These were the words of Kim Kyung-moon, manager of the Hanwha Eagles, who met before the match against the Gwangju KIA Tigers on the 5th. Will Weiss be able to give hope to Hanwha in the fall baseball by pitching well again this time.스포츠토토
Weiss will take the mound as Hanwha’s starting pitcher in an away game against the SSG Landers in the 2024 professional baseball KBO League regular season at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 10th.
The Hanwha Eagles recorded three wins and three losses last week. Up until last week, the team showed good performance, as it posted 7-1 and 5-4 wins, respectively, in the match against the Doosan Bears in Daejeon on Thursday and the match against the Gwangju KIA Tigers on Wednesday. However, the team lost 3-4 after extra innings of bloodshed in the match against the Gwangju KIA on Thursday, dampening its upward momentum. It won 3-1 against the LG Twins in Jamsil on Thursday, but lost to LG for the second straight day.
Currently, he ranks seventh with 60 wins, two draws and 66 losses. He is 2.5 games shorter than the fifth-ranked KT Wiz (64 wins, two draws and 65 losses), which is the last line for the team to advance to the autumn baseball league, but has only 16 games to play. One game and one game are precious to revive the momentum of autumn baseball.
Notably, the opponent team SSG (61 wins, 2 draws and 67 losses) is ranking sixth, ahead of Hanwha in terms of winning percentage. It is an opponent that must be defeated in the semifinal match. With a need for victory, Hanwha has foreshadowed Weiss as its starting pitcher.
Weiss, who was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks as the 129th overall pick in the fourth round of the 2018 draft, is a right-handed pitcher with a confident physique of 193 centimeters and 95 kilograms. Unfortunately, he failed to take the mound in the U.S. Major League Baseball, but played in 132 games (313.2 innings, 47 starts) in the minor league, recording 17 wins, 14 losses and 4.88 ERA. In August last year, he also experienced Asian baseball by wearing the Fubang Guardians uniform of the Taiwanese professional baseball league and posting 4 wins, 1 loss and 2.32 ERA in five games.
Weiss was then caught by Hanwha’s radar network, which was looking for a short-term replacement for Ricardo Sanchez, who complained of elbow pain, and that’s how he got to wear Hanwha’s uniform. After Weiss showed his presence, Hanwha signed a formal contract with Weiss.
Weiss has shown steady performance throughout the entire game since joining the KBO League. He became the winning pitcher with four hits, two outs and seven strikeouts during six innings against the Doosan Bears in Daejeon on June 25. He seemed to be shaken by one loss and 5.13 ERA in five games in July, but has emerged as the ace pitcher of the Hanwha Eagles by recording three wins and two losses and 2.30 ERA in five games in August.
Since then, Weiss has also displayed stellar performance in the match against KIA in Gwangju on Sunday. He blocked Kia’s batting line with two outs in the fifth inning, and continued its no-hitter streak until the seventh inning. Unfortunately, he failed to secure victory by allowing three hits, one homer, eight strikeouts and one run in 7.2 innings, but laid a stepping stone to Hanwha’s 5-4 victory.
The head coach also expressed satisfaction. “I didn’t expect (TWICE) to throw this much in the middle of the season. They are throwing so well. They are not only throwing well to certain teams. They have completely changed their pitching capability from what they saw for the first time. The opposing teams were not like this, but when I think about it, the number of innings naturally gets longer. This is good news for our team in many ways,” said manager Kim Kyung-moon with a bright smile.
The background of the improvement was confidence and belief in oneself. “I didn’t believe in my own ball before, and there were many useless balls,” manager Kim said. “As a result, the number of balls increased, but now I understand Korean baseball and know how to catch a batter. The biggest thing is confidence,” he said. “It is in his mind that my ball can work now. As my belief grows stronger, I am throwing better balls. Thanks to you, the team continues to go well.”
He displayed good performance in the game against SSG this year. At an away game on June 16, he showed off strong pitching by allowing two hits, one homer, two strikeouts and 12 strikeouts in 6.2 innings, and became the winning pitcher. However, Choi Jeong, who hit a solo shot against him at the time, is something to be wary of.
Meanwhile, SSG foretold right-hander Song Young-jin to counteract this. Having been called by SSG as the 15th overall player in the second round in 2023, he had three wins, three losses and an ERA of 5.70 in 17 games (47.1 innings, starting No. 9). He has four wins, nine losses and an ERA of 5.80 in 24 games (90 innings) this year.