With 90 games left, 0% chance of entering autumn baseball? Kiwoom, which is less than Lotte in 2002
With 90 games left, 0% chance of entering autumn baseball? Kiwoom, which is less than Lotte in 2002
Blog Article
With 90 games left out of 144 regular-season games in the world, there is already a 0% chance of entering the fall baseball league. The Kiwoom Heroes are having the worst season, unprecedented not only in the club's history but also in the KBO league's history. Lotte in 2002 and Sammi in 1982 rather than the other nine clubs look like rivals.스포츠토토
According to PSODDS.com , a site that provides chances of advancing to the KBO postseason by date using the Pythagorean winning percentage, Kiwoom's chances of entering the fall baseball league reached 0.0 percent as of May 22. It was only 11 days after it first fell below 1 percent on May 11.
This is the worst in the history of the Kiwoom franchise. In 2023, the first season of last place, the probability of fall baseball reached 0% only on August 30, and last year, when it was at the bottom for two consecutive years, the probability reached zero only on August 17. This year, however, the possibility of fall baseball has disappeared with 90 games left, with only 54 games played this year.
The 2002 Lotte Giants, which was recorded as the worst team in KBO league history, was not this bad. At that time, Lotte effectively stayed in the second division league with 35 wins, one draw and 97 losses and a winning percentage of 0.265 in 133 games under the eight-team system, lagging 26 games behind the seventh-ranked Hanwha Eagles. It was on June 20 that Lotte also had a 0 percent chance of playing in fall baseball. Kiwoom was one month earlier than that.
As of Tuesday, Kiwoom has 14 wins and 40 losses and a winning percentage of 0.259. The team is also in the last place overwhelmingly close to ninth-ranked Doosan (22 wins and 31 losses, winning percentage of 0.417). For reference, the gap between the LG Twins and ninth-ranked Doosan is 11 games, which is not much different from that between Doosan and Kiwoom. If Doosan is on the first basement level, Kiwoom is on the fifth basement level.
He has nothing to show off. He ranks last in all games with his team's batting average of 0.230, on-base percentage of 0.302, and slugging percentage of 0.334. He ranks sixth with 37 homers, but his score is the lowest with 193 points. His batting average (WAR) is -1.41, which is the only negative number among the 10 teams. No team has recorded a negative number in the team's WAR since 1982.
The pitching power is even more disastrous. With an ERA of 6.02, he is the only one with a six-point range among the 10 teams. The gap is wide when compared with No. 9 Lotte with a 4.65 ERA. In the history of the KBO league, only Hanwha (6.35) in 2014 and Sammi (6.23) in 1982 were the only teams with an ERA of 6, but Kiwoom is the third to join the infamous club. The WAR for pitchers is -4.46, which is the only negative number in league history as well as this season.
He is the worst even in defense. He has 44 errors, the most among the 10 teams, and is the last in defense contribution (including position adjustment) with -3.191. Attacks, defense, and pitching capability are all different.
The current disastrous performance was somewhat foreseen. Before the season, almost all experts in Korea unanimously predicted the bottom of Kiwoom. In a survey on the YouTube channel "Keystone Play," 10 expert respondents predicted Kiwoom to be the next.
With three star players, including Kim Ha-sung, Lee Jung-hoo and Kim Hye-sung, leaving for the Major League one after another, there is no follow-up star to replace them yet. Players who meet Kiwoom's business model, which draft prospects, quickly debut in the first team, grow them into stars and send them to the U.S., have not been selected among the players in the last two to three years.
There was hardly any recruitment from outside to beef up capability. They only recruited players in their 30s who were released by other teams. They also failed to renew contracts with foreign pitchers Ariel Furado and Enmanuel de Heysus, who had good performances until last year. Furado signed contracts with Samsung and Heysus with KT for 1 million dollars each, which is a considerable amount for almost all foreign players.
Kiwoom has chosen two foreign pitchers and one pitcher instead of two foreign pitchers and one batter. The vacancy of one foreign starter was calculated that if Ha Young-min, who became the starting players last year, newcomers Kim Yoon-ha and Jeon Joon-pyo hold out and rookie Jung Hyun-woo throws well, it will be worth a try. The batters expected foreign double guns Yasiel Puig and Ruben Kadenas to perform well.
However, the result of opening the lid was the opposite. Puig and Kadenas share the lowest rank of first and second place among foreign hitters in the WAR. Kenny Rosenberg, the only foreign pitcher, looks like an ordinary person when compared with monstrous pitchers such as Cody Ponce and Tucker Davidson. No starting pitcher can withstand long innings, and a starting pitcher is forced to leave the mound early after allowing a large number of runs in each game. Naturally, it is a vicious cycle in which the bullpen pitcher also collapses as the burden increases.
Since there are so many situations where the score gap widens early on, it is difficult for batters to cheer up. It is important for young players to gain experience in the game, but it is also important to see and learn from seniors who are good in an atmosphere where they experience victory and pursue competition. This was certainly the case with Kiwoom in the past. On the other hand, Kiwoom's atmosphere now, which is used to losing baseball, does not help the growth of promising players.
When Lee left for the Major League, Lee asked the club to use the profits it earned from its posting fees for the players. There is no signal that Kiwoom spent 25.2 billion won (25.7 million U.S. dollars) that Lee received from posting for the players. He did not bring in outside players, and his treatment for the team has not improved in particular. As a result, there are voices of suspicion that Lee Jung-hoo's sale money may have resolved the owner's personal dispute.
Normal KBO league teams are run with the goal of winning, going up to the fall baseball league and winning the championship. However, it is questionable whether Kiwoom aims to win. It has been testing fans' patience with endless tanking for three years. The goal is to raise promising players and earn posting fees, sell them as much as possible to earn nomination rights, and capitalize on the popularity of the KBO League and its Seoul base to earn more spectators' income.