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| NC-Hanwha match held at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 2nd. NC won 2-0. Coach Lee Ho-joon is applauding the players. Daejeon = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.2/ |
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Is it 'Gusang Lee Ho-joon?'
If you make a trade in professional baseball, you can't benefit the same way as 50-50 players. Success and failure evaluations follow. If you are a god who can predict the future, you will not lose money, but there are many cases where it does not go as predicted because it is what humans do.
That's why the fate of the team and the players changes with the trade. Kim Sang-hyun, Lee Yong-gyu, and Park Byung-ho are representative. Coincidentally, all three were LG Twins prospects, and their baseball lives have completely changed since the transfer.
The aftermath of the 3 to 3 mega-trade between the KIA Tigers and the NC Dinos has not subsided. It is shocking that KIA boldly gave up Choi Won-joon, a franchise star and national outfielder. Lee Woo-sung, the leading player in last year's integrated championship, also left. It was because he needed a pitcher. In the second half of the year, as Jung Hae-young and Cho Sang-woo fell into a losing streak due to the unbelievable slump, it was right that bullpen transfusions were urgently needed.
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| NC Dinos Choi Won-joon is hitting against the Lotte Giants on the 29th. Photo courtesy =NC Dinos |
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The problem is the performance and name value of the players brought in. No matter how much Choi Won-joon is a preliminary FA, if Choi Won-joon and Lee Woo-sung are 's sluggish first-team players', Kim Si-hoon and Han Jae-seung would be exactly right as '2nd-team players' excluded from coach Lee Ho-joon's idea. Kim Si-hoon lost the fiery fastball he sprayed in the early days of his debut, and Han Jae-seung is a fast ball but has a lot of ups and downs. Both of them were questionable whether they could play as a clear first-team must-win group.
First of all, the initial result is NC's perfect winning atmosphere. NC manager Lee Ho-joon diagnosed that both Choi Won-joon and Lee Woo-sung's psychological problems were the reason for their sluggish performance this season and instilled confidence. In the case of Lee Woo-sung, he played as the fourth batter against the Lotte Giants on the 30th.
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| NC Dinos Lee Woo-sung hits against the Lotte Giants on the 29th. Photo courtesy =NC Dinos |
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The operation was a great success. Choi Won-joon had a three-run game with a multi-hit and sacrifice fly. He also added a steal. Lee Woo-sung also repaid Lee's faith with multi-hitters. As a result, NC defeated Lotte, which was doing well, 9-4.
On the contrary, KIA put Kim Si-hoon against the Doosan Bears as soon as they brought him in on the 29th, but he was hit by Kim Jae-hwan. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to make an important moment in the future after seeing his fastball pitching that does not even come out 140 kilometers. On the 30th, neither of them was appointed in a close game until the 11th inning of overtime. It meant that there was still a lack of faith to trust and release in the tight flow. No matter how urgent the pitcher was in a difficult situation, voices are starting to emerge that one of the two should have brought resources that could be used as a must-win team for the first team right away.
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| KIA 김시훈. Photo courtesy =KIA Tigers |
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While the first two teams' face-off in the second half was canceled in a row due to heavy rain, the two coaches reportedly took a tee time and naturally put it together. If this happens, coach Lee Ho-joon can be evaluated as playing the role of 'Geosang'. Of course, as mentioned above, it's still early after the trade, so we'll have to wait and see.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
