Sang-yeop Kim

Sang-yeop Kim (김상엽)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 209 lb.

• High School Daegu High School

• Born May 11, 1970 in Daegu South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Sang-yeop Kim once led the Korea Baseball Organization in strikeouts.

Kim was a first-round pick of the Samsung Lions in 1989 out of high school. He made his KBO debut in 1989; for the year, the rookie was 2-5 with a 4.40 ERA. In 1990, he was 12-6 with 18 saves and a 2.81 ERA, allowing only 114 hits in 160 1/3 IP. He was among the league leaders in games pitched (44, tied for third with Kang-chul Lee), innings pitched (8th), wins (tied for 9th), saves (third) and strikeouts (110, 8th, between Yong-soo Kim and Jin-woo Song).

The Daegu native fell to 6-6 with 7 saves and a 4.72 ERA in 1991, 7th in the league in saves. In 1992, the right-hander was 8-12 with 15 saves, a 4.19 ERA and 71 walks in 144 innings. He tied for third in the KBO in losses and was second in saves, two shy of Jin-woo Song. He also tied Kang-chul Lee for 9th in walks. During 1993, he had a very good campaign (13-6, 8 Sv, 2.58, 170 K in 181 1/3 IP). He was 9th in games pitched (36), tied for 5th in shutouts (3, one shy of the co-leaders), tied Min-chul Chung for 6th in wins, tied Jin-woo Song for 6th in saves and led in strikeouts (6 ahead of the legendary Dong-yol Son).

Sang-yeop faded to 2-2, 4.74 in 7 games in 1994. The next year, he rebounded to go 17-7 with a 2.30 ERA and only 140 hits in 191 2/3 IP. He was among the KBO leaders in victories (tied for second, 3 behind leader Sang-hoon Lee), strikeouts (132, 7th), complete games (9, tied for 3rd) and ERA (4th). In 1996, he again saw limited time (presumably due to injury), working 8 games (3-1, Sv, 3.86).

In his last strong season, Kim was 12-6 with a 3.35 ERA in 1997. He tied for 8th in the league in wins and was 10th in ERA. Continuing his up-and-down pattern, he was 3-3 with a 5.40 ERA in 8 games in 1998. He missed all of 1999, though, then was traded to the LG Twins for Dong-soo Kim. In two years with LG, Kim appeared in just two games, both in 2000; he gave up 12 hits, 6 walks and 8 runs in 6 2/3 IP, losing both contests.

Overall, Kim had gone 78-56 with 49 saves and a 3.39 ERA in 258 KBO outings, with 752 strikeouts, 529 walks and 886 hits in 1,073 2/3 IP. He threw around 93 mph.

After his playing career ended, Kim coached for Yeungnam University from 2002-2010. The Korean Wikipedia lists him as being hired as a coach by the Orix Buffaloes in 2011, working with Chan-ho Park, but this is not confirmed by other sources. He then became a coach for the expansion NC Dinos.

Sources

• KBO
• Korean wikipedia