Coach Kim Kyung-moon will take the helm of the Eagle Corps. Will Kim be able to cut off the Hanwha Eagles’ managerial atrocities.고수익알바
Hanwha said after the 2024 professional baseball KBO League away game (0-1 Hanwha loss) at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on the 2nd, “I signed a three-year contract with manager Kim Kyung-moon for a total of 2 billion won (500 million won in down payment and 1.5 billion won in annual salary).”
Kim Kyung-moon’s career is full of glamour. He served as the head coach of the Doosan Bears (2004-2011) and the NC Dinos (2011-2018) and posted 896 wins, 30 draws, and 774 losses in 1,700 KBO League games. Doosan has been given the distinctive color of “in-water baseball,” in which talented new players are constantly appearing, and NC, once a new team, has quickly grown into a strong team.
Coach Kim Kyung-moon has led the two teams in 10 post-season games and advanced to the Korean Series four times. However, he has yet to win the Korean Series.
Coach Kim Kyung-moon has shown his book presence as the head coach of the Korean national team. At the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, he led the Korean national baseball team to nine games and won the gold medal. However, at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he failed to stand on the podium, finishing in fourth place. After working as a wildcat, he returned to the front line as Hanwha manager.
With the appointment of Kim Kyung-moon, attention is focusing on whether Kim will be able to end the history of Hanwha’s managerial brutality. Hanwha, which won its only postseason championship in 1999, played in the fall baseball league only once in 2018 until last year.
The Hanwha Eagles, which has been nicknamed “weak team,” has brought several coaches to overcome the crisis. After Kim In-shik, who served as the team’s coach from 2005 to 2009, Han Dae-hwa took the helm, followed by Kim Eung-yong, Kim Sung-geun, Han Yong-deok, Carlos Subero, and Choi Won-ho. All of them did not end well, however. Notably, Han Dae-hwa, Kim Sung-geun, Han Yong-deok, Subero, and Choi Won-ho could not avoid resignation during the season, and Hanwha was notorious as a “grave of coaches.”
Manager Kim Kyung-moon was also aware of Hanwha’s atrocities. “It is a fate that a coach should accept (replacement due to sluggishness),” Kim said calmly through Yonhap News on Tuesday.
The biggest reason for the breakup between Hanwha and Choi Won-ho, who officially took over as manager in May last year, was their lackluster performance. Expectations were also high in some areas. This is because many veteran players including “Korean Monster” Ryu Hyun-jin, Ahn Chi-hong, Kim Kang-min and Lee Jae-won have been reinforced ahead of this season.
In particular, many experts did not hesitate to pick Hanwha as a strong dark horse this season when Ryu Hyun-jin, who wrote 98-52-1 saves and 2.80 ERA in the KBO League from 2006 to 2012, entered the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2013 to 2023 and posted 78-48 losses and 3.27 ERA.
It certainly started well. He recorded eight wins and two losses in 10 games including the opening game, and took the lead as the lone lead. However, Kim Min-woo and key shortstop Ha Ju-seok, who used to be the same as the first starter, left in succession due to injury, and Ryu Hyun-jin also had difficulty adapting to the KBO league. As Moon Dong-ju and Roh Si-hwan, who have become the ace pitchers and hitters for the Korean national team, also failed to meet expectations, Hanwha began to fall out of control.
Director Choi Won-ho who recently broke up with Hanwha. Photo = Reporter Kim Young-gu
Confronted with the worst report card of 6 wins and 17 losses in April, Hanwha fell to the bottom on the 23rd of last month. There were certainly some unfair parts to blame the head coach, but Choi Won-ho, who had been contemplating voluntary resignation since April, finally made up his mind, and resigned with CEO Park Chan-hyuk.
Therefore, the part that Hanwha has the greatest expectation by choosing Kim Kyung-moon is its performance. Announcing the appointment of head coach Kim, Hanwha said, “We judged that head coach Kim Kyung-moon, who has abundant experience and experience, is the right person to grow the team,” adding, “The opinion was that he has the best ability to deal with the current chaotic squad and achieve the club’s goals.”
First of all, this year’s goal is to advance to the fall baseball league. This is not impossible. Currently, the Hanwha Eagles ranks eighth, just 4.5 games behind the SSG Landers (29 wins, 1 draw and 28 losses), the Maginot Line for advancing to the fall baseball league.
Hanwha said, “The coach will also do his best to advance to the postseason, the club’s goal, as there are not much differences from the mid-range due to the recent rise and there are still many games left.”
Can manager Kim Kyung-moon lead Hanwha to the postseason? Photo = Reporter Chun Jung-hwan
Manager Kim Kyung-moon’s ambition is also significant. “I didn’t have high expectations that I would be called. I thank the Hanwha team for remembering me again and trusting me, and I will definitely repay you,” he said. “I think they called me because they were thinking about the postseason. Hanwha fans who continue to support me regardless of my performance are the best fans. I will make a good team and repay you with the victory (next year).”
“Hanwha Power is not at the bottom of the list,” coach Kim said. “The starters such as Ryu Hyun-jin and Moon Dong-ju are second to none. I will make up for the rest and repay them with the victory.”
Will Kim, who boasts a stellar career, be able to lead the Hanwha Eagles to a good performance and end its atrocities? Coach Kim, who will hold an inauguration ceremony and a press conference at the Hanwha Life Eagles Park public relations center in Daejeon on Thursday, is expected to take the helm starting at the match against the KT Wiz in Suwon on Saturday.