KIA Tigers Kim Do-young made his name in the history of the KBO League by shooting his 20th arch of the season against “Korean Monster” Ryu Hyun-jin in a showdown with the Hanwha Eagles on the 23rd. Kim Do-young, who failed to record a single home run and steal in six games in March, achieved the feat of 10 home runs and 14 steals in April alone, creating the “first” record since the KBO League was launched, and joined the club with 20 home runs and 20 steals for the fifth time in history less than the first half. And this led to countless records.밤알바
He became the fifth player in the KBO history to join the club with 20 homers and 20 steals, and became the first KIA player to join the club. He joined the 20-20 club at the second youngest age in the KBO history. As of before the start of the game on Saturday, Kim has 20 homers and 23 steals. If he adds 10 homers and seven steals in the remaining 85 games, he will join the 30-30 club for the first time in nine years after Eric Thames (formerly NC Dinos), who had 42 homers and 40 steals in 2015, and as a Korean player, he will join the club for the first time in 24 years after Park Jae-hong (formerly Hyundai Unicorns) in 2000.
Kim Do-young is currently bombing the KBO league, as evidenced by the fact that he signed up for 20 home runs and 20 steals in the first half of the season. He is currently ranking first in the league in scoring (73 points) and ruta (182 hits), and is sweeping various indicators such as tying for second in home runs (20 home runs), slugging percentage (0.605) and OPS (1.008), ranking second in most hits (102), and third in triples (four). If the current trend continues, he can not only join the 30-30 club, but also target 40-40 clubs while he is at it. And even though it is a little early, he may want to become a regular season MVP.
How does the head coach feel when he sees Kim Do-young, who has seen his potential explode at last this year after receiving Kia’s first nomination in the rookie draft in 2022. When asked to give a compliment to Kim after joining the 20-20 club, Lee Beom-ho said, “Now I am a player who goes to a higher level. More people have already praised me than myself,” adding, “What’s left is a battle against injury. I think my coaching staff and I need to check (Kim) Do-young’s condition.”
As the coach said, the biggest stumbling block to Kim is injury. Kim, who was running at an excellent pace last year, only played 84 games as he encountered an injury. “A player must not be injured to complete the season, and we have to protect him because he has come so far in such good condition. Still, young players are trying to shoulder too much, and (Choi) Hyung-woo, (B) Sung-bum, and Socrates are so good that it would be good for him to share the burden with each other. I will take care of him as much as possible so that he does not get injured. However, it is difficult to bear the burden because he is so good,” the coach said with a cool smile.
Coach Lee Bum-ho also seems to feel a special responsibility for Kim’s physical condition. He belongs to KIA during the regular season, but he is qualified enough to represent Korea when the international competition takes place. Beyond KIA, he can be seen as an asset of the Korean baseball community. “I think managing Kim Do-young without getting hurt is a very important part of raising our country as a representative player. Therefore, we will make efforts to raise him as a good player,” the coach said.
Kim Do-young, who received so much attention even before the rookie draft along with Moon Dong-joo (Hanwha Eagles), suffered a lot during his slump. However, Lee Bum-ho explains that such trials and errors would have helped nurture his current performance. “I think the crises that I had as a rookie will be of great help right now. If I had not had difficulties as a rookie, I don’t think it would have been easy to achieve this level of performance this season. I think the difficulties I had in the first or second year of my debut are coming out well from now on,” he said.
Of course, it is true that he has outstanding talent, but he has also improved a lot by learning from the seniors in the team. The head coach said, “There are so many seniors in our team who can see and learn from them. There are still few players who want to skip the game. If there is a player who tends to take a break when the opponent pitcher comes out with an ace, there are many players in our team who have a strong will to play in every game. (Kim) From Do-young’s point of view, I think it will be of great help to prepare with the mindset that ‘all the older players are going out, and I can’t help but go out, either’. If these things are planted and Do-young performs well, I think he can become a representative player of the country.”
Since he joined the 20-20 club even before the halfway point, his coach said he would be able to join the 30-30 club when the season ends. “Since I played 20-20, I think I will be able to go to the 30-30 club easily. I think Doyoung has been saving money on stealing bases due to difficulties these days. If he has one stolen base and one home run a week for three games, he will be able to relax by thinking that he only needs to hit 10 home runs within three months. Even if he only has 30 home runs to 30 home runs this year, he will likely grow even further next year,” he said. “When I see Doyoung’s personality, he will grow into a good player even if he leaves it alone.”