Recent blown saves 2 times ERA 4.82
Redemption fell… Finish return
400 saves in total, agent
‘9th place’ The downtrodden team is in desperate need of resurrection
Did they say there is no business ahead of the years? Samsung’s Oh Seung-hwan (41), who reigned as the best finisher with the nicknames ‘The Endgame King’ and ‘Stone Buddha’ since his professional debut in 2005, is crumbling. Excluding activities in Japan (2 years) and the US (4 years), Oh Seung-hwan, who has played 13 seasons in the KBO League and is the all-time leading player with 374 saves, was expected to reach the unprecedented 400 save mark this season, but in the current atmosphere, the record Achieving it doesn’t seem easy.
As of the 24th, Seunghwan Oh’s record this season is 1 win, 1 loss, 4 saves and 1 hold, and his ERA reaches 4.82. He also recorded two blown saves. Oh Seung-hwan, who took the mound with two outs and first base in the ninth inning with a 5-4 lead against Kiwoom on the 19th, was able to save by catching only one out count, but he allowed consecutive hits and eventually tied the game. At the time, even though Lee Seung-hyeon, the setup man, left-hander Lee Seung-hyeon was enough to finish the game, manager Park Jin-man almost missed the game while trying to save Oh Seung-hwan.
Coach Park, who showed Oh Seung-hwan ‘baseball of faith’, eventually said before the Kiwoom match on the 20th, “Oh Seung-hwan seems to have lost some confidence. He can’t throw his own ball,” he said. “For the time being, I leave the finish to left-hander Lee Seung-hyun. Seung-Hwan Oh will be appointed as a reliever pitcher to give him an environment and time to recover.”
Analysts say that the reason Oh Seung-hwan’s sluggish performance this season is because his fastball, his main weapon, is not as good as before. His fastball, which reached mid-to-late 150 km/h during his American major league days, has dropped significantly to an average of 142.8 km this season. Born in 1982, Oh Seung-hwan, who is 42 years old in Korean age this year, is not at all strange even if the ‘aging curve’ comes. In fact, after returning to the KBO League in 2020, Seung-Hwan Oh’s speedy ball speed is gradually slowing down to 146.2 km that year, 145.7 km in 2021, and 144.7 km in 2022. This means Oh Seung-hwan is no longer a fastball pitcher.안전놀이터
In the past, when he was in his prime, hitters could not touch even if he mixed a slider with pitching, but Oh Seung-hwan’s fastball is no longer a ‘stone fastball’. He has increased his slider usage rate to more than 30% and throws a curveball and changeup he learned during his big league days, but it is not easy to get a breaking ball properly if a fast ball does not work.
Samsung, which is in ninth place with a record of 7 wins and 12 losses, desperately needs the revival of Oh Seung-hwan. Lee Seung-hyeon, who served as the closer in place of Oh Seung-hwan, took the mound in the 9th inning against KIA on the 21st with a 4-2 lead, but failed to catch an out count and gave up the game after being hit by a 3-run home run by Hyung-woo Choi. That’s why the position of finishing pitcher has a lot of responsibility and pressure. Will Oh Seung-hwan, who has become the oldest pitcher in the KBO league, be able to return as the ‘endgame king’?