Kiwoom's 'joyful rebellion' that pushes forward like a tank, not 'tanking'
Ahead of the opening, the lowest-ranked candidate was overwhelmingly selected, and with 4 consecutive losses in the opening, 'as expected'... Afterwards, he jumped to 3rd place with 7 consecutive wins.
In professional sports, ‘tanking’ is a method of strengthening power that can only be found in closed leagues without a promotion system.
Clubs that do not have the means to inject unlimited capital remain in the bottom tier for several years, and in the meantime, they acquire high-ranking players in the draft and collect promising players. 카지노사이트
Since it is difficult to achieve good results anyway, rather than focusing on the first win in front of you, the team operates in a way that accepts a drop in performance and gives opportunities to young prospects.
The Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals of the American Major League Baseball (MLB) succeeded in winning the World Series after conserving their power through such 'tanking'.
It is true that professional baseball's Kiwoom Heroes were suspected of 'tanking' when they sent Choi Won-tae to the LG Twins through a trade immediately after the injury of Lee Jeong-hoo (San Francisco Giants) in July of last year.
Tanking' is a survival strategy that clubs with limited capital can choose, but it forces sacrifices on fans.
So there is no club that openly says, ‘We are tanking.’
Kiwoom, which finished second in the 2022 Korean Series, showed its intention to challenge for the championship by recruiting free agent players ahead of 2023.
However, due to unexpected variables such as the poor performance of the recruited players and key two-hitting players Ahn Woo-jin and Lee Jeong-hoo falling down due to injuries, the team ranked 10th for the first time since its founding.
Ahead of this season, most experts did not hesitate to select Kiwoom as the last-place candidate.
Compared to last season, there was no noticeable power reinforcement, and rather, only power leakage was noticeable, such as Lee Jeong-hoo leaving for MLB and Ahn Woo-jin enlisting after elbow surgery.
There was also an analysis within the club that it would be difficult to realistically challenge for the championship in the next two years, so it was necessary to strengthen its internal stability.
Even when the team fell into a 4-game losing streak after the opening season, these predictions surrounding Kiwoom seemed to be accurate.
Kiwoom, who managed to get its first win of the season against the Gocheok LG Twins on the 30th of last month, has been on a false upward trend since then.
In the 2023 season, they won a winning series with 2 wins and 1 loss against LG, the combined champion of the KBO League, and also won two consecutive games against the Samsung Lions and Daegu.
In the end, they invited the Hanwha Eagles, who were causing a sensation by leaping to first place at the beginning of the season, to their home and swept three games.
In the process, Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha) was humiliated by allowing 9 runs in 4⅓ innings.
Kiwoom, with 7 consecutive wins, rose to 3rd place on the leaderboard.
Although it is still early in the season, it is a ‘pleasant rebellion’ from an overwhelming last-place candidate.
The biggest reason why Kiwoom was ranked in the bottom tier is the starting lineup.
There are only two clear starting pitchers, Ariel Jurado and Enmanuel de Jesus, and the remaining three positions are question marks.
When I actually opened the lid, I saw that Ha Young-min (2 wins, ERA 3.60) and Kim Seon-ki (1 win, 1 loss, ERA 4.50) were filling the starting lineup, and rookie Son Hyun-ki was selected for the Incheon SSG Landers game on the 9th thanks to his good pitching in the bullpen. I got a chance.
In fact, Kiwoom's batting lineup was evaluated as not bad.
Kiwoom's team OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) is 0.785, ranking 5th in the league.
This is a batting lineup that ranks mid-level in the league.
Three people, including Lee Hyeong-jong (batting average 0.371), Kim Hye-seong (batting average 0.367), and Ronnie Dawson (batting average 0.311), are helping solve the problem, and Joo-hyung Lee (batting average 0.524), who joined late due to injury, is performing well enough to be called the 'second Lee Jung-hoo'. shows.
Kiwoom, with its young players as its main players, is a team that easily gets into the mood.
It is still difficult to say that he is in the top tier in terms of objective power, but if he gains confidence with the early season momentum, he could emerge as a 'dark horse' that will shake up the professional baseball landscape this season.
The only thing left to do is to push forward like a tank and prove your performance to the outsiders who say, ‘Isn’t this the season for tanking?’
Kiwoom captain Kim Hye-seong, who hit a walk-off home run against Hanwha in Gocheok on the 7th, said, "Honestly, in baseball, (the outcome) is unknown.
In baseball, the 10th place beats the 1st place, so I didn't care about the external evaluation (of being a last-place candidate).
"You can read the team's atmosphere and determination in these words.