Chan Seung, a former star, stands tall as a role model for a high school student in a year! A 20-year-old young lion, "How" captivated his juniors

*This content was translated by AI.

"Young Lion" Bae Chan-seung (20, Samsung Lions) stood tall as a role model for high school students a year after joining the team.

Bae Chan-seung is a left-hander who joined Samsung as the third overall pick in the first round of the 2025 KBO Rookie Draft after graduating from Daegu Oksan Elementary School, Hyeopseong Kyungbok Middle School, and Daegu High School. Last year, when he was in his debut season, he performed better than expected by playing with 2 wins, 3 losses, 19 holds, an ERA of 3.91 and 57 strikeouts in 50 ⅔ innings in 65 regular season games.

Fans and officials are not the only ones who fell in love with Bae Chan-seung, who overwhelmed the opponent with a fast ball of up to 158 kilometers per hour. It also captured the hearts of young players. Yoo Shin-go's third-year left-hander Park Chan-hee (18) met with Star News and picked Jung Woo-joo (20, Hanwha Eagles) as the young seniors who stole the spotlight last year.

Some high school students have become role models even closer. It is right-hander Lee Ho-beom (19), who was nominated by Samsung as the ninth overall in the first round of the 2026 KBO rookie draft following Bae Chan-seung. Lee Ho-beom also met with reporters at the 2026 Samsung Spring Camp held at Onnason Akama Stadium in Okinawa, Japan on the 19th and said, "I'm going to watch and learn a lot because (Bae) Chan-seung is so good."

Bae Chan-seung has become the envy of high school students, not just because he is fast in arrest. Small-bodied pitchers were on the rise to show better performance even though they were worried every year that it was difficult to succeed. When he was a freshman at Daegu High School, Bae Chan-seung's maximum fastball speed was only 133 kilometers per hour. However, before the start of the second year season, he threw 140km/h and sprayed a 150km fastball in the third year.

In recognition of his explosive growth, he became a member of the youth national team, a rare second-year student. Afterwards, he won the "2023 Futures Star Awards" Star Award and was recognized for his potential, and finally knocked on the professional's door with the third overall. At the time, the Futures Star Awards selection committee said, "Bae Chan-seung is a player with remarkable growth. His skills are steadily improving, and his rotation speed and fastball pitching are good. He has the ball power to overwhelm the batter. This year (2023) is not all. "The restraint or control may be better next year (2024)," he explained.

Bae Chan-seung's success last year became another example of overcoming prejudice. Daegu Samsung Lions Park, Samsung's home stadium, was classified as the best batter-friendly stadium, making it difficult to predict the full-time season for high school rookie pitchers. However, he kept one of the first-team entries until the postseason, and rather clearly imprinted his presence in front of a packed audience. Typical examples were the first round of the postseason NC Dinos and the second round of the semi-playoff against SSG Landers last year. At that time, Bae Chan-seung presented a strikeout show in which four out of five players were struck out.

The young lion, who was confident in front of his seniors, became a role model that he wanted to resemble another baby beast. Like Bae Chan-seung, Lee Ho-beom is also a pitcher whose strength is a fastball vertical movement with a maximum speed of 153km/h. The slider and splitter angles are good, drawing attention as a starting resource in the future, but the player himself was never in a hurry. Lee Ho-beom said, "I don't set a big goal and try to do it one by one. I have a desire to start in the long run, but I want to do well in the bullpen this year. First of all, the goal is to enter the opening entry and survive to the end of the first team. I really want to try double-digit holds like that," he said with a smile.

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*This content was translated by AI.