Yun Sung-hwan (

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 let ...

: 윤성환; born October 8, 1981 in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

) is a

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

for the

Samsung Lions The Samsung Lions () are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982. They are based in the southeastern city of Daegu and are members of the KBO League. Their home stadium is Daegu Samsung Lions Park. They have won the Korean Champ ...

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 ...

. His nickname is ''Yun Taeja'' (Crown Prince Yun), for being the best pitcher that

Sun Dong-yol Sun Dong-yol (; or ; born January 10, 1963) is a South Korean citizen, South Korean retired baseball pitcher and former Manager (baseball), manager. He was a pitcher in the KBO League and Nippon Professional Baseball, and the former manager ...

has trained.

Amateur career

Upon graduation from Busan Commerce High School in , Yun started his collegiate career at

Dong-eui University Dong-Eui University is one of the leading private universities in Busan, a metropolitan city on the southeastern coast of South Korea. The university has 10 colleges, 116 master and doctoral courses in six graduate schools, with 22,992 students a ...

. He led his team to two consecutive gold medals in the baseball tournament at the

Korean National Sports Festival The Korean National Sports Festival is an annual sports competition held in South Korea. For a full week each October, about 20,000 athletes representing 16 cities and provinces throughout the country compete in about 40 separate sports. The sit ...

in and , and helped his team to win their first national baseball championship as a starter and closer in .

Professional career

Yun was selected by the

in the 2nd round (8th pick, 15th overall) of the KBO Draft. Yun wanted to join the

Lotte Giants The Lotte Giants ( ko, 롯데 자이언츠) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Busan. They are a member of the KBO League. The Lotte Giants are owned by Lotte Corporation, which also owns the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Pro ...

, the team from his hometown, however, head coach

, currently the manager of

saw great potential in Yun and scouted him.

2009

On July 30, , Yun pitched the whole game for the first time in his pro career 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 ...

. He won against all 7 teams on August 5 and became the ace of the

. Yun ranked first among KBO pitchers in total victories with 14 wins in 2009.

2015

After the 2014 season, he broke the record for the best FA contract ever with a four-year, eight billion won contract (4.8 billion won, annual salary 800 million won).

References

External links

Career statistics and player information
from

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KBO ...

Yun Sung-hwan
at Samsung Lions Baseball Club {{DEFAULTSORT:Yun, Sung-hwan 1981 births Living people South Korean baseball players Samsung Lions players KBO League pitchers Baseball players from Busan