ERA 13.00 1.5 Billion Contract First Year, Can It Be This Twisted...14 points from the shock of Hanwha's all-out war
Jul 09, 2025
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KIA Tigers' sidearm Lim Ki-young blamed himself first after last season. It was a season where I didn't like anything from one to ten. Was it rather poison that he was motivated to become the first FA in his life. In 37 games, he only had 6 wins and 2 losses, 2 holds, 45 ⅔ innings, and a 6.31 ERA.
Kia did not rate Lim Ki-young as just one season last year. Lim spent his career high season in 2023 with 64 games, 4-4, three saves, 16 holds, 82 innings and a 2.96 ERA. If the team needed it, he devoted himself to starting and going back and forth to the bullpen. KIA offered a total of 1.5 billion won, including a three-year contract period, a down payment of 300 million won, an annual salary of 900 million won and an option of 300 million won, and Lim Ki-young accepted the club's proposal, vowing to rebound after the contract.
The club cited the introduction of ABS (automatic ball determination system) as the reason why Lim Ki-young struggled last year. Lim Ki-young is a pitcher who targets low in the strike zone, and the strike zone set by ABS was generally advantageous for pitchers targeting high places. As ABS did not respond to the low ball, of course, the number of on-base hits against the opponent increased, and Lim Ki-young was forced to continue to be pursued psychologically.
This year, KBO downgraded the ABS strike zone to reflect the hardships of pitchers such as Lim Ki-young. Without any change in zone size, both the top and bottom were lowered by 0.6 percentage points, allowing the whole to move down. Lim Ki-young showed a cautious attitude despite this change, saying, `I think I'll know at best.'
The reason he moved to the U.S. early ahead of the spring camp and conducted personal training was to quickly adapt to the ABS era. The club took care of him, such as recognizing the training center, and Lim Ki-young looked forward to a bright future while receiving training in the U.S. with gratitude.
However, Lim Ki-young is struggling again this year. He is 1-1 with nine innings and a 13.00 ERA in 10 games. WHIP (on-base Huh Yong-soo per inning) reaches 3.00 and the hit rate is 0.489. All the figures are so bad that I wonder if there has ever been a time when it has been this sluggish.
Lim Ki-young, in particular, had to make use of the opportunity he got against the Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon on the 8th. He has spent two months reorganizing in the second division since May 3 He was registered in the first-team entry with Lee Hyung-beom on the 3rd. Lim Ki-young and Lee Hyung-beom were in charge of the chasing team. It was important for Lim Ki-young to lead the inning in a situation where the score gap widened significantly because the bullpen was quite tired during the No. 1 winning rate in June.
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However, KIA gave up the victory to Hanwha by allowing a large number of six runs in the bottom of the third inning. Lee Hyung-beom, who took the mound with one out and runners on the first and second bases, walked Noh Si-hwan and was on the verge of loading the bases, and allowed Chae Eun-sung to sweep a three-run double to make it 3-6. Kim Tae-yeon's one-run timely hit made it 3-7, and Lim Ki-young was raised as the crisis continued with one out and runners on first and second bases.
As soon as Lim Ki-young came up, he was hit by timely hits by Choi Jae-hoon and Shim Woo-joon in succession, reaching 3-9. Lee Won-seok was treated with a double play by the second baseman, which ended the bottom of the third inning with difficulty.
Lim Ki-young faced four batters in the bottom of the fourth inning and passed it without much trouble, but he did not hold out until the end of the fifth inning. After sending out leadoff hitter Kim Tae-yeon with a hit, Ha Joo-seok was turned into a fly ball to left field. Choi Jae-hoon's hit with one out and one base led to a crisis on the first and second bases, and allowed Shim Woo-joon to hit an RBI timely hit to make it 3-10. Lee Won-seok was treated as a shortstop infield flyout and held on to the first and second bases with two outs, but he allowed Liberato and Moon Hyun-bin to make timely hits in succession to make it 3-12. In the end, the mound was replaced by Kim Tae-hyung, and Kim Tae-hyung allowed a timely hit to Noh Si-hwan, bringing in one more Lim Ki-young's leadoff man.
Lim Ki-young allowed four runs with 40 pitches, eight hits, no four outs, and two strikeouts in two ⅓ innings. Lim Ki-young's poor performance was more painful considering that KIA chased 8-14 in the top of the eighth inning by scoring five runs, including Wisdom's grand slam. If Lee Hyung-beom and Lim Ki-young hadn't collapsed with four runs each, a much tighter fight would have been possible. The result of the collapse of the two pitchers was a crushing defeat of 14 runs.
KIA manager Lee Bum-ho said, "When Lim Ki-young, who was in the second division, is mentioned, he is a player who should do his part for the team someday." The club is still waiting for Lim Ki-young, and the player himself is trying to find a breakthrough, but it is not easy to untangle the thread that you don't know from where it got twisted.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
