The 2024 season of Lotte Giants was exciting. Regardless of his best efforts, Kim Tae-hyung, the “Winning Agency” manager, joined as the head of the team. Lotte fans believed that Kim Tae-hyung’s strong leadership, which had not been with Lotte until now, would bring the team to the championship.
However, early days of this season were bumpy. The team had eight consecutive losses in shock that it had never experienced before as a manager of the Doosan Bears. It had two wins and one draw against the KT Wiz to pull out of the game, but the team is still lagging far behind other top teams. In fact, it would be a cold-headed judgment to say that the team’s performance over the weekend would not have been easy to guarantee a win if it were not for KT, which has been in a bad mood recently.유흥알바
In a professional league, the highest score is achieved. It is important. That is why fans will not be satisfied with the Lotte Giants led by Kim Tae-hyung. However, they should pay attention to certain areas that are clearly changing. The “iron rice bowl” culture is disappearing.
Lotte has not won a championship since 1992. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t spent money. It spent a lot of money on star players. This year, there are talks of investment failures in the second division of Yoo Kang-nam, Noh Jin-hyuk, and Han Hyun-hee’s “FA 17 Billion Won Trio.” The pattern continues to be similar.
There are many stars, but the players’ performance has rarely been aggregated into a single team. It was a moment when the players failed to do their best to take the first team position, considering that “the first team position is a given.” Money is money, but since they are still average players, the leaders even ruined the season waiting for their performance, saying, “They will do it someday.”
That’s why Lotte expected Kim to take control of the team. Even during his time at Doosan, he relentlessly removed some star players from the roster when they did something that made them noticeable, creating a mood for the team.
Lotte is also feeling the mood. The message is clearly being conveyed that without talent, there will be no place in the first team. In addition to the FA trio mentioned above, Kim Min-seok, who had 100 hits as a rookie last season, was informed of his move to the second team, giving way to Hwang. Kim Min-seok is a new star that Lotte boasts. Such a player was not enough to Kim’s eyes as he constantly gave opportunities to raise and raise him at the club level.
High-potential players such as Ko Seung-min and Na Seung-yup were also given the opportunity for the first time, but they failed to prove it, and they went to the second division without hesitation. On the 22nd, Lee Hak-joo, who had no hit in the last seven consecutive games, was withdrawn from the second division. Since the opening of the season, the bat has been so good that his batting average has been 366 percent despite his recent slump, but Kim was not too disappointed.
He doesn’t even say anything back. When Ko Seung-min and Na Seung-yup were mentioned, Kim bluntly said, “I haven’t been briefed on anything that could have come up. If I want to post someone, I need to post someone, but it’s not that bad.” When the names of Yoo Kang-nam, Noh Jin-hyuk, and Han Hyun-hee were mentioned, “I don’t think we should expect that those players have to do it unconditionally. It is right to use players who are good now. Of course, the main players should do well, but we shouldn’t have vague expectations on those players when they are not doing well right now. Of course, if there are reports that they are doing well in the second division, we will of course post them. I have to do well even after coming up. Or I’m going down again.” Lotte players should always be nervous regardless of their annual salary or name value so that they can play baseball in the first division.
To compare Lotte with Doosan, Kim was more comfortable during the Doosan period in which a newly appointed player took over the position even when a player went down. However, compared with Doosan, Lotte does not have many players who can make a sensation. As a result, the team’s losing streak has been extended, and Son Ho-young’s trade was rushed.
While immediate performance is important, Lotte believes that unless players change their minds that “I will definitely come up in 10 days even if I join the second tier team,” they will never achieve the result of winning the championship. It may take time, but they have begun to realize that without such a bone-carving improvement in their constitution, results will never be luck-driven. This is an important change.