Dong-soo Lee

Dong-soo Lee (이동수)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 220 lb.

• High School Daegu High School

• Born March 24, 1973 in Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Dong-soo Lee is a former KBO Rookie of the Year.

Lee debuted with the 1994 Samsung Lions, going 3 for 14 with a walk, homer and 7 strikeouts. When Han-soo Kim served his military duty, Lee became the starter at third base in 1995. He had a big year, hitting .288/.368/.500 with 22 homers and 81 RBI. He was among the league leaders in runs (70, 8th), home runs (tied for second with Jong-hoon Chang), 3 behind Sang-ho Kim), RBI (4th, between Jun-hyuk Yang and Chang) and HBP (20, 2nd). He won the KBO Rookie of the Year; among those he beat out was teammate Seung-yeop Lee, who would go on to be the KBO's biggest star of the era.

When Han-soo Kim returned, Lee struggled with his defense at third; with Seung-yeop Lee at 1B and Man-soo Lee at DH, there were few options for him. He hit .266/.351/.436 as a solid bench player in 1996. He was traded during 1997 to the Lotte Giants for Seok-jin Park. He hit .156/.214/.198 with one homer in a rough 37 games that year. During 1998, he was again traded, this time to the Ssangbangwool Raiders for Kye-won Park. Between the teams, he batted .247/.341/.435 in a bounce-back season. He had a full season with the Raiders in 1999 and posted a .320/.431/.595 batting line with 19 HR and 68 RBI in 86 games. He had the best OPS on the team; despite not being an everyday player, he was 4th in the loop with 14 times plunked.

As a DH/3B in 2000, he batted .259/.374/.505 with 14 homers for the team, which had become the SK Wyverns. He was traded during 2001 to the KIA Tigers; he continued to show good pop, with 15 homers in 241 at-bats; he hit .274/.395/.515 overall. He fell to .229/.339/.250 in 56 plate appearances in 2002 and was 10-for-52 with a double and six walks in 2003, split between KIA and the Doosan Bears as the Tigers traded him to there for Won-seop Kim. He had batted .269/.367/.471 in 674 KBO games, with 89 homers, never having 100 games in a season after his Rookie of the Year performance; given his solid rate stats many years, it would be wrong to call him a one-year wonder, though.

He later was a Daegu Broadcasting sports announcer and coached in the minors for the Wyverns from 2016 to 2017.