A “temporary replacement” foreign pitcher who came to Korea on condition that he receive up to 100,000 dollars for six weeks made a strong impression on his debut. Ryan Weiss (28), a right-handed pitcher who joined the Hanwha Eagles as a substitute for injury in the professional baseball league, made a good start. Yang Eui-ji, a slugger representing the KBO League, also had no hit in three consecutive at-bats for a strikeout, showing lackluster performance.메이저놀이터
Weiss started against Doosan in Daejeon on the 25th, his KBO league debut, and led Hanwha to a 5-4 victory with four hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts in six innings. From his debut, he became a winning pitcher with a quality start and had a successful ceremony in front of Daejeon’s home fans.
Hanwha recruited Weiss as an injured foreign player on the 17th as existing foreign pitcher Ricardo Sanchez left for more than six weeks due to elbow pain. The contract period was six weeks, with a total of $100,000 ($12,000 in down payment, $48,000 in annual salary, $40,000 in incentives).
He has no experience in the Major League, played in the Taiwan professional baseball league in the second half of last year, and is not a player whose career has been remarkable enough to play in the U.S. independent league until recently. Expectations were not as high as the price suggests. However, Hanwha manager Kim Kyung-moon said, “While some players came to see the Scouts and received a lot of (annual salary), others didn’t reach my eyes. Here comes the player who works hard. I saw the video and found that he had good ball control, and I liked it,” he said, paying attention to Weiss’s earnestness.
Even before the game, coach Kim Kyung-moon said, “I hope you can go to the fifth or sixth inning.” As Kim had expected, Weiss met expectations for six innings in his debut match. Furthermore, he displayed quality as good as the quantity of his pitches, while allowing no runs. He pitched a total of 98 pitches, with 67 strikes and 31 balls. He displayed stable ball control and aggressive pitching, with a strike ratio reaching 68.4 percent.
He displayed sweeper (33), curveball (7), and change-up (4), focusing on fast balls (54) at speeds of up to 153 kilometers per hour and 149 kilometers per hour on average. Six of the seven strikeouts he garnered as critical pitches, displaying strong performance. Both left and right hitters drew swings and misses, or poked him into a course lower than his body to strike out rookie.
He threw four-seam grips, but it was impressive to see him bend slightly toward the right-handed batter like two-seam. After the game, Weiss said, “That’s my four-seam. I definitely have confidence in fastballs. I threw a lot even after two strikes.” Due to the messy tip of the ball, it was not easy for first-time hitters to adjust timing to Weiss’ fastball.
Yang Eui-ji, who had been batting hard with a batting average of 391 percent (27 hits in 69 times at bat) in June, including 16 consecutive hits, was also not able to use his strength against Weiss. Weiss preempted a two-strike with a fastball outside the first pitch and a two-pitch curve against Yang Eui-ji in the first inning, and then the sweeper was a foul on the third pitch, but he induced Yang Eui-ji to swing and miss with the fourth fastball outside.
Again in the third inning, Weiss struck out swinging once again with a fastball high in his body in the game that continued to reach the seventh pitch with Yang Eui-ji. In the third at-bat in the fifth inning, Yang Eui-ji hit Weiss’s fourth pitch low outside sweeper, but he grounded out to the third base. He got on base with a walk in the eighth inning, but he had no hit in three times at bat, and had to end consecutive hits in June.
From the first to the fourth innings, he sent runners out in every inning, but Weiss remained calm. When fast runners like Lee Yoo-chan in the second and Jung Soo-bin in the third inning went to the first base, he took the slide step and tied the runners up and continued to throw his balls. He threw fast balls, but his ball control did not deviate far from the zone. He allowed two walks because about one ball was missing.
Despite his successful debut, Weiss was not very satisfied. “I feel great to see him win in front of the fans. I think I have shown everything I can, but I also felt regret. I want to supplement the parts that I can supplement before my next appearance, and prepare well,” he said. “I need to adapt to the Korean mound that is different from the U.S. one.