The Lotte Giants, who opened their wallets in the free agent market, are struggling recently.
In the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League SSG Landers match held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 16th on the 16th, Lotte lost 1-12 with 5 home runs. Lotte fell into a three-game losing streak from the resignation against Hanwha on the 14th. Lotte, which also regained the league lead on May 19, has fallen to 4th place in about a month, and is now being chased by 5th place Doosan by two games. Their last 10 matches are 2 wins and 8 losses.토토사이트
Lotte is very different from its strength in May, when it was in full swing. In the first place, Pilseungjo Kim Sang-soo and Kim Jin-wook were excluded from the first team on the 6th for readjustment, and the bullpen is also in pain. In June, the team’s ERA (5.11) ranked 9th and the team’s batting average (0.257) ranked 7th.
Lotte, who is forgetting the early win rate at the time when they have to hit and go up, is especially sore fingers ahead of this season with the three musketeers of free agents who spent a lot of money. Before the season, Lotte signed free agent contracts with catcher Kangnam Yoo for a total of 8 billion won, infielder No Jin-hyuk for a total of 5 billion won, and pitcher Han Hyun-hee for a total of 4 billion won. Since the FA system was introduced in 2000, this is the year Lotte spent the most money at once.
Yoo Kang-nam was a card that would coolly solve Lotte’s catcher concerns, and Han Hyun-hee took a starting position with his performance in May. Noh Jin-hyeok was evaluated as a fruitful shopping experience as he relieved Lotte’s shortstop concerns. Lotte’s momentum at the beginning of the season was hot as the team’s performance rose.
But it was only a moment to cool down. Han Hyun-hee started with 5 consecutive losses from the NC game on the 24th of last month to the SSG game on the 16th of this month (with an ERA of 5.320. There was only one quality start. In 23⅔ innings, 12 strikeouts and 12 walks gave out control problems. In particular, against SSG on the 16th
, It was a game where Han Hyun-hee had to throw a long inning. Lotte had to throw 16⅔ innings in 3 games as all three starters in the previous match against Hanwha on the 13th and 15th did not fill the 5th inning. It was necessary to digest the long innings of the starter, but Han Hyun-hee hit two home runs and came down the mound with 5 runs in 4⅓ innings.Catcher Kang-Nam Yoo has 1 home run, 18 RBIs, 19 runs and a batting average of
0.230 in 55 games of the season. In the last 5 games, 15 He has only 2 hits in at-bats, and his stealing rate for the season is 18.8%, which ranks 7th out of 9 catchers who have fielded 300 or more innings in the league. .
Noh Jin-hyeok suffered side pain during batting practice on the 15th and was excluded from the first-team entry. Lotte coach Larry Sutton explained on the 16th, “It is not a muscle tear, it is a sprain injury. Lotte lost the shortstop who had a sense of stability, and the center line was shaken again.
In order for Lotte to play fall baseball for the first time in six years since 2017, it must pay off as much as it has invested. If you can still feel the vacancy of the retired Lee Dae-ho, it means that outside recruiting has not been done in the right place. There is still time to get back on track at the beginning of the season. And pitcher Park Se-woong, who was another investment of Lotte, with a non-FA multi-year contract (a total of 9 billion won), will start on the 17th to protect the team’s honor. Will Lotte be able to break its losing streak and find an opportunity to rebound?
