*This content was translated by AI.
Samsung Lions left-hander Lee Seung-min (26) expressed hope with an advanced pitch in the team's situation where the injury continues.
Lee Seung-min took the mound as the second pitcher in a practice game against the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Yomiuri Giants at Cellular Stadium in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, on the 28th of last month and pitched perfect pitching by striking out only one inning. He threw a total of 13 balls, including six changeups, five fastball and two curves. The maximum speed was 143 kilometers per hour, and the speed of the change-up was around 125 kilometers.
The batters he faced on the day were tricky. Lee Seung-min faced the Yomiuri Cleanup trio, two of whom were from the U.S. Major League Baseball (ML). No. 3 hitter Trey Cavidge (29) was a fourth-round rookie draft player in 2015 and played for the Los Angeles Angels and Houston Astros.
The fourth batter Bobby Dalbec (31) is also a third baseman who played mostly for the Boston Red Sox in the fourth round of the 2016 rookie draft. In 2021, he had 25 home runs and 78 RBIs, receiving expectations. No. 5, the only Japanese batter, was also not easy. It was tricky for Hayato Sakamoto (38) who is a Yomiuri franchise star and has 298 home runs and 2,447 hits in his NPB career.
But Lee was brave enough to cook the sluggers with a slow ball. He drew a swing and miss to the first batter, Kevidge, and struck out. Dalbec couldn't even catch Lee Seung-min's changeup with a swing and miss, but he touched the fourth pitch and was withdrawn with a catcher foul fly. Sakamoto was also caught on a ground ball to the first base after five pitches, and the fourth inning ended in an instant.
Lee Seung-min, who met after the game, said, "It's good to control the ball. I pitched aggressively because my control was good, but it worked well. I used a lot of the change-ups I'm practicing while looking at the reactions of the batters, and the process was good," he said. He continued, "I didn't know who the other person was. I knew foreign hitters came out, but I didn't pay much attention. No matter who the batter is, I think I just have to pitch. I usually don't want to see batting order, so I only saw left or right. So there was no pressure," he added.
After graduating from Bonri Elementary School, Gyeongsang Middle School, and Daegu High School, Lee Seung-min joined Samsung in the 35th place in the second round of the 2020 KBO Rookie Draft. Although he did not stand out much until last year, he had the best performance in 62 regular games in the 2025 season with 3 wins, 2 losses, 8 holds, an ERA of 3.78 and 53 strikeouts in 64 ⅓ innings.
This spring camp is also receiving favorable reviews. It was Lee Seung-min who was evaluated as the only one who improved in this spring camp by Choi Il-eon (65), Samsung's first-team pitching coach, who said he was cool about evaluating players.
Coach Choi Il-eon, who recently met with Star News at the spring camp, said, "I'm looking forward to Lee Seung-min the most this year. It seems that they have definitely gotten used to fighting or dealing with batters. He said, "He looks relaxed on the mound and he works hard."
In response, Lee Seung-min said, "I've always prepared the same thing, but I think my mindset has changed a little bit. "I played for a season last year, and I got some room," he said. He said, "I've been thinking of arrest as the first thing, but I don't care now. Now, I think the breaking ball, which I thought was a weakness, is the most important thing. Even when I go back to Korea, I am more concerned about location and change-up than arrest. I will continue to pitch aggressively as I do now because I have power in my fastball," he stressed.
Lee Seung-min is currently roommates with Bae Chan-seung (20), a junior at Daegu High School. There are many things in common, such as being a professional from Daegu High School's ace and having a lot of worries about control.
"I talk a lot with (Bae) Chan-seung," he said. There are a lot of things that I feel and learn from Chanseung. Chan-seung also asked me a lot and said, "There are a lot of things that help each other." He said, "Chan-seung is worried about his control right now, but the ball is fast, so I think it would be good to look at it big and throw it without having to stick to the course." On the contrary, I'm trying to throw more elaborately than Chan-seung because the ball is not fast."
He is a player who has realized the importance of control more deeply than anyone else. Lee Seung-min said, "Honestly, I've never thought that I'm good at controlling my ball myself. I always played a disadvantageous game even when I looked at the ball count. But last year, we always played in an advantageous ball count, so it led to good results," he recalled. "I think control is confidence. If you have confidence on the mound, you can control your ball better. So I'm going to throw it with confidence and pay more attention to my control this year," he added.
Recently, Samsung's mound has been on the verge of injury. While native ace Won Tae-in (26) is uncertain about the opening game due to elbow pain, even foreign pitcher Matt Manning (28) was decided to terminate the contract due to elbow ligament surgery. To make matters worse, Young-gun Lee Ho-sung (22) and first-round rookie Lee Ho-beom (19) also suffered elbow pain, and the right elbow inner ligament surgery (Tommy John Surgery) and three weeks rest were confirmed, respectively, so the mound is devastated.
In such a situation, Lee Seung-min, who is also capable of multi-innings, is emerging as one of the leading starting candidates. In response, Lee Seung-min said, "I don't think I'll watch the inning whether I start or bullpen." I always cared about innings when I started in the past, but the result was not good," he said calmly.
He said, "I just try to focus on every inning. If you pay attention to each inning like that, I think you can throw it long. The biggest goal this year is to play in more games than last year. If I play as a bullpen, I want to play double-digit holds, and my goal is to do better than last year," he said.
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*This content was translated by AI.
