K-Sports highlights with Jason Lee

Time for the latest in the world of K-sports, from the FIFA Club World Cup, to team transfers to the latest in the KBO.

We are joined by our sportscaster Jason Lee in the studio who will bring us all the highlights. Hello Jason!

Q1. The FIFA Club World Cup is taking place right now in the United States but it's come to an end for Korea. represented by Ulsan HD how did the games go?

Yes, unfortunately things did not go very well for Ulsan Hyundai FC as they lost all 3 games, most recently to Germany's Borussia Dortmund 1-0 yesterday morning.

To be honest, Jo Hyeon-Woo, who's Korea's National team starting keeper was really the only reason the score wasn't more lop-sided as he really kept the team in it.

Ulsan Hyundai FC already had no chance of advancing to the round of 16 after a 1-0 loss to Mamelodi Sundown FC of South Africa followed by a 4-2 loss to Brazil's Fluminense FC.

It's obviously disappointing that Ulsan finished 0-and-3 for the tournament, but at the same time, these are some pretty good teams and in the end I thought they held their own for the most part but yeah, it would've been nice if they'll could've pulled out a win or even a draw.

Q2. Speaking of the K-League, it seems that Ki Sung-Yueng and FC Seoul are parting ways why is that?

Yes, Ki Sung-Yueng was once one of my favourite Korean players starting off with FC Seoul back in 2006 and also playing for: Celtic, Swansea City, Sunderland, Newcastle United and Mallorca before returning to FC Seoul in 2020.

He's now 36 years old and at that age most normal players have already retired, but K Sung-Yeung feels that he still has some football left in him and wants to contribute to a team.

Unfortunately the way FC Seoul is constructed and with the ambitions they have the 2-sides agreed it would be best for Ki to be moved to another team where he could gain more playing time.

Nothing is final yet, but the Pohang Steelers have been reported to be the most likely destination for him to continue his K-League 1 career.

And by the way if you're not a soccer fan and are unfamiliar with who Ki Sung-Yeung is, he's the husband of Han Hye-Jin, who of course is quite famous as an actress and TV host.

Q3. Speaking of players switching teams, it's not very often that there are trades in the KBO mid-season, but I understand the Twins and Wiz have agreed to a deal ?

Yeah, none of the names involved are household names for casual fans, but I think this is more of a deal about roster management and future outlook.

The deal saw the LG Twins send 24 year old lefty Lim Jun-Hyeong to the KT Wiz for hitter Cheon Seong-Ho and catcher Kim Jun-Tae.

Kim Jun-Tae is probably the most recognizable name in the deal, but I'd say he's probably more of a toss in as we know what he is at 30 years of age and he's more of a back up catcher at this point in his career.

The younger guys in the deal are more speculative pieces with Cheon Seong-Ho being a part time player who's been up and down from the future's league he's kind of been GREAT in the Future's League, but then unimpressive in the KBO so my bet is that someone in the LG Twins organization thinks they can coach him to break out because he's certainly shown potential in the Future's League.

As for what KT is getting, Lim Jun-Hyong has looked great in his 5 games this year all coming in June and I wonder if LG was trying to sell high on him. Lim had an ERA over 5 coming into this season but he's only allowed 1 run in 4-2/3 innings this year so great, but a very small sample size. My understanding is that LG reached out to KT to add a bat, but this looks like then moving Lim while he's hot but I could be wrong and maybe KT turns him into an Ace we'll have to wait and see.

Q4. The Twins give up a reliever I guess it would've been perfect for them if they got former closer Go Woo-Suk back but it looks like he'll be staying in North America a bit longer

Yeah this is sort of another reason I wonder if LG was trying to push out Lim Jun-Hyong if they did get Go Woo-Suk then it would've been a numbers game and the reason they dealt Lim, but that wasn't the case.

Anyways, yeah let's talk about Go Woo-Suk he was the top reliever in the KBO in 2023 and then the LG Twins allowed him to pursue a Major League career as he signed with the San Diego Padres.

Partly through last season, the Padres traded him the Marlins and then earlier this month the Marlins released him sparking speculation that he might return to the Twins in the KBO.

However, Go Woo-Suk has signed on with another Major League team as he has signed on with the Detroit Tigers, who were actually the first team to 50 wins.

Now Go has yet to play in the Major Leagues as he spent his entire time with both San Diego and Miami in the minors and for now that's the expectation with the Tigers is that he'll report to their AAA team, the Toledo Mud Hens.

Most recently Go's ERA was 1.59 with Miami's AAA team the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp although that was a small sample size of just 5-2/3 innings.

If he can stick with Detroit he'll be joining a really good team that actually does need some bullpen help so I think this was a great team for him to join if things were not to work out and he returned to Korea, I'm sure the LG Twins would be VERY Excited.

Q5. Also the KBO's All-Star game is coming up on July 12th I heard the rosters are set and one player broke the record for most votes?

Yes and it wasn't who I would've expected to be honest

Kim Seo-Hyeon, the Hanhwa Eagles closer led all vote getters with 1.7-million votes from fans that broke the previous record of 1.4-million votes for Kia's Yang Hyun-Jong back in 2022.

So why did Kim Seo-Hyeon get so many votes?

He doesn't lead the league in Saves, but he's only 3 behind saves leader Park Yeong-Hyun and he's got the best ERA among the top closers.

That along with the fact that he was the first overall pick in the 2023 draft and is having a bit of a breakout party this year and of course the big one is also that he plays for the Hanhwa Eagles who will be hosting the All-Star game this year so you know their fans have been passionately filling the ballot box as well.

Q6. With All-Star teams, there are always players who deserve to be on the team but end up missing out are there any notable snubs this year?

I think for the most part the most deserving players are in the starting line up, but if I were to highlight a few players deserving the first name that comes to mind would be Samsung's centerfielder Kim Seong-Yoon, who is leading the league with a.354 batting average and a.932 OPS, which is good for 4th I mean you could argue he's having a better season than his own teammate Koo Ja-wook who has been voted in, but obviously Koo has been an All-Star mainstay and is largely regarded as the best player on Samsung.

LG's Moon Bo-Gyeong is also putting up All-Star numbers with a.299 average and 13 home runs, but the top 3rd base vote getter for the Nanum team was injured star Kim Do-Young.

He's still out with a hamstring injury so it's probable that Moon will just be the starter in the All-Star game even if he wasn't the top vote getter for the position.

Thank you Jason for all the sports updates, have a great weekend.

Bella, thanks as always, see you next week.