What a waste, Tyler Alexander, the active big leaguer with 20 ML wins, the KKKKKKAL consecutive strikeout record holder, Samsung's plan B lost
Jun 10, 2025
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The 65th pick in the second round of the 2015 rookie draft is bound for his hometown from Chicago, where he joined the Detroit Tigers in quick turn. It was very disappointing news for the Samsung Lions in the KBO League across the Pacific.
This is because Denny Reyes, the second starter for foreigners, left again due to a foot injury. Reyes, who had a late start to the season due to fine fatigue fractures in his right foot and other metatarsal bones before the season, was diagnosed with fractures in the same area again and was canceled on the 8th. On the 7th, a day earlier, he left the mound early with six hits, two walks and four runs in three innings against NC. It is highly likely that this game will be Reyes' farewell match on the KBO stage.
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Samsung's fierce competition for the top ranks, which is hard to predict, is on alert.
Ace Ariel Furado is struggling with his first shutout victory against NC on the 8th, but there are two spaces in the starting lineup right away. Even native ace Won Tae-in was canceled on the 7th to rest. Yang Chang-seop and Hwang Dong-jae are scheduled to replace Won Tae-in and Reyes, but bullpen day is inevitable.
That doesn't mean the bullpen situation is relaxed. Young pitchers such as Lee Ho-sung and Bae Chan-seung and veteran Kim Tae-hoon are holding out, but another veteran Baek Jung-hyun was canceled on the 7th due to left shoulder joint inflammation.
Samsung, which is in fourth place with seven wins and three losses in the last 10 games, is at a critical juncture this week. It will play three consecutive away games against KIA, followed by three consecutive home games against KT. They are formidable mid-range strong teams.
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Alexander, who just happened to be released from Milwaukee, was the best man. This is because it was a great opportunity to bring in a left-hander special foreign player who was just needed to find the starting lineup without transfer fees.
Since joining the big league in 2019, he has been playing in the major leagues for seven seasons. As of Tuesday, he has played 488 ⅓ innings in 165 games in seven major league seasons, recording 20 wins and 34 losses with an ERA of 4.66 and WHIP of 1.296. He has plenty of experience in starting 56 games. He gave up just 111 walks while striking out 395. 7.3 strikeouts, 2 walks per 9 innings. It's a fairly low walk-permission rate.
With an average of 91 miles (about 146km) of four-seam and two-seam fastballs, he is not a fiery fastball, but he is the type of pitcher who strikes out a lot with his sophisticated ball control and various breaking balls. It uses both sharp-bending cutters, which are its main weapons, changeups of opposite trajectories, and sliders. On August 2, 2020, he took the mound in relief in the first game of a doubleheader against Cincinnati, setting a new record of nine consecutive strikeouts in three ⅔ innings. It was an AL tie record and one short of the ML record (10 consecutive hitters).
The current major leaguer who played for Milwaukee for a bargain price of $1 million this season. He was a healthy pitcher, so he had enough ball power to work even if he came to the KBO stage right away. Samsung almost caught the luck of recruiting a super-special left-hander as an alternative foreign pitcher amid rapid movements, but the Chicago White Sox played with a big league contract.
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There are other candidates in the market, but Samsung cannot bring anyone in just because it is urgent. The problem is the two starting positions with holes right now.
If you forget a lot of wins before a full-fledged summer match, it could be a fatal blow.
Another option could be to bring in temporary replacement foreign pitchers from Japan and earn time to find big-name pitchers who will be responsible for the second half and postseason with Furado while filling the urgent starting gap. Samsung is expected to minimize the power gap through a two-track strategy that considers temporary replacement foreign pitchers while searching for alternative foreign pitchers as soon as possible.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.