I was surprised by the depth of the Lotte Giants when I arrived.
It was necessary to secure the widest possible player base. After the second round of the draft and the acquisition of released players, the Giants made three trades to strengthen their roster.
Choi Hang and Son Ho-young are two players who are unstoppable when it comes to hunger, and both have proven to be solid defenders and offensive players.
However, it wasn’t as easy as just having new faces. Free agents such as Noh Jin-hyuk and Yoo Kang-nam were sluggish, and rookies such as Yoon Dong-hee, Kim Min-seok, and Na Seung-yeop were unable to gain momentum. Even the mound was shaky, leading to a second straight sweep by the Samsung Lions and Kiwoom Heroes, and a disastrous six-game sweep in six weeks.
It was time to draw a second card. Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung said beforehand, “I don’t usually think, ‘If we can just hold on here, we’ll be fine.’ It’s better to change the pitcher rather than expecting that,” he said, announcing a more decisive pitching change.
Lotte’s current problem is their lackluster offense, which ranks last in team batting average and OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage). 토토사이트 While their team batting average of 2.463 is not far behind the ninth-place Doosan Bears (2.445), Doosan has 20 team home runs, while Lotte is the only team in the 10-team league with single-digit home runs (7).
As a result, Lotte’s OPS (0.638) is a far cry from Doosan’s (0.728).
The table-setters Kim Min-seok and Yoon Dong-hee are also struggling. As a result, Reyes, who leads the league with a .440 batting average, often bats with runners on second and third. The same goes for Lee Hak-joo (4-for-8, no plate appearances), who is usually placed in the bottom of the batting order.
On Thursday at Gocheok Sky Dome, manager Kim Tae-hyung said, “It’s best to have a fixed batting order. But the situation is not good right now,” he said, “The batting order will be a little different in the future. We’ll change the platoon system to suit left-handed and right-handed pitchers.”
Reyes at No. 3 and Jeon Jun-woo at No. 4 have been more consistent. If the opponent is starting a right-hander, you can move Lee Hak-joo up to the top of the order with Kim Min-seok and give Yoon Dong-hee a comfortable spot in the bottom of the order. If not necessarily a platoon, the team could also utilize Jung In-geun more in place of Yoo Kang-nam, who is in a hitting slump.
Choi Hang and Son Ho-young have already moved up the margins and earned spots in Lotte’s virtually collapsed infield. 파워볼실시간 They’ve made more tangible progress with Lotte than they did with their former teams. It’s possible that the team’s problem is internal and the solution is external. If that’s the case, it’s not out of the question that he’ll make another trade.
Next week’s opponent is the defending champion LG Twins, who also struggled last week with a 1-5 record. It will be interesting to see what the second card is for the struggling ‘mastermind’.