Han Ki-Joo

Infobox KBO player
bgcolor1=#E32C26
bgcolor2=#E32C26
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
name=Han Ki-Joo
position=Closer
team=Kia tigers
number=10
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1987|4|29
debutyear=2006
debutdate=April 9
debutteam=Kia Tigers
statyear=2007
stat1label=Win-Loss
stat1value=12-14
stat2label=Saves
stat2value=26
stat3label=Earned run average
stat3value=2.99
stat4label=Strikeouts
stat4value=144
teams=
*Kia Tigers (by|2006–present)
Maximum ballspeed=159km/h (recorded in May 2008 at Gwangju Mudeung Ballpark)

Infobox Korean name
hangul=한기주
hanja= 韓基周
rr=Han Giju
mr=Han Kiju

Han Ki-Joo (Hangul: 한기주, Hanja: 韓基周) (born April 29, 1987 in Gwangju, South Korea), also known as 불기주(FIRE Ki-Joo, originates from his extremely poor pitching at the 2008 Olympic games, which led to people commenting that he was lighting fires that had previously been put out), is a right-handed relief pitcher who plays for the Kia Tigers in Korean professional baseball league.

Amateur career

Han attended Dongsung High School in Gwangju, South Korea. In 2004, he was selected for the South Korea national junior team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 World Junior Baseball Championship in Taiwan. Han, the youngest player on the South Korean team roster, pitched 7 shutout innings, struck out 12, and allowed only 3 hits to win over Australia in the round-robin.

In 2005, he was selected for the national junior team again, along with Kim Kwang-Hyun and Ryu Hyun-Jin, and participated in the 6th Asian Junior Baseball Championship held in Seoul, South Korea. However, his performance was very disappointing, pitching to a 6.28 ERA in 3 games (1 start).

Notable international careers

Professional career

Han debuted with the 2006 Kia Tigers and finished with 11-10, a 3.26 ERA, and 78 strikeouts in 44 games. As a rookie starter, he had a fine season, but his stats were underrated by the ones of Ryu Hyun-Jin who became the only player in KBO history to win both the Rookie of The Year award and the MVP award in the same season.

After the season, Han made a transition to the bullpen, filling a void as Kia's closer down the stretch.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics Baseball tournament, Han earned the unfortunate notoriety of being a "choker", "suspense writer", and subject to many other unflattering nicknames due to his failure to close out games in the late innings. Usually a solid closer for his Pro team, Han blew the lead in the 9th inning of the game against the United States, then proceeded to make things interesting once again against Japan a few days later before being yanked with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Han was given yet another chance against Chinese Taipei, which he also subsequently failed to close. Fortunately for Han, Korea won all of the aforementioned games en route to winning the Gold Medal with a perfect record, although Han was not given the chance to pitch again in the tournament after the game against Chinese Taipei.

Notable international careers

References

* [http://www.koreabaseball.com/record/player.asp?player_id=76610 Profile and stats on the KBO official website]