Today is New Year's Day, once again I wish you all a happy new year! Today we bring you the content of our Asia Star column - South Korean pitcher Yoo Hyun-jin.
Yoo hyun-jin finished third in this year's U.S. League Yang vote and second in the League of Nations last year, becoming the first Asian pitcher in history to be in the top three consecutive Votes for The Youngs. The pitching skills of the one-handed shift ball and the experience of Nirvana rebirth make Yoo Hyun-jin undoubtedly the top player of this generation of Korean pitchers.
Yoo Hyun-jin
Position: Starting pitcher
Shine Season: 2019 Season (Age 32)
Team: Los Angeles Dodgers
Record: 14 wins, 5 losses, 2.32 ERA, 163 strikeouts, 182.2 pitches
In 2019, Yoo Hyun-jin accepted Dodge's offer quite unexpectedly, apparently holding back a sense of urgency to prove himself. "Liu Fat" did it, and his annual self-blame score rate of 2.32 and the guarantee rate of 1.2 per nine innings were the lowest in the major leagues. He started the All-Star Game for the League of Nations and is the second Asian pitcher since Shigeru Nobu.
Yoo Hyun-jin suffered some injuries in the second half of the season and slipped slightly, pulling down his stats, which left him losing to the ghostly Jacob deGrom in the year-end National League Jan vote. This is also the third time that an Asian pitcher has passed the Ceyon Awards after players such as Japan's Dōbi Shuuku (2013).
This year's good performance has clearly become a turning point in Yoo Hyun-jin's career, and at the end of the 2019 season, Yoo Hyun-jin joined the Toronto Blue Jays with a four-year, 80 million contract, setting a record for a Korean pitcher contract, which was almost unimaginable two years ago.
Born in Incheon Metropolitan City, Yoo Hyun-jin was born right-handed. When he was 10 years old, his father gave him a right-handed baseball glove, which forced him to practice left-handed passing and gradually became a left-handed pitcher. During high school, he attended Dongsan High School, a famous baseball school in South Korea, and was the senior of Choi Ji-wan. At the age of 17, Yoo Hyun vibrated TJ surgery, and the following year he made a strong comeback, losing 22 consecutive innings without points, leading Dong Shan Gao to win the national championship.
In 2005, Yoo Hyun-jin was drafted by KBO Hanwha Eagle, and he quickly adapted to the professional system, winning the pitcher's triple crown in 2006 with 18 wins and 6 defeats, an ERA of 2.23 and 204 attempts, and became the first player in KBO history to win both Best Newcomer and MVP.
In seven KBO seasons from 2006 to 2012, Yoo Hyun-jin played 190 games, winning 98 and losing 52, with an ERA of 2.80 and 1238 strikes in 1269 innings. He was selected as an All-Star 7 times, a triple king 5 times, a 1st ERA scorer 2 times, and a win-and-shooter 1 time, making him the best Korean pitcher in the same period.
At the end of the 2012 season, Yoo Hyun-jin announced his challenge to major leagues, and the Dodgers were delisted with 25.73 million (first in South Korea and fourth in Asia) and signed a six-year, 36 million contract.
Once again, on the West Coast, Yoo Hyun-jin demonstrated exceptional adaptability, with his arsenal of straight balls, cut balls, curved balls, sliding balls and variable speed balls. As a "soft shooter", Liu Xianzhen does not pursue hard to eat opponents, but uses rich ball paths and precise control points to confuse opponents and create weak rolling earth.
In the first two seasons of his career, Yoo Hyun-jin achieved 14 consecutive wins and a 3-character self-defeat rate. He had a hard time getting a home run, leaving opponents with few chances of taking big points from him. If this momentum continues, the Dodgers' signing is clearly a big success. But from this time on, the injury found Yoo Hyun-jin, and the shoulder surgery allowed him to be reimbursed directly in 2015, and then he was shot intermittently in the following years.
In 2018, the 31-year-old Yoo Hyun-jin suffered another groin injury, and this year he started 15 games and had a 1.97 SELF-blame rate. Compared with when he first came to the United States, Yoo Hyun-jin's straight ball speed has dropped a lot, but because his pitching form does not rely on ball speed, the suppression has improved.
It's just that too many injuries have made the Dodgers lose patience with him, and all factors seem to indicate that Yoo Hyun-jin's peak has passed, and he is no longer a long-term option for team building. After the expiration of the 6-year contract, the Dodgers only gave Yoo Hyun-jin a 1-year, 17.9 million qualified offer, which represents the team's attitude: love to stay.
Then Yoo Hyun-jin threw out his career year and won himself a big contract. In 2020, when he came to the pitcher's hell Inc. League East, Yoo Hyun-jin still held, the self-blame rate was 2 words, the three-hit rate was 9.7, and the short shrinkage season brushed out a 3.0 victory contribution value, the first place in the whole team, leading the Blue Jays back to the playoffs.
It may not be accurate to describe Yoo Hyun-jin as a "big instrument late", but it is quite rare for a pitcher to reach the top after the age of 30, let alone a pitcher who has experienced a major injury. From a few years ago on the verge of "deleting files" to picking up the heavy responsibility of ace, Liu Xianzhen has survived the ups and downs of life, and what height he can continue to climb in the future is looking forward to.
Honorable Mention: Daisuke Matsusaka
Shine Season: 2008 Season (27 years old)
Team: Boston Red Sox
Record: 18 wins and 3 losses, 2.90154 three-strikers, 167.2 pitches
In 2007, Matsuzaka, known as the "Heisei Monster", joined the Red Sox with more than 50 million gold and won the championship with the team in the first year. Affected by a brief injury in his second season, he failed to attend full attendance. But in the limited number of appearances he still scored a staggering 18 wins, the second highest in the history of Asian pitchers.
In contrast to Yoo Hyun-jin, Matsusaka is a pitcher with strong three-strike ability and poor ball possession, and his rate of being hit per nine innings this year was only 6.9, the lowest in the league, but the guarantee per nine innings also reached a staggering 5.0. If Matsuzaka can shoot 200 innings according to this efficiency, he is likely to break through 20 wins and compete for that year's Ceyon Award, which will inevitably become the main choice for this list.
After winning the MVP of the World Baseball Classic for the second time in 2009, Matsuzaka's career took a sharp turn for the worse, and he was injured and never played again. This also confirms from a side perspective how valuable Liu Hyun-jin's example is.
What is your message for Asian players struggling in major leagues in 2021? Leave a message to tell us!