The fact that SSG has been performing worse than expected this season is also due to the poor performance of its starters. Most of the players fall short of expectations. As the starter collapses, not only the results of the game collapse, but also the bullpen load is increasing. The exhausted bullpen revealed its bare face in August, and the entire team is reeling.안전놀이터
While foreign pitcher Robert Duggar was kicked out early due to poor performance, Roenis Elias took more than a month off due to injury of his abdominal muscles. Korean starters, who are led by Kim Kwang-hyun, Oh Won-seok, and Song Young-jin, are also performing worse than expected. There is another name that comes to mind here. He is Park Jong-hoon (33), an underhander who failed to make a comeback this year but remains in the second division.
The team had high expectations at the pre-season camp. It lost weight harshly, and tried to set conditions as similar as possible to those in the best days. It also received favorable reviews from the team that it contributed greatly to the team’s performance in the camp. SSG coach Lee Soo-yong was selected as the fourth starter early on, ensuring Park Jong-hoon’s comeback. The preview of the season was quite favorable, with some predicting that some players prepared hard after the elbow surgery, and that the curve may go well with ABS.
This year, however, he ended up with one win, four losses and an earned run average of 7.71 in nine games for the first team, which has left all prospects in ashes. Both teams struggled hard, going back and forth between the first and second teams, and Lee tried to give as many chances as possible. He even prepared a customized schedule for Park Jong-hoon. However, he couldn’t afford to continue treatment if his performance was not good enough. After allowing three runs in two ⅔ innings in the match against Hanwha on June 16, he has remained in the second team. As his life in the second team became longer than expected, he was trapped in Ganghwa Island, where the team’s second team facilities are located.
However, some predict that they will soon be able to get their last chance to play in the first division. First of all, he has good performance in the second division. He pitched 72 ⅔ innings in 14 Futures League games, winning seven games and losing three, with a 1.98 ERA. Although it is a performance in the second division, considering that one of the criteria for a call-up in the first division is a performance in the second division, there is nothing that cannot be made. He is a strong candidate for a call-up in September, when the entry will be expanded. Rather, if he fails to make it to this grade, he can also be a reverse discrimination.
Lee did not deny that Park Jong-hoon is one of the candidates for the call-up. “Jong-hoon is also agonizing over it. So I told him to throw a little bit from the bullpen. He also said he worked hard and showed good performance in the second division.” In fact, officials of the Futures team also say that Park Jong-hoon was not discouraged, played sincerely, and continued to make efforts to return to the first division.
“When the number of entries increases, we asked for opinions on each part,” Lee said. “We will have a meeting. I think the players with the best performance in the second division should be ranked to motivate the second division,” he said, signaling that the call-up candidates will be decided soon through meetings.
As the mound has become more difficult, SSG had a plan to use Park Jong-hoon in the bullpen, and has been preparing for it so far. Lee also said, “If I come up, I will use it in the bullpen, not as a starter.” When looking at the remaining games of SSG, four pitchers can operate the rest of the games except for about a week. Lee said, “Two foreign players (Drew Anderson and Roenis Elias) and Kim Kwang-hyun will be assigned to the rotation, and one of Oh Won-seok and Song Young-jin will be assigned on a customized basis after checking the opponent team’s records. There is no need for more starting pitchers right now.
However, in the face of all-out struggle for the mound, sometimes the starting pitcher goes down early and needs a player who can throw long balls. Currently, Jang Ji-hoon is the type of player who can throw the longest in the SSG bullpen, but only two innings are allowed. If he needs to play more than that, the Park Jong-hoon card can be realistic.
Park Jong-hoon, a starting agent who is also recognized in the league with 12 wins in 2017, 14 wins in 2018, and 13 wins in 2020, signed a five-year, non-FA multi-year contract worth a total of W6.5 billion after the end of the 2021 season. He was in rehabilitation after undergoing elbow surgery in the middle of the 2021 season, but SSG did not doubt Park’s possible comeback. It also aimed to avoid salary cap issues, which will take effect in 2023, by giving him an annual salary in 2022.
However, the team has shown sluggish performance since signing the contract. No one pointed out that it has become lazy, but no one showed good results. The team showed poor performance with 6.00 ERA in 11 games in 2022 and 6.19 ERA in 18 games last year, and has remained in the swamp this year as well. On top of that, ABS was directly hit again as it turned out to be relatively more disadvantageous to side pitchers.
However, while Oh Won-seok and Song Young-jin have yet to solve the military problem, Park Jong-hoon clearly has to do within the contract period. It also affects the club’s strategy. For example, if Park Jong-hoon clearly shows the possibility of a rebound, he can send players who have not yet been in the military in sequence. On the contrary, if not, he should reconsider how to use Park Jong-hoon, who has two years left on his contract, from the ground up. Whether Park Jong-hoon can be dramatically included in the drawing of next year’s starting lineup depends on his performance from now on.