Do you have to throw 150 km to feel refreshed?
It is refreshing to see KIA right-hander Hwang Dong-ha (21) pitching. After receiving the ball, he steps on the pitcher’s plate almost immediately and enters the pitching stance without making any moves on the mound. The time to exchange autographs is short. When he catches the ball again after pitching, he takes a deep breath and immediately goes back to pitching.
Batters who have to hit Hwang Dong-ha’s balls like that can be a little embarrassed. This is because the pitching tempo is too fast. In fact, some LG batters who appeared in the first game of the doubleheader against KIA on the 9th seemed to be frantically going back to the plate according to Hwang Dong-ha’s tempo.
This is my second year graduating from Impression High School. He has consistently been a starter in the Futures League this season. 6 wins, 4 losses, 3.43 ERA in 16 games. However, there is a lack of game management skills required for a starting pitcher. It’s not a style that overwhelms batters with the pitch. According to the baseball statistics website Stats, Hwang Dong-ha’s average first-team fastball speed this year is 142.1 km.
In the end, even if he started as a starter in the first team, it was not easy for him to meet the requirements to be a winning pitcher as he was attacked to some extent before the 5th inning. On August 20th, he gave up 4 hits (2 home runs), 1 walk, and 3 runs in 4⅔ innings against Samsung in Daegu, and gave up 4 hits (2 home runs), 1 walk, and 2 runs in 4⅔ innings in the first game of the LG doubleheader in Gwangju on the 9th.
What these two games have in common is that they came out on the mound until the 5th inning and ‘made the game’ to some extent by allowing 2-3 runs. Despite his lack of first-team experience, he never showed any signs of running away and overusing dead-and-goes. Even though his speed was not there, he boldly used his weapons such as slider, splitter, and curve. At a fast tempo.
The advantage of a fast pitching tempo is clear. KIA coach Kim Jong-guk said ahead of the game against LG in Gwangju on the 10th, “It was a great pitch to throw like that against the LG batters, who ranked first in the team’s batting average. Although he couldn’t get past the 5th inning, he pitched great and there will be another opportunity next time. He has a fast-throwing style. “The batsmen have less time to think. This can lead to poor results because the batsmen have less routine. The defenders can also be much more focused and can be helpful to the team.”
The game on August 20th was a day when Yang Hyun-jong temporarily left while he was reorganizing for a while. It was a double header on the 3rd, so a substitute starter had to come out anyway. It is expected that we will see Hwang Dong-ha often in the future. There are signs that Mario Sanchez, who is receiving treatment for elbow injections, will return sooner than expected, but replacement resources are needed for the time being. Lee Ui-ri also skips the mound this week due to an issue with calluses on his fingers.
There are two long-term implications. First of all, KIA provides first-team experience to future right-handed starting pitcher candidates. Although it is a battle for ranking on thin ice, it has the meaning of seeking future momentum. It is true that KIA lacks right-handed starting resources compared to left-handed players. There is no law preventing Hwang Dong-ha from gaining experience and competing for the fifth starting position next year.토스카지노
Another thing is that he is a pitcher with a definite advantage in the pitch clock, which will be introduced someday in the KBO league. The KBO plans to install pitch clock equipment at the first and second division stadiums in Korea at the end of 2020 and begin the process of introducing the system starting with the Futures League in 2024. It wasn’t long before the pitch clock was applied to the first team.
The current Major League pitch clock requires pitches to be made in 20 seconds when a pitcher is on base and in 15 seconds when there are no baserunners. Time passes from the time the ball is received by the pitcher or umpire. There are many pitchers who will be forced to adapt, but it is unlikely that Hwang Dong-ha will need to adapt. For KIA, I am very glad to have discovered a refreshing young right-handed pitcher whom we will see often in the future.