Taek-keun Lee

Taek-keun Lee (이택근)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 183 lb.

• School Korea University
• High School Bukyeong High School

• Born July 10, 1980 in Busan South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Taek-keun Lee is an outfielder who has hit over .300 every season from 2005-2008 and won a Gold Medal in the 2008 Olympics.

Lee debuted in the Korea Baseball Organization with the 2003 Hyundai Unicorns, hitting .278/~.352/.387 in 212 AB over 101 games. In 2004, he was just 12 for 57 for Hyundai, but he bounced back in 2005 with a .331/~.440/.439 batting line in limited action (139 AB, 71 G). He became a regular in 2006 and batted .322/~.400/.446. He won a Gold Glove as one of the top three outfielders in the league. He won Bronze in the 2006 Asian Games. For the 2007 Unicorns, Lee hit .313/.382/.427 and tied Ho-joon Lee for 8th in the KBO in average.

Lee played for South Korea in the 2007 Asian Championship, going 2 for 7 with a walk, double and time hit by pitch. He drove in one of two South Korean runs in their 4-2 loss to Japan. He again was on the Korean national squad for the 2008 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament, hitting .320/.345/.360 as a CF-DH and South Korea clinched a spot in the 2008 Olympics. He played for the Gold Medal-winning Koreans in the 2008 Olympics, batting .188/.176/.375 as a backup CF-1B-DH. His biggest moment was scoring the winning run against Team USA, beating a throw home from Nate Schierholtz on a sacrifice fly.

Lee hit .317/.398/.470 with 18 steals in 24 tries during the 2008 KBO season, while with the Woori Heroes. He was 7th in the KBO in average and 8th in OBP. In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, he was a backup outfielder for South Korea and saw some action at DH yet still made two errors. At the plate, he was 1 for 6 with two walks and a steal in 7 games for the tourney runner-ups.

Lee had hit .311/.408/.467 with 43 steals in 51 tries and 84 runs in 2009. He finished 8th in the league in average, 9th in OBP and third in steals (behind Dae-hyung Lee and Keun-woo Jeong. He won a Gold Glove in the outfield alongside Hyun-soo Kim and Yong-taek Park, the lone member of the Heroes to be so honored. The Heroes then tried to send him to the LG Twins for two players and 2.5 billion won, but the KBO nixed the trade as the Heroes had been told they could not trade players in large cash deals until their franchise fee was paid. A short while later, he was dealt to the Twins for Byung-woo Kang, Young-bok Park and cash as part of a fire sale that got the Heroes the money they needed to pay their franchise fee.

Sources

• KBO Player page
• IBAF website
• 2008 Olympics
• World Baseball Classic website