This winter, the Lotte Giants brought in two hitters capable of hitting 20 homers at once. Expectations from the coaching staff are also rising.
Coach Park Heung-sik (61), who will serve as Lotte’s first-team head coach from this season, attended the free agent initiation ceremony held at the Lotte Hotel Busan Sapphire Room on the 19th and talked about the effects of Yoo Kang-nam (31) and Noh Jin-hyeok (34), who newly joined the other lineup. mentioned
Coach Park Heung-sik said, “There will be a stronger sense of responsibility on the field,” and “Lotte will become a more organized team.” He continued, “I think we have become a strong team as the main and backup depth in the other line has become stronger.”
Coach Park, who picked ‘improving the scoring position batting average’ as the focus of this year’s spring camp, said, “I wonder if the scoring position batting average will increase as the two players come in.” In other words, it can be taken as meaning that the scoring power goes up. 메이저사이트
Coach Park has been a professional coach for a long time and has helped several hard hitters such as Lee Seung-yeop (47, current Doosan coach) and Park Byung-ho (37, KT) grow. This is why attention is focused on the prospects of coach Park, the ‘top hitting coach’.
Yoo Gang-nam and Noh Jin-hyeok are two players who have shown great success in both offense and defense. Kang-Nam Yoo turned pitchers’ balls into strikes with the best framing skills in the league. Noh Jin-hyeok, who can play both third base and shortstop, showed stable defense.
And in the at-bat, they are players who showed off their one-shot slugging ability. Kangnam Yoo hit double-digit home runs for five consecutive years from 2017, and hit 19 homers in 2018. In particular, it was an achievement achieved while using Jamsil Baseball Stadium (left and right 100m-center 125m) as the home, the largest in the KBO League.
Noh Jin-hyeok also achieved 10 homers or more four times in his career. In 2020, he contributed to NC’s combined victory by achieving 20 homers and 82 RBIs. In his last season, he also proved his skills by firing 15 cannons.
Last year, Lotte ranked 5th overall with 106 team home runs. However, there was a void as Lee Dae-ho (23), the team’s most home run hitter, ended his playing career. In the end, Yoo Kang-nam and Roh Jin-hyuk were given the task of making up for the 23 home runs they missed this year.
The players themselves feel a sense of responsibility in hitting. Noh Jin-hyeok said, “It’s strange that the club doesn’t want it after signing a free agent.” Yoo Kang-nam also expressed his confidence, saying, “Even though his hitting numbers have fallen over the past three years, he feels that he is improving as he trains.”
