Winning 20 isn’t common in the Korean league. If Daniel Rios wins tonight when his Doosan Bears take on the Hyundai Unicorns (6:30 SBS Sports in Korea), he’ll be the first in eight years to do it.

The KBO only plays a 132-game season and pitchers rarely exceed 200 innings, yet Rios is set to accomplish the feat with three weeks of games yet to be played. He’s currently 19-5 with a 1.94 ERA.

Rios throws in the low 90s, throws a good slider, and a great changeup, like a Korean-league version of Brandon Webb. Like Webb, Rios keeps the ball down, allowing the best defensive infield in the league to make plays for him. He won’t lead the league in strikeouts, but he’ll get his fair share and he rarely gives up the longball.

Rios has also shown Webb-like durability in his stint in Korea. He’s thrown over 200 innings in each of the past four years, including 213 1/3 in 2007 with three starts left.

Rios is Spanish and was born in Madrid in 1972. He mostly grew up in the states and played for the same University of Miami team as Jorge Fabregas and former catching prospect Charles Johnson.
Rios was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1993 and steadily moved up through the organization as a closer. In 1995 he saved 24 games for the Single A Tampa Yankees, and after finishing 1996 in Columbus, he was a highly touted prospect for the Bombers. Prior to the 1997 season he was named the team’s No. 1 overall pitching prospect by STATS Notebook.

Rios started 1997 in Columbus, but was called up to the Yankees in May, making his major league debut on May 30, 1997, working mop-up in a game against the Red Sox.

It wasn’t pretty. Scott Hatteberg (then a catcher), Will Cordero and Mo Vaughn all took Rios deep during his 1 2/3INN 4H 3ER 2BB 1K debut.

Rios was immediately sent back to Columbus where he pitched well enough to get back to the big club during September call-ups. In his second major league appearance Rios was inserted for none other than Hideki Irabu, who had not surprisingly been hammered for 6ER over 5 1/3 after he’d filled in for Andy Pettitte, who’d left the game after an inning.

Rios inherited a runner, then proceeded to give up five singles over seven batters finishing with a 2/3INN 5H 2ER line.

Rios would join the team in Florida in the spring of 1998, but was placed on waivers in early March. Rios was picked up by the Kansas City Royals and appeared in seven games that year, but the results were much the same as they’d been with the Yankees: 7INN 9H 5ER. Rios spent most of 1998-1999 in Omaha.

Then went from bad to worse. Cut by the Royals, he then joined the Tigers organization as a non-roster invite. They assigned him to an independent minor league team; the Newark Bears. He ended the year in the Mexican League.

But in the Mexican league Rios found success, winning 17 games in half a season. The Mexican league is seen as being just a notch below the quality of play in Korea, so transference between the two leagues in common. Just this year aging Lotte Giant Felix Jose was sent to Mexico in return for another player.

Rios ended up with the Kia Tigers for the 2002 season, where he’s flourished. He’s won at least 10 games in each of his six years, including some years playing for some bad teams (Kia 2002-2003) and (Doosan 2005-2006).

Year Team W-L ERA IP K BB
2002 Kia 14-5 3.14 158 102 68
2003 Kia 10-13 3.82 189 121 90
2004 Kia 17-8 2.87 223 145 95
2005 Doosan 15-12 3.51 205 203 74
2006 Doosan 12-16 2.90 233 204 64
2007 Doosan 19-5 1.94 213 170 70

If Rios wants to leave Korea it will likely be for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan, who, have been wondering aloud why Rios isn’t already playing there.

Of course jumping from the Korean league to MLB isn’t inconceivable. LG Twin Tim Harikkala jetted over to Colorado to make his first major league start in over a decade on Aug. 12 versus the Cubs.

In an interview for an Aug. 2 article in the JoongAng Daily, Rios was quoted as saying, “I always want to go back to the majors. That’s the dream. But eventually you move on, and I’m lucky to be playing baseball. I’ve found a place to keep playing–I’m pretty lucky.”

Korea Beat has three articles translated from the Korean sports pages concerning Rios’s quest.

Update: Rios wins his 20th by a 4-2 margin. Korea Beat has a post with the details, including this link where you can check out a video of the post game celebration/interview.