In the baseball world, Lee Jung-hoo (25), Kiwoom Heroes’ main hitter, has been called the most stable card that will give steady results. Such Lee Jung-hoo has been stigmatized as a ‘10% hitter’ as he recorded a batting average of 0.197 (13 hits in 66 at-bats) in 17 games this season.
The reason why Lee Jung-hoo, who has been sluggish recently, is attracting more attention is because of his advancement to the Major League (MLB). Lee Jung-hoo, who announced that he would advance to the big leagues after this season, won first place in batting average (0.349), hits (193), RBIs (113), on-base percentage (0.421), and slugging percentage (0.575) last year and was named MVP of the regular season. He showed off his batting ability by winning 6 gold medals.
Lee Jung-hoo, who announced that he would advance to the US, finished preparations last winter by adjusting his batting form.
In the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), which was held before the opening of the KBO League, Lee Jung-hoo raised expectations by achieving excellent results. He had only one strikeout while performing in the WBC with a batting average of 0.429 (6 hits in 14) and an OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) of 1.071. Lee Jung-hoo’s season was more anticipated.
Lee Jung-hoo also mentioned, “I prepared a lot from winter to achieve a victory that I couldn’t win last year.”
However, the appearance of Lee Jung-hoo after the opening of the KBO League was quite different. Lee Jung-hoo, who started the opening game against the Hanwha Eagles on the 1st with 1 hit in 4 at-bats, did not exceed the opening batting average of 0.250 even once for the season. He fell well short of his career batting average of 0.342 until his last season.
The reason for Lee Jung-hoo’s sluggishness is a change in batting form. However, it is difficult to explain the past WBC performance with a single factor, the change in batting form. Rather, it is a point that raises the need to comprehensively examine the changes in Kiwoom’s hitting line and psychological factors.
First of all, due to the change in the batting line, Lee Jung-hoo is not able to face a good ball. 메이저놀이터
The line-up of the team has changed greatly from the past, when giants such as Yasiel Puig, Kim Ha-seong, and Park Byeong-ho, who hit 21 home runs last year, followed Lee Jeong-hoo. Edison Russell, who supports Lee Jung-hoo, has only one home run this season. Russell has a high batting average of 0.356 (21 hits in 59 at-bats), but it is difficult to see him as a home run hitter. Russell hit only two home runs in 65 games for Kiwoom in 2020.
This is the part where the pitcher feels more burdened with Lee Jung-hoo than the follow-up hitter. As a result, the pitcher plays a game centered on Yoo In-gu against Lee Jung-hoo. If the count is unfavorable, even if you give up a walk, you are not spraying a ball that is good to hit. As if to prove this, Lee Jung-hoo, who got 8 walks in April of last year, stepped on first base 12 times this season with walks.
Due to this change in the batting line, it is possible that Lee Jung-hoo felt more pressure because he was aware that he had to produce more long hits in the batting line.