Lee Seung-yeop poised to win his 9th Golden Glove’ to set new record

Will Lee Seung-yeop, nicknamed the “Lion King,” be able to receive his ninth career Golden Glove?

The Korea Baseball Organization announced 43 candidates for the winners of this year’s Golden Glove awards on Sunday. Lee has been enlisted in the designated batter category, and is set to compete for a new record in the history of Korean pro baseball.

As the winner of eighth Golden Gloves in 2012 (seven times as a first baseman, Lee tied for No. 1 with Han Dae-hwa and Yang Joon-hyeok, who had been tying as players who won the honor the most until then.

Han won Golden Glove as a player with the Haitai Tigers and the LG Giants, while Yang received the honor as a player with the Samsung and LG. He overcame last year’s slump this year to achieve a batting average of 0.308, 156 hits, 101 RBIs and 32 homers. Lee is expected to set a new record by beating over Hong Seong-heun of the Doosan Bears and Na Ji-wan of the Kia Tigers, who are competing with him in the designated batter category.