Lee Batting 0.281 in Second Division

“Now I would like to step up…”

He’s feeling anxious. It’s been 18 days in 2nd Division already and no teams have called on him. When will Chiba Lotte Marlin Lee Seung-yup (28) rise back up to the First Division?

The days in the Second Division are dragging longer than the first estimated 10 days. With growing anxiousness, Lee commented in a interview with field correspondents that “I’m about to get tired with life in the Second Division.”

Chiba Lotte’s head coach Bobby Valentine has taken a close look to check Lee’s condition in the Eastern league (2nd) match up of Chiba Lotte against the Lions held in the Seibu Dome stadium on the 25th and the 26th. But the only advice that he gave to Lee after the game was to play more aggressively and hasn’t informed given him permission to come back as of yet.

Lee Dong-hoon, who is in charge of Lee’s translation, relayed a message saying, “Lee is saying that it is about time he stepped up after his stint in the Second Division, and he is growing anxious.”

Lee Seung-yup participated in 10 games in Second Division play starting from the 11th to the 26th, and recorded a batting average of .281 (9 hits at 32 at bat) with 2 homeruns and 10 runs scored. The record isn’t as impressive as it seems. And at the match on the 25th, which coach Valentine watched over, Lee looked commonplace as he recorded 1 hit in 4 at bats and on the 26th, 1 hit in 3 at bats.

But it doesn’t look too pretty to leave an annual 2,200 million won player too long in the Second Division. Even First Division foreign pitcher Serafini has displayed an unsatisfactory performance with no wins in 12 games and an average ERA of 3.12.

Lotte starts a five-game series on the road on the 29th. Field organizations expect that after wrapping up the series, the first home game against the Kintetsu Buffalos on the June 4 will be the comeback stage for Lee Seung-yup.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com