Kab-yong Jin

Kab-Yong Jin (진갑용)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 198 lb.

• School Korea University
• High School Busan High School

• Born May 8, 1974 in Busan South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Catcher Kab-Yong Jin of the Samsung Lions has played for South Korea in the 1994 Baseball World Cup, 1994 Asian Games, 1995 Asian Championship, 1995 Intercontinental Cup, 1996 Olympics, 1998 Asian Games and 2006 World Baseball Classic.

Jin batted .389/.500/.556 while splitting catching duties with Ki-moon Choi for the Silver Medalist South Koreans in the 1994 World Cup. In the 1995 Intercontinental Cup, he was just 3 for 19 with a walk and a homer but did throw out five of six attempted base-stealers.

In the 1996 Olympics, Jin hit .346/?/.500 with 3 runs and 3 RBI for a Korean team that struggled to a 1-6 finish. Jin debuted professionally in 1997 with the OB Bears and hit .242/.306/.310 in 95 games. In 1998, he batted .269/.306/.356. Going to the Samsung Lions in a trade in July of 1999, he only put up a .212/.308/.265 line in 68 contests. The next season, the 26-year-old backstop batted .273/.333/.401 as he started to make an impression and he hit three homers on July 6.

In 2001, Jin batted .306/.361/.465 as he continued to develop into a star; his OBP was third in the Korea Baseball Organization. He produced at a .281/.347/.465 clip in 2002 with 29 doubles, 18 homers and 86 RBI. He was 8th in the KBO in RBI.

Kab-Yong hit .290/.356/.490 with 21 home runs for the 2003 Lions. On April 18, he hammered a grand slam and he added a walk-off home run on August 19. He played for South Korea in the 2003 Asian Championship, when they finished a disappointing third. In 2004, Jin batted .278/.344/.487 with a career-high 24 homers. He was 5th in the KBO in circuit clouts and 9th in slugging.

During the 2005 season, Jin had a sudden decline in power production, only hitting 6 home runs. He hit .288/.365/.389 as the rest of his game remained intact. In the 2006 World Baseball Classic, he was just 1 for 11 with three strikeouts as one of the least productive hitters on the successful South Korean entry. His 2006 line was basically the same as 2005 - .288/.343/.399 with 6 HR. He finished 10th in the KBO in average. On August 17, he hit his 100th career homer

Through 2006, his career batting line was .277/.342/.422 in 1,062 games. He has hit 100 HR in 3,342 AB and driven in 472 runs.

Jin hit a disappointing .246/.344/.320 in 2007 with only 62 runs produced in 122 games. In the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, he batted .235/.333/.353 as South Korea's starting catcher and threw out both runners who tried to steal against him as South Korea clinched a return to the Olympics after a hiatus in 2004. In the 2008 Olympics, Jin backed up Min-ho Kang and went 1 for 10 with a walk.

Sources: Worldbaseballclassic.com, Samsung Lions website, Korean wikipedia for school history, 1997 Baseball Almanac, 2008 Olympics