SSG Landers’ team quality start (QS, more than six innings and less than three earned runs) for this season has been made seven times as of Tuesday, ranking last among the 10 teams alone.메이저놀이터
NC Dinos, the No. 1 team QS player, has more than twice as many as SSG with 15, and Hanwha Eagles and Samsung Lions, who are ranked ninth, have recorded eight times, respectively.
If you open it closely, you can see the team’s situation where no clear five starters have been established. Kim Kwang-hyun recorded three QSs, the most in the team, followed by Roenis Elias twice, and retired foreign pitchers Robert Duggar and Park Jong-hoon once. Another starting agent Oh Won-seok failed to record QS in the 0th inning, and Lee Kun-wook, Lee Ki-soon, and Song Young-jin, who played as alternative starters, also failed to record QS.
Expanding the scope a little more, QS+ (more than seven innings and less than three earned runs) is the only club out of the 10 teams that has never had one. NC has had five QS+ games, and KIA has had four.
Though fragmented, this incident confirms SSG’s current concerns. SSG decided on its opening five-man rotation with Kim Kwang-hyun, Elias, Duggar, Oh Won-seok, and Park Jong-hoon, but Park Jong-hoon has been moving up and down the first and second teams since his first game, and Duggar only showed his worst pitching repeatedly without a win before being kicked out in a month. While watching Duggar’s unusual slump, SSG moved quickly and recruited alternative pitcher Drew Anderson, and Anderson is preparing to enter Korea on Thursday.
However, Anderson cannot be a complete savior right away. Although he has skills enough to be mentioned as a strong candidate in other teams’ search for a replacement pitcher, he has not prepared as a starting pitcher for this season. As he pitched in as many as three innings as possible in the Minor League, he needs to increase the number of pitches and rebuild his body to match the starting pitcher. Lee said he would use Anderson as a starting pitcher as soon as possible, but as a prerequisite, he needs to increase the number of pitches as he continues to play in the Major League. On the day Anderson takes the mound, the burden on the bullpen is expected to increase.
With Oh Won-seok also yet to meet expectations, even Kim Kwang-hyun, who was in good condition from the beginning of the season, has been shaken in the last three games. Following five runs in six innings against LG on April 21, four runs in five innings against KT on April 27 and seven runs in four ⅓ against NC on April 3. Elias has also shown below-expected performances with five runs in the last three consecutive games, and it is not easy to win even if it is SSG with a strong lineup.
The bullpen session, which had been concerned about, managed to hold out well by banking on stable closing pitcher Moon Seung-won’s presence, growth of Lee Roon, discovery of Cho Byung-hyun, and all-weather performance of Han Doo-sol, but in the match against NC on Thursday, bullpen pitchers allowed 10 runs in an inning while giving a flurry of walks. SSG was helplessly defeated by 5-to-19. It faced the worst situation in which it allowed a whopping 19 runs.
With it difficult for foreign pitchers to join forces right now, “one-two punch” Kim Kwang-hyun and Elias are also faltering, and their fifth starting pitcher is still in limbo. Plans B and C that they prepared while preparing for this season are not revealed yet.
SSG’s current ranking is 4th. It is competing for the top spot, but it seems difficult to guarantee its ranking if the recent trend is maintained.