“Knock, knock, knock…”
In March, when the exhibition game of this season’s KBO League was about to be completed, a player knocked on the KIA power analysis team. The player came first even though I didn’t call him. KIA infielder Kim Do-young (21) did that.
Kim Do-young, who boasts a hotter batting sense than anyone else in the 2024 KBO League, has developed his ability to respond to the outside breaking ball, which has been a disadvantage.
“Kim Do-young’s weak point was her poor response to the outside breaking balls, but that’s no longer a weak point anymore,” former LG pitcher Lee Dong-hyun said in the newspaper. “It’s very difficult for a pitcher to stop Kim Do-young no matter what he throws.” Kim Do-young’s opponent praised him, saying, “It’s a random chance.”
In fact, the team has eliminated weak points. Now there are no more courses or pitches a pitcher can throw when dealing with Kim Do-young. With the combination of hard work, talent, and advice from Kia’s power analysis team, a player has come to set various records in the KBO League. This is the beginning of the birth of a star player.
“Kim Do-young came to the team first around the end of the trial game. He came here because he needed it,” an official of Kia’s power analysis team told the Dong-A Ilbo on the phone on Monday.
Necessity is “setting up one’s own strike zone,” which the power analysis team has advised Kim Do-young since last year.
“Doyoung kept throwing the bat on the outside ball. It was a ball that was out of the zone, but he reacted and followed it around,” a source said. “He showed a tangible batting heat map to the player during the Australian spring camp. He also showed a zone where he can make strong in-play hits. Establishing the setting for that zone is the secret to his performance in this season.”
In fact, all of the analysis teams of players’ power in 10 professional baseball teams give appropriate advice. It is up to the players to put them into action and use them in practice. Kim Do-young knocked on the door of the analysis team just before the opening of the regular season, perhaps because it was difficult to set up a zone.
A source said, “Doyoung asked him how to train to set up his own zone and went back. At that time, he asked DOYOUNG to have a strikeout on a good pitch since he was in the process of setting up a zone. That’s why he had a high strikeout rate in the early days of the season.”
Kim suffered from poor batting performance in the first six games in March. He had a batting average of 0.154. During the six games, he recorded as many as 10 strikeouts.
The result of the strikeout came out as soon as April. “I think he got his own zone as he got his strikeouts,” a source said. “As a result, the rate of walks taken has increased, and the rate of contact with balls that are thrown to the outside has decreased significantly. It is getting closer to completion.”
Statistics prove this. According to Statistics Korea, Kim Do-young’s walk-per-bat ratio stood at 9.9 percent last season, but the ratio increased to 10.3 percent this season. The ratio of swing contact to balls coming in from outside the zone also decreased from 21.2 percent last season to 14 percent.
The more Kim Do-young plays at the batter’s box, the fiercer the analysis of opposing team’s pitchers. Kim Do-young is also preparing for this with Kia’s power analysis team.
An official said, “Even if you throw a slider that bends outward to attract you, you will definitely get a mistake that pushes into the zone. Let’s not miss that ball.” So far, the player has been keeping it well, and he is showing good results.”
The strategy is to strike out the pitcher’s well-throwed ball rather than overstretch it, but never miss the actual pitch.
Last season, Kim had a batting average of 0.25 million on balls that came into the middle of the zone, but this season he had 0.521. This means that if 10 balls came into the middle of the zone, he did not miss it and had more than five hits.
Ahead of the upcoming season, Kim said, “I will show you my progress every year. Please wait and see how different Kim Do-young is next year,” but he has kept his promise. He is a “star” who is leading the success of the KBO league. 퀸알바