Miranda of Doosan, a professional baseball player, was selected as the 2021 MVP.
KIA pitcher Eui-ri Lee was honored with the Rookie of the Year award.
Miranda was selected as the best player in the regular season at the KBO Awards held at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Seoul.
115 reporters covering the media from the Korea Baseball Organization and local media companies voted for the MVP and Rookie of the Year award for two days from October 31st to November 1st.
MVPs are awarded from 1st to 5th (1st place 8 points, 2nd place 4 points, 3rd place 3 points, 4th place 2 points, 5th place 1 point), Rookie of the Year award 1st to 3rd place (1st place 5 points, 2nd place) 3 points, 1 point for 3rd place), and the player with the highest score by adding them up was selected as the MVP and Rookie of the Year award winner.
Looking at the MVP voting results released today (29th), Miranda received 588 points, easily beating 2nd place Lee Jung-hoo (Kiwoom) with 329 points.
In third place was Kang Baek-ho (kt) with 320 points.
Miranda is the 8th regular season MVP produced by Doosan, including during his OB career.
Among Doosan foreign pitchers, he was the fourth KBO MVP to win the title, following Daniel Rios in 2007, Dustin Nippert in 2016, and Josh Lindblum in 2019.
He is also the 7th foreign player MVP in history.
The KBO League regular season MVP was won by a foreign player for three consecutive years following Lindblum in 2019 and Mel Rojas Jr. (kt wiz) in 2020.
Miranda appeared in 28 regular season games this year, recording 14-5 with a 2.33 ERA and 225 strikeouts, ranking first in the ERA and strikeout categories.
Miranda drew more attention by changing the legendary record of 223 strikeouts set by the late Hanwha Eagles 2nd team manager Choi Dong-won at the Lotte Giants in 1984 for the first time in 37 years.
Miranda, who had already left the country and could not attend the awards ceremony, said in a video, “I am delighted and grateful to receive the award given to the best player in the KBO league. I feel it is worthwhile to prepare for the season. I want to show a good image at Doosan next year.”
Lee Ui-ri won 417 points in the point system rookie of the year voting, surpassing Lotte’s Choi Jun-yong, who received 368 votes, by 49 votes to become the rookie of the year.
This is the smallest score difference since 2016, when the Rookie of the Year voting was conducted using a point system.
Eui-ri Lee took a seat in the KIA starting lineup this year, posting 4 wins and 5 losses in 19 games and an ERA of 3.61.
I participated in the Tokyo Olympics with the Taegeuk mark.
Lee Eui-ri said, “It’s an honor to receive the once-in-a-lifetime Rookie of the Year award. I am grateful to my parents who raised me, the coaching staff and seniors who taught me deeply. I also greeted (Choi) Jun-yong, who played an active part in the second half of the year, ‘It was really cool’. I want to give it to you,” he said.
It is the first time in 36 years since outfielder Lee Soon-cheol in 1985 that a KIA Tigers player has won the Rookie of the Year title, including when he was in Haitai.
Eui-ri Lee made a new history by being the first Tigers pitcher to receive the Rookie of the Year award.
(Photo = Yonhap News)
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