"It's better than foreigners" trade is a huge hit, and KT's starters are scarier than Hanwha...The only 2-point ERA, QS success rate of 73.5%
"It's better than foreigners" trade is a huge hit, and KT's starters are scarier than Hanwha...The only 2-point ERA, QS success rate of 73.5%
Blog Article
The KT Wiz has established the best starting lineup in the league. He is the only team among the 10 teams that has maintained stability by scoring an ERA of two points and scoring the most 25 quality starts.
KT finished the match against Kiwoom in Suwon with a 9-0 complete victory on the 3rd. With the batting line exploding with 13 hits in short and long, left-hander Oh Won-seok's good pitching shone. He blocked Kiwoom's batters with a quality start with four hits, three walks and five strikeouts in six innings before receiving a heavy hit from leadoff hitter Oh Sun-jin in the fifth inning.
He effectively utilized changeups and curves centering on fastballs up to 147 kilometers per hour. He thus effectively entered the game aggressively, as he had three strikeouts he stole with high fastballs. Against Kim in the fourth inning, he displayed good control over his team's speed by stealing timing with a slow curveball of 116 kilometers per hour. He also overcame the crisis with two outs and runners on the first and second bases in the fifth inning, and with two outs in the sixth inning.
Oh Won-seok, who has succeeded in QS for the last five consecutive games since the match against Suwon NC on the 10th of last month, has 4 wins and 2 losses with an ERA of 2.52 strikeouts and 38 WHIP 1.07 hits. Among the 31 pitchers in the regular innings, he ranked second in the hit rate, tied for fourth in multiple wins, eighth in the WHIP, and 10th in the ERA.
Oh Won-seok, who graduated from Yatapo High School and joined SK (currently SSG) in 2020, was steadily given the opportunity as a starter, but his growth has stagnated since 2023. Eventually, he left SSG after being traded to KT's first designated pitcher Kim Min in 2018 after the end of last year's season. KT, whose main starter Um Sang-baek was released as an FA, gave him a bullpen must-win group and secured Oh Won-seok as a starting resource. 안전놀이터
After joining KT, Oh has shown remarkable improvement and is solidly filling the position as the fifth starting pitcher. The number of walks allowed per nine innings has increased from 4.81 last year to 3.89 this year, and as the value of change-up pitches has increased, Oh now has a weapon to deal with right-handed hitters. On top of that, he has an extremely strong batting average of .130 against left-handed hitters.
Kim Min, who moved to SSG, is also active as a must-winner, but it is hard to find left-handed starters in their 20s in the market. With the success of Oh Won-seok's trade, KT has built up the best starting lineup among the 10 teams. Although Hanwha emerged as the "strongest starting lineup" last month, ranking fifth in the history of the KBO League, KT is much better based on its record.
Until Thursday, KT had the only starting ERA of 2.74, ranking first in the league. The team is ahead of LG (3.31), which ranks second, and Hanwha (3.36), which ranks third. KT has 12 wins, which is less than LG and Hanwha (16 wins), but ranks first in both innings (197 ⅓ innings) and QS (25 games). With 25 of 34 games, the QS success rate is 73.5 percent. It far exceeds the QS success rate (40.2 percent) of the remaining nine teams. Considering that LG (54.5 percent) has QS in 18 of 33 games and Hanwha (51.5 percent) has QS in 17 of 33 games, KT's record is remarkable.
KT's starting pitchers Cho Hyung-joon, Ko Young-pyo, and Oh Won-seok are the best in the league. Having returned to the starting lineup after recovering from elbow surgery and rehabilitation, Cho has displayed stellar performance in six games (37 innings) with two wins and one loss with an ERA of 1.70 strikeouts. His ball power has improved compared to before the injury, and his change-up has also improved. On top of that, Ko Young-pyo of the sidearm has recovered to post two wins and two losses with an ERA of 2.22 strikeouts in seven games (44 ⅔ innings) as he benefited from the lowered ABS zone. "We look forward to seeing more Korean starters (than foreign starters). The opposing teams will also have more difficulties with our three native players," he said.
Still, foreign pitchers are not in a bad mood. Left-hander Enmanuel de Heissus, who was brought in by Kiwoom after giving up his contract, had a 10-day hiatus due to left adductor muscle injury, but has posted two wins and one loss with an ERA of 1.38 strikeouts and 34 in six games (32 ⅔ innings) by banking on his strong pitching capability. William Cuevas, a veteran player in his seventh year, also has ups and downs in seven games (40 ⅔ innings), has two wins and two losses with an ERA of 4.87 strikeouts and 22 QS No. 5.
Pitcher play is the most important factor in baseball, in which starters play a significant role. With fielders Kang Baek-ho, Kim Sang-soo, Heo Kyung-min and Oh Yoon-seok suffering from injury, KT is currently in the eighth place (.675) in the OPS, but its starting lineup is absolutely strong to rank fifth (17 wins, 15 losses, 2 draws, and a .531 win rate). If the lineup recovers a little, it can sufficiently advance to the lead.