Choi Hee-seop Aims ML Full Time Playing-25 HRs

Choi Hee-seop greeted the New Year at Namhae Kyungnam.

This is the second time that he hailed the New Year at Namhae Ball Park since last year. He prays to have a wonderful year as he sees the rising sun standing at the shore of the sea in the early morning.

There were a lot of inconvenient things last year. He had seized the opportunity of full time major league play only five years after he advanced to USA, but after his sudden injury everything has changed. It was his moment when his value was raised by getting picked as Rookie of April. After he has wounded in the head at the match against the New York Yankees on June 8, he fell into the slump. He wandered the minor league for the bottom half of the season and in the end he got traded to the Florida Marlins, the World Series Champion team at the stove league.

“I felt really sorry when I left Cubs but now I take it positively thinking this trade is a new chance for me. I will play whole games next year.”

His nick name is Big Choi. Manger Dusty Baker of his former team, the Chicago Cubs, named it when he saw the big player, at 1m95cm and 110kg, at spring camp. He was the biggest man even in the Cubs. Choi Hee-seop got an even better evaluation in the US than Korea during his minor league times for having outstanding batting talent and physical status equivalent to Major Leaguers.

However he is still “untrimmed jewelry.” He went 0.218 (44 hits out of 202 at bats) with eight homeruns and 28 RBIs in 79 games last year. This batting result shows his potential. He cannot be said to be an accurate hitter or outstanding slugger right now, because his weakness to in course balls and curve balls was exposed.

He showed us timidness just like other rookies show. Simple and honest Choi, son of a farmer, cares for others ahead of himself. Choi made an effort to earn base on balls for a team and he always tried team batting last year. He could not manage a full swing that fits his big body.

Now Choi knows well what Florida, his new nest, wants for him. “There are few lefty hitters in Florida. I want to help our team with slugging this year.”

Choi’s goal this season is to play an entire game, get 600 at bats and hit over 20 homeruns. He shows confidence saying “Frankly speaking, I think I can hit 25 homeruns if I play more games.”

Choi, who trains in a winter program at Namhae ball park with Bong Jung-keun of the Altanta Braves and Ryu Je-kuk and Kwon Yun-min of the Chicago Cubs since December 26, is scheduled to go to the US and enter into spring training.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com