“I really don’t want to be the monthly MVP. Maybe Kim Do-young will get it.”
Won Tae-in, the ace of the Samsung Lions, got off to a fresh start in the 2024 season, the sixth year since his professional debut. Since the opening of the regular season on March 23, he has pitched in six games until April, pitching 34 ⅓, and recording a remarkable 4-1 record with an ERA of 2.10.
Detailed indicators were also excellent. He showed off his performance as a top-ranked pitcher in the league, including four quality starts, a WHIP-per-inning percentage of 0.99, a batting average of 0.201, and an average of five ⅔ innings per game.먹튀검증
Of course, Won Tae-in was also named MVP candidate for 2024 regular season March-April announced by KBO on May 2. He continued his good trend until April as he won five games of the season with three hits, two walks, two strikeouts and one run (non-indemnity) in six innings against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil.
Wontae-in lowered his ERA to 1.79 on May 2 with an excellent performance against Doosan. He ranks first in this category after KIA Tigers’ Nail (1.26). Da-seung leaped to the lead alone, continuing his challenge to become the title holder for the first time in his career.
Won Tae-in, the ace pitcher of the Samsung Lions, expressed his opinion that Kim Do-young of the Kia Tigers, not himself, is highly likely to win the title as the monthly MVP in March and April after winning his fifth win of the season against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on May 2. Photo by reporter Kim Han-joon
“It’s amazing that I’m in a position (second in ERA, first in multiple wins) right now. I really didn’t think about it,” Won said in an interview with an official coach after the game. “I thought I would have a hard time early in the season because I started pitching late in the spring camp this year. I thought I would continue to endure it right after the opening, but I didn’t expect to see such good results.”
“I don’t have any desire to keep my current position. Rather, I think it’s fortunate that I was able to do this much even though my body was less healthy at the beginning of the season,” he said. “I think I’ll get better results as I throw it with the mindset that ‘I’ll be right at least once someday’.”
At the same time, Won Tae-in said that he has no great greed for the position of the first monthly MVP of the 2024 season. Although he once won the monthly MVP award with 4 wins and 1 loss and 1.16 ERA in 31 innings in five games in April 2021, when his career was high, he said that Kia Tigers’ Kim Do-young’s performance was better than his own until April this year.
Through April 2024, Kim had a batting average of 0.338 (44 hits in 13 times at bat), 10 homers, 26 RBIs and 14 steals, and an OPS of 1.018 in 31 games. He also recorded double-digit homers and steals per month for the first time since the launch of the KBO League in 1982.
“I don’t have any greed for monthly MVP. Kim Do-young did a great job and set a milestone for the first time,” Won Tae-in said. “Kim Do-young belongs to the same agent as me. I think he will receive it.”
The 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League Monthly MVP is selected by the KBO and Shinhan Bank, the KBO League title sponsor, every month. The monthly MVP, which is awarded to the player who showed the best performance in the KBO league every month, selects the final winner by summing up the fan vote and the Korea Baseball Organization’s press corps vote. Fan voting will be available from 11 a.m. on May 2 to 23:59 a.m. on Shinhan Bank’s mobile application “Shinhan SOL Bank.”
KIA Tigers infielder Kim Do-young was named as the final seven monthly MVP candidates for March and April of the 2024 season announced by KBO on May 2. After the opening of this season, he was active in April, recording double-digit monthly home runs and stolen bases for the first time since the KBO League was launched in 1982. Photo by Expo News DB
The monthly MVP winners, selected through the final voting results, will receive a W2 million prize and a newly produced monthly MVP commemorative trophy this year. In addition, a W2 million donation will be delivered to the MVP-winning Korean middle school under the name of the player through the sponsorship of Shinhan Bank to develop youth baseball.