Lee Jae-hak (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

: 이재학,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

: 李在學; born October 4, 1990, in Daegu,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

) is a starting pitcher playing for the

NC Dinos The NC Dinos ( ko, NC 다이노스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Changwon. They are a member of the KBO League. Since 2019, their home stadium is Changwon NC Park. NC Dinos are owned by video game developer NCSoft Corp ...

of the

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

. He bats and throws right-handed.

Amateur career

Lee attended Daegu High School from 2006 to 2009. In 2008, Lee led the school to its first-ever Phoenix Flag National Championship, the most prestigious national high school competition in South Korea. As a starting pitcher he earned Best Pitcher honors for the tourney as well. Lee helped his team win another major national tournament Blue Dragon Flag National Championship, and finished the 2008 season with a 0.94 ERA in innings pitched. In 2009 Lee posted a 1.35 ERA in innings pitched. Although Daegu High School failed to make the finals in the national tournaments during the 2009 season, his high K/9 rate (10.97) subsequently drew the attention of KBO scouts.

Professional career

In the 2010 KBO Draft, Lee was selected by the

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears ( ko, 두산 베어스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and ...

as the tenth overall pick. Lee made his pro league debut against the

LG Twins LG Corporation (or LG Group) (), formerly Lucky-Goldstar from 1983 to 1995 (Korean: ''Leokki Geumseong''; ), is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is t ...

on June 15, 2010, coming on in relief, and earned his first KBO league win, hurling scoreless innings. Lee struggled with his command through the 2010 season, however, posting a 5.01 ERA in innings pitched as a relief pitcher. Lee was sidelined with elbow injuries during the entire 2011 season. After the season, he was traded to the

in the 2012 KBO

Expansion Draft An expansion draft, in professional sports, occurs when a sports league decides to create one or more new expansion teams or franchises. This occurs mainly in North American sports. One of the ways of stocking the new team or teams is an expansio ...

. In 2012, Lee started his first season with the Dinos in the

Futures League The Toyota Second XI or Futures League is the Australian national second XI cricket competition. Run by Cricket Australia, it is part of its development program and includes the various state and territory second XI teams, from the 2009–10 se ...

. During the 2012 season in the Futures League, he showed enough promise to be placed on the Dinos'

starting rotation R rabbit ears :Indicates a participant in the game who hears things perhaps too well for their own good. A player who becomes nervous or chokes when opposing players or fans yell at or razz them is said to have rabbit ears. Also, an umpire ...

for their inaugural 2013 season, going 15–2 with a 1.55 ERA and 100 strikeouts. Lee spent the Dinos' inaugural 2013 KBO campaign as a solid part of the starting rotation, alongside former

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

pitchers Charlie Shirek, Adam Wilk and

Eric Hacker Eric Lynn Hacker (born March 26, 1983) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. Hacker stands and weighs . He throws right-handed but is a switch hitter. He has also played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pitt ...

. Lee pitched his first complete game, a two-hit

shutout In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

, on July 31, 2013, against the SK Wyverns.

External links

* Korea Baseball Organization career statistics a
Koreabaseball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Jae-hak NC Dinos players Doosan Bears players KBO League pitchers South Korean baseball players Baseball players from Daegu Living people 1990 births Asian Games medalists in baseball Baseball players at the 2014 Asian Games Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea