The explosive potential of Noh Si-hwan (24), who became the home run king of the KBO League last year, is inexplicable except for Chae Eun-seong (34). At the Arizona Spring Camp last year, Chae Eun-seong said, “Weight can only work if you have a partner. Join me,” and the two players repeated the same routine throughout the season.
He worked out weight training together every other day regardless of home or away games to prepare for the event. He went to the Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon early from 11:30 a.m. based on home games, and in away games, he maintained his strength and stamina by doing stretching and weight training at his hotel before lunch. Notably, Noh Si-hwan showed off his strength until the end of the season.
“It is meaningful that I played the full season without being sick. I was able to show that I am a healthy and self-care athlete,” Noh said after taking part in all 131 games. “I gained weight following Chae Eun-sung. I barely gained weight. I need to eat as much as I put in energy during the season, but I did not gain weight probably because I was constantly doing weight lifting.”
As a result, he had a career-high season with a batting average of .388 (153 hits in 514 times at bat) with 31 homers, 101 RBIs, 74 walks, 118 strikeouts and an on-base percentage. 541 OPS.929. Noh, who ranked second in slugging percentage and OPS by ranking No. 1 in homers and RBIs, has risen to the top as a player in the league by receiving Golden Glove in the third baseman category. Noh, who also talked about Chae Eun-sung at the award ceremony after the season, said, “I learned baseball from Eun-sung. I received a lot of help from him by exchanging stories on how to overcome hardships and how to deal with batting skills.”
In response, Chae shook his hand. “Si-hwan has always been good at baseball. He is a talented player, and his performance showed that he prepared well and made efforts as he had expected even before the season. He seemed confident in what he had prepared for himself (from not changing his form when it was bad),” Chae said. “I didn’t do anything for him. All I have to do is buy him delicious food when it was tough.”
Chae Eun-sung also showed a respectable performance with a batting average of .351 with 23 home runs, 84 RBIs, 52 walks, 102 strikeouts and an on-base percentage of .428 OPS.779 in the first year of his transfer to the FA. Although his pace was dampened by the aftermath of a hamstring injury in the mid-to-late season, he kept his center-base line non-stop. There was a sense of responsibility that he should not leave his seat due to the team’s weak power, and Choi Won-ho, who watched this, took charge of the new season. 꽁머니사이트
As a captain, he is also fast preparing for the season. On last Sunday, he moved to Melbourne, Australia, where the starting lineup of the spring camp was set up along with Noh Si-hwan, infielders Ha Joo-seok, pitchers Joo Hyun-sang and Han Seung-joo. He will move one week before the start of the camp on Feb. 1, and start adapting himself to the local community in advance. Even when he was a member of his former LG Twins team, Chae was not excluded from the starting lineup who went to the camp first. Noh continues his routine by moving with Chae.
Hanwha heavily depended on Noh Si-hwan and Chae Eun-sung, who played as the third to fourth hitters last year. On days when either of the two players was blocked, its offense remained unsolved. The rest of the batters saw their productivity decline, and their ups and downs significantly increased. However, as Ahn Chi-hong, a mid- to long-distance hitter proven in the FA market, is recruited, and Jonathan Peraza, a new foreign hitter who is strong in hitting, is expected to ease the burden on the “Roh Chae duo.” Once the players are freed from intensive checks to some extent, the two players’ performance will likely improve as well.