It is 180 degrees different from a year ago.
KT Kang Baek-ho would hate to think of the 2022 season. During the exhibition game and the regular season, he suffered two major injuries and stumbled. In just 62 games, batting average 0.245, 6 homers, 29 RBIs, 24 runs, OPS 0.683. Moreover, as his sluggishness prolonged from the second half of the 2021 season, he received a lot of concern.
Looking back over the past 1-2 years, Kiwoom Lee Jung-hoo jumped up and Kang Baek-ho seemed to take frequent steps. The two striking geniuses are destined to be compared. On the other hand, Kiwoom Lee Jung-hoo won 5 batting crowns including 2 consecutive batting titles in 2022 and even won the first MVP of his life. He played a big role in the postseason and led the team to runner-up in the Korean Series.
The two hitting geniuses chose to change side by side ahead of the 2023 season. During the Tucson spring camp, Kang Baek-ho said he would move his hitting point back this season so that he would be less fooled by breaking pitches and increase his average. In the meantime, he said that he went too forward and said that he was deceived a lot by bad balls.
Lee Jung-hoo’s change was a little bigger. It’s almost at a remodeled level. The height of the arm holding the bat was lowered from the face to the chest to reduce the time to reach the hitting point. And the stance was also changed from the open to a slightly square shape. It is a form suitable for modern baseball. A year later, in order to respond to pitchers with a 160km fastball in the major leagues, he took time in advance and made changes.
As a result, Kang Baek-ho is flying wildly, and Lee Jung-hoo is at a loss. In just one year, the situation of the two batting geniuses has changed 180 degrees. Kang Baek-ho has a batting average of 0.362, 3 home runs, 10 RBIs and 16 runs in 14 games this season, and an OPS of 0.995. On the other hand, Lee Jung-hoo scored 11 hits in 55 at-bats with a batting average of 0.200, 2 homers, 10 RBIs and 7 runs in 14 games.
Even on the 19th and 20th, Lee Jung-hoo struck out 4 times at the Gocheok Samsung Game. Recently, I get the impression that I went back to last year’s form again. It sure seems like there are a lot of worries about hitting. Of course, I’m not the type to make excuses. On the 14th, right after the Gocheok KIA match with 3 hits and 4 RBIs, he said, “It’s just that I can’t hit.”
The season is still very early. Kang Baek-ho will have a time to catch his breath, and Lee Jung-hoo will definitely find a time to strike out. At this point, it is difficult to predict what will happen after 144 matches. Anyway, Kang Baek-ho will be able to endure the hot summer with a comfortable mind if he gets good grades in the beginning. Hitters who usually explode at the beginning of the season have received excellent grades in the end, unless there are extreme ups and downs in the middle of the season.
Lee Jung-hoo can be dangerous if the timing of rebound is delayed. Is it sluggish in the last season before advancing to the major leagues? Of course,안전놀이터 the evaluation won’t change completely, but it’s not that pleasant. Lee Jung-hoo’s dream is to put Kiwoom on the Korean Series championship this year and leave for the major leagues with splendor. But since April he has hit a wall. The hyperbola of joy and sorrow between the two genius hitters is strange.