Looking back at the beginning of the 2024 season, Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung, who took the helm of Lotte ahead of the last season, said, "I was worried about the damage, although I didn't reveal it." Lotte's batting lineup was weakened as the main players, including Lee Dae-ho's retirement, disappeared one by one, and the team was in crisis as Lotte's batting lineup failed to use its power as expected right after the opening.카지노
It was his trade with LG that shook the mood. At the time, Lotte acquired Son Ho-young, who was talented in hitting but rarely displayed his potential, and enjoyed the game. As Son Ho-young played his part by playing his part with long balls to change the mood, Lotte's batters began to unravel little by little, and as young players' growth created synergies, the batters started to rebound. Opening the door was so important.
Lotte ranked second in the league after KIA (.301) by posting a team batting average of 0.285 last year, while its on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) also ranked second in the league after KIA (.828). Three teams, Kia, LG and Lotte, scored more than 800 points last year, are expected to have at least fewer problems in offense this year. This is because the players who grew up last year were holding on. But again, the expectation was wrong.
Lotte had only one win and three losses in its first four games of this season. Of course, the mound has nothing to say, but the biggest problem was its offense. In the first four games of this season, Lotte only posted a team batting average of 0.226. Of course, Hanwha is the only team that has posted a batting average lower than Lotte in the league, although the performance is still in four games. As of now, the team has not had any homeruns yet. He has no slugging and on-baseball is not necessarily active, and he has hit eight double plays. This is a frustrating trend of offense.
Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung stresses that since the season is about to begin, we need to find a breakthrough somehow. "I don't know if players' batting performance has increased 100 percent or not, but we need to get rid of them. How can we win if we keep failing to meet a good pitcher," Kim said ahead of the match against Incheon SSG on Saturday. "Someone has to hit it anyway. If they don't fit now, they come to fight because they don't have any experience yet." He means that there needs to be a troubleshooter.
It would be great if all nine players in the starting lineup hit well, but that is not a prerequisite for a team to win. Sometimes, if only three to four players out of the nine hit well and unite well, the team can win a game. However, the team is experiencing excessive difficulties this year. Only Information Geun (batting average 0.400) and Jeon Min-jae (.333) have high batting average, while all others have low batting average between 10 and 20 percent.
With a batting average of 0.091, Ko was excluded from the list of players in the main league on Wednesday due to side injury. Hwang Sung-bin (.182), Na Seung-yeop (.188), Yoo Kang-nam (.200), Yoon Dong-hee (.214), and Son Ho-young (.250) are all below 30%. However, he did not necessarily show a slugging performance. Worse yet, even foreign batter Victor Reyes, who hit 200 hits last year, has shown sluggish performance. Reyes only hit .250 in four games, and his OPS has also fallen to 0.607.
As such, the main hitters are showing a group of difficulties, and the breakthrough is not well seen. It is clear that even if the runner goes out, he cannot be called in. Lotte, which barely registered its first win of this season by winning the game 3-2 after a close game in the 11th inning of overtime on Saturday, lost 1-3 on Sunday. The number of hits was seven, which was the same for both teams, but Lotte cried due to three double plays on the day. Reyes (4th inning), Son Ho-young (6th inning) and Jeon Min-jae (7th inning) had double plays at every critical moment, dampening the mood of the team.
There is still no right way to strengthen the team's strength without heroes appearing. There is no clear player from the second division, and it is burdensome to make another trade like last year. We can only hope that the existing main players will revive. Given the abilities of the players, that point will surely come. However, if it is too late, it will have difficulty managing the margin of victory or defeat at the beginning of the season, which bothers the team for the entire season. It was just like last year. Attention is focusing on whether there will be a savior who will save the team with a cool blow.