pretty cool, I guess. 5th on the all-time homer list with 351.

28. Jin-man Park - part of the 2008 Gold Medal winning Olympic team

27. Keun-woo Jeong - the article's headline described him as "the devil's second baseman" and I don't really know why. But pretty dope. 

26. Soon-chul Lee

25. Jun-ho Jeon - KBO's all-time stolen base leader with 550. 

24. Sun-heon Hong

23. Kyung-hwan Park 

22. Jae-hong Park - 1996 was his rookie year and he went 30-30. The first baseball player to ever do so until Mike Trout did as well in 2012. His 1997 was even better, but had to honor his stellar rookie year.  

21. Tae-gyun Kim

20. Gye-hyun Jo

19. Min-tae Jung

18. Min-cheul Jung

17. Kang-Cheol Lee - was briefly the all-time strikeout leader before being surpassed by Jin-woo Song later in that same season. 

16. Jae-bak Kim - nicknamed the "Ground Fox"

15. Dae-hwa Han - 8-time Golden Glove winner (again, best all-around player at his position in a given year) and 5-time champion. 

14. Si-jin Kim

13. Hyo-jo Jang - In 1983 won the batting title as a rookie (first KBO player to achieve that feat), but lost rookie of the year to Jong-hoon Park in what is considered a very controversial decision.

12. Young-soo Bae - 2004 MVP

11. Dustin Nippert - Pitching rather poorly in the Bigs for 6 years (Diamondbacks and Rangers) before finding himself in Korea. 

10. Jeong-tae Park - 5-time Golden Glove winner, most by a second baseman in KBO history.

9. Sang-hoon Lee - Pitched one year (11.2 innings) for the Red Sox in 2000. 

8. Seong-han Kim - 2-time MVP (1st to achieve that and only one of 5 players ever to). 5-time Golden Glove winner and 7-time champion.  

7. In-chun Baek - Won a batting title in 1985 in Japan, he had a very long (19 seasons) and successful career there before coming home to Korea when the KBO started in 1982. His 1982 season is considered legendary (although it was only 71 games and 298 plate appearances) as he hit .412 for the season. 

6. Man-soo Lee- Was on the coaching staff for the White Sox World Series winning team in 2005, so for that alone he's my GOAT (also first Korean coach in the MLB). He was nicknamed "Hulk" and "Babe Ruth of Korea" and retired as the all-time home run leader (since broken several times, he ranks 19th now). 

5. Chul-soon Park - The 2nd player from Korea to sign with a MLB team (Won-kuk Lee was the first) although neither made the Majors. 

4. Seung-yeop Lee - He holds both the single season home run record with 56 and he is the all-time KBO home run leader with 467 career home runs. On top of that, he hit another 159 home runs in the NPB. 646 career dingers in all. 

3. Jong-beom Lee - Nicknamed, "Son of the Wind" for his speed. Also, "Baseball Genius" and the "Korean Ichiro". He has a long list of accomplishments, but that is to be expected in the #3 slot. He batted .393 in 1994 with a league-record 84 stolen bases. 

2. Dong-won Choi - From Wikipedia: "The Blue Jays' scouts went to see Choi six times before signing him to a major league contract reportedly worth around $250,000. Meanwhile, South Korea was in the process of forming its own professional baseball league. When the government discovered Choi was heading to Toronto, it threatened to jail the scouts if they tried to leave the country with the contract.

The Blue Jays planned on bringing Choi to Blue Jays' spring training for the 1983 season, but the government intervened again.

Choi was given a choice: Serve a mandatory military commitment before going to Canada, or pitch in the Korean professional league and have his military service waived. Choi eventually opted for the latter, declaring for the KBO Draft after the 1982 Amateur World Series."

His stats are funny. He has 14+ complete games a season and then a handful of saves a season too. A true iron man. 

1. Dong-yol Sun - Also featured in the NPB Super Season set. Sun was outright dominant for his whole career. I could have easily picked his insane 1986 season where he went 24-6 with a 0.99 ERA and 0.78 WHIP with 19 CGs and 8 shutouts. But I thought this bonkers reliever card would be more fun. 

His WHIP in 1993 was 0.54 and he gave up 3.4 H/9. 

Sun won the pitching triple crown 4 times, 6 Golden Glove awards, MVP 3 times, has the 3 lowest ERA seasons, lowest career ERA (1.20), 3rd all-time in strike outs. recorded the top three lowest single-season ERAs in KBO League history