An annual salary of 1 million dollars (about 1.3 billion won). The record before the end of the first half was 3 wins and 5 losses. At his current pace, when he plays a full-time season, he is poised to stay at 6 wins, let alone 10 wins.
Prior to the 2020 season, Lotte recruited a new foreign pitcher named Dan Strayley. Strayley appeared in 31 games in his debut season, pitched 194⅔ innings, and scored 205 strikeouts with an average ERA of 2.50 and 15 wins and 4 losses. Advent of ‘Ace’. Lotte, of course, signed a new contract with Strayley, and the following year recorded an average ERA of 4.07 with 10 wins and 12 losses in 31 games.
Although the performance dropped noticeably compared to the first year on the KBO league stage, harvesting double-digit wins for two consecutive years was an unchanging achievement. However, after the season ended, Strayley decided to put an end to his company with Lotte and return to the United States to pursue his dream of advancing to the major leagues.
His achievements in the United States were not great. After signing a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Strayley competed fiercely for a spot in the starting rotation in spring training. However, in the exhibition game, Strayley left only regrets, and after the start of the regular season, he was put in a situation where he moved around the minor leagues.
Lotte, which was competing fiercely for the 5th place in the 2022 season, came into contact with Strayley again while suffering from a series of sluggishness by foreign pitchers, and expressed ‘sincere’ by guaranteeing the contract period from the 2022 season to the 2023 season. . After returning to the KBO League, Strayley could not lead Lotte to advance to the postseason, but showed off his strength by appearing in 11 games and recording 4 wins, 2 losses and an average ERA of 2.31.
However, Strayley’s appearance this year is very unfamiliar. Strayley performed poorly with 1 loss and 6.43 ERA in 2 demonstration games, which continued into the regular season. Strayley struggled with 2 losses and an ERA of 5.82, failing to record a quality start (less than 3 ERA in 6 innings) in a total of 5 appearances in April. In particular, there were even voices asking whether a substitute should be considered given the significant drop in his speed.
Director Larry Sutton cited the fact that he was born in 1988 along with being a ‘slow starter’ as the reason for Strayley’s repeated sluggishness, revealing expectations that he will show an improved appearance. And Strayley showed a rebound by recording three quality starts in four appearances in May, leaving a record of 2-2 and an average ERA of 2.31. In the first game in June, he showed off his best pitch this season with 2 runs (2 earned) in 7 innings against the KIA Tigers.
But the good momentum didn’t last long. From his second appearance in June, Strayley again showed his disappointing appearance at the beginning of the season, and has not been able to record a quality start for 6 consecutive games. Of course, not every climb is disappointing. He has three of his last six games in which he has shut out five innings by giving up two runs or less. However, this is not what Lotte expects from Strayley.
Currently, it is not easy for Strayley to go beyond 5 innings. The player who should play the role of ‘ace’ is not able to properly block even 5 innings. In 16 appearances, he made only 4 quality starts. There are only 5 pitches in 6 innings. Considering the long-term race of 144 games, it is obviously fatal for the bullpen pitchers to bear the burden as their ability to digest innings declines.
According to the baseball statistics site ‘Staties’, Strayley’s WAR (contribution to victory over substitutes) is only 0.71. 59th among all pitchers. In ‘Sports to I’, it is 0.83, which is slightly higher than ‘Staties’, but it is not even listed in the top 30. Despite being an advantageous starting pitcher for building WAR, he ranks lower than ‘long-haired closer’ Won-jung Kim on two statistical sites.
Coach Larry Sutton picked ‘advancing to the Korean Series’ along with ‘entering the semifinals’ as the goal for the remaining 72 games in an interview with reporters after rounding the ‘return point’. In other words, it is a position to ‘win now’. However, if there is no change, the chances of achieving the dream are not high. This is because Lotte is at the crossroads of collapse with a shooter with a 50% win rate with all momentum at the beginning of the season broken. If Lotte is truly aiming to advance to the postseason after 6 years since 2017, now is the time to draw the sword.토토사이트주소
Of course, the current situation in the foreign market is not very good. It is a situation where foreign players have to be brought in from the independent league, the Mexican league, and the Taiwanese league. However, it may be realistic to have expectations for a new player with relatively little analysis rather than expecting a revival of Strayley, who rarely rebounds. This is because it is not uncommon for substitute players to succeed even in a bad market every year.
In the case of the KBO League, the annual salary of substitute foreign players is up to 100,000 dollars (about 130 million won) per month. As time goes on, the maximum annual salary that can be paid to a player will inevitably decrease. The chances of bringing in good players with low salaries are not very high. With the end of the first half approaching, what decision will Lotte make?