Lotte Giants foreign hitter Victor Reyes (30) will make a historic challenge in his KBO League debut season.먹튀검증
Reyes had three hits and an RBI from four times at bat in the home game against the LG Twins at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 19th. Reyes’ hits increased to 191 this season.
Ahead of this season, Reyes signed a contract with Lotte for 950,000 U.S. dollars. “Reyes is a bad ball hitter who aggressively swings despite bad balls,” said a Lotte official who recruited him at the time.
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Reyes is a switch-hitter with a batting average of 0.264 with 16 homers and 107 RBIs in a total of 394 matches in the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB). When he was in the MLB, the ratio of walks to strikeouts was 49-287, which was not good. The ratio was similar in the Minor League with 221 walks and 538 strikeouts. However, a Lotte official said, “He has a good contact ability based on simple swing. He will achieve a batting average of over 300 in the KBO league.” In fact, Reyes has performed better than expected.
Reyes is Lotte’s luckiest player. As of Wednesday, he ranks first in the number of hits in the league and second in the batting average of 0.354. He is six ahead of second-ranked Guillermo Herredia (185) in the number of hits. He ranks second in the batting average after Guillermo Herredia (0.362).
Attention is focusing on whether Reyes will challenge for 200 hits in the remaining games. Reyes is aiming for 200 hits in this season for the first time as a foreign hitter. The previous record was that Jose Miguel Fernandez, a former Doosan Bears player, had 197 hits in 2019 and 199 hits in 2020. The previous record was 201 hits (128 games per team) by Nexen Heroes (currently Kiwoom) and Seo Geon-chang (currently KIA Tigers) in 2014. Currently, Reyes is capable of up to 202 hits (144 games) arithmetically.
Reyes also improved the ratio of walks (43) and strikeouts (77) this season. He has been consistent enough to play in all games this season, which is why he can challenge the milestone.
His lowest monthly batting average was 0.300 (August). However, he is rebounding this month with a batting average of 0.390 (23 hits in 59 times at bat). He has played three times out of the last five games. If he continues this pace, he will be able to make 202 hits. He may break Seo’s record of most hits in a season.
“I prepared well for the offseason. But it’s not easy physically to play full time. I will try to play 100 percent of every game in the rest of the games,” he said.