The Hanwha Eagles will race in the middle of summer, which is scary. The strength of Hanwha, which jumped into the race for the best five teams with no difficulties, cannot be explained except for pitchers, especially the iron-clad bullpen.
Other teams also said, “The Hanwha bullpen is the best. There are many fast-paced pitchers, and it seems like we are watching last year’s LG bullpen, which was a must-win group.” Just like LG, which won the title with strong bullpen strength last year, including Ko Woo-suk, Kim Jin-sung, Ham Deok-ju, Yoo Young-chan, Baek Seung-hyun, Jung Woo-young and Park Myung-geun, Hanwha boasts a bullpen that is as good as any other team in quantity and quality.
In fact, the Hanwha bullpen was a weakness until the first half. In the first half, it ranked eighth in earned run average (5.28) in relief, and suffered 20 come-from-behind losses. The closing pitcher was the most powerful in the league, but Lee Min-woo was the only pitcher who could be in charge of the team. Young pitchers such as Park Sang-won and Kim Bum-soo, who they believed in, were in poor performance, and Kim Seo-hyun were in sync.
However, the team has significantly changed in the second half of the year. It ranks second in relief average earned run in the second half (3.91), following KT (3.87), which ranks first. While the closing pitcher has maintained steady performance, the middle player has become strong enough to have the largest number of team holds (27). The bullpen is also strong because it has nine wins and six losses (win rate .600) in a tight race between one and two points, with five wins and four losses by two points in the second half of the year.
Park Sang-won pitched 24 ⅔ innings in 19 games in the second half, making a complete comeback with 2 wins, 1 save, 5 holds, and an ERA of 1.46. He pitched multiple innings with long relief that follows the starting pitcher, and then turned into the strongest bullpen in the league. Kim Seo-hyun also showed difficulties recently, but after fixing his pitching form as one, he played 18 games (16 ⅔ innings) with a loss and 6 holds average of 3.24.
On top of that, Han Seung-hyuk is powerful with an ERA of 2.65 with three wins and eight holds in 18 games (17 innings). Until the first half, there were ups and downs depending on the runner’s situation, but recently, he has been stable enough to play multiple innings. Han Seung-hyuk, Park Sang-won and Kim Seo-hyun have established a solid four-man must-win group along with the closing main phenomenon, completely taking charge of the mid-to-late part of the game. 스포츠토토
Not only the must-win group, but also the chasing group Kim Kyu-yeon is helping with a 4.80 ERA with two holds in 14 games (15 innings), and Lee Sang-kyu, a transfer student who came over from the second draft, also began to show his presence with one win and an ERA of 3.27 in nine games (11 innings), reporting his first transfer win against Doosan in Jamsil on the 24th.
All of them throw fastballs at the speed of the pitch. The average speed of fastballs exceeds 145 kilometers per hour. Han Seung-hyuk, Park Sang-won, Kim Seo-hyun, and Kim Gyu-yeon exceed 150 kilometers per hour. Given the characteristics of the bullpen, fastball pitchers are advantageous, but since there are a lot of pitchers who can overwhelm by hitting and pressing with fastballs in the middle and late stages of the game, the bullpen is strong. “I feel like I will block anyone who leaves the game. I think everyone gets a good result as we trust the pitchers behind us and work harder,” said the closing pitcher.
As the team has ample resources, the team does not have to overwork its bullpen. Even though the team is nearing the end of this season, Hanwha’s bullpen has no consecutive pitching on Wednesday. From its predecessor Choi Won-ho to its current manager Kim Kyung-moon, the team has thorough management of its bullpen. Among the 10 teams, the team is the only one without three consecutive pitching, with two consecutive pitching (88 innings) and multi-inning (107 innings) being the third fewest in the league. Manager Kim Kyung-moon excludes pitchers who have had two consecutive pitching from the pitching group, and makes them stand by for the dugout rather than the bullpen. Due to the team’s situation, the team sometimes waits once, but does not do so. This is why fastball bullpen pitchers are able to throw their own balls without getting tired until now in the second half of this season.
Yang Sang-moon, who joined the team from the second half of the season at the invitation of manager Kim Kyung-moon, is also highly effective. He changed the method of Park Sang-won to balance lost pitches, and gradually elevated Kim Seo-hyun to a short-term starting point from a situation where he could afford to play. Despite the absence of a certain left-hander bullpen, Yang tried to prevent or minimize crisis situations by fast replacement timing.
After all, people play baseball. Players who have different personalities understood and motivated them. When Yang Sang-moon, the coach who sent his sincere message by writing a handwritten letter to the pitchers as soon as he arrived at Hanwha, the outfield bullpen in Daejeon’s home stadium was hung with the phrase, “There are fans who shout ‘the strongest Hanwha’ in this ball that I throw.”
Park Sang-won said, “When I open the door of the bullpen, I can see the phrase and I feel a lot of emotions. We need to do better for the fans who cheer us up and help us out.” “I’m so busy when I go up to the mound, but I always read the phrase. It’s not wrong. Whenever we throw a ball, the fans cheer for us. I try to calm myself down by reading the phrase,” Kim Seo-hyun said.