Rick van den Hurk finishes 2nd in KBO’s Best Pitcher Voting

Dutch right-handed pitcher Rick van den Hurk, who is on the verge of joining reigning NPB champion Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, missed out on winning the Golden Glove Award for the best pitcher in the Korea Baseball Organisation (KBO). He finished in second place behind Andy Van Hekken, who became the first foreign winner since Aquilino Lopez in 2009. The former pitcher of the Detroit Tigers won 20 games, struck out 178 and had an ERA of 3.51. Van den Hurk, who won the championship with the Samsung Lions for a second consecutive season, had led the league with an ERA of 3.18, but received only 34 votes compared to 278 by the winner. The Golden Glove Award for pitchers is the equivalent to MLB’s Cy Young Award.