Lee Jung-hoo, who has a lot of ground balls at second base, has a lot of top 11 batting average, but the quality of the ball is also the key

Jul 21, 2025

Lee Jung-hoo, who has a lot of ground balls at second base, has a lot of top 11 batting average, but the quality of the ball is also the key
Lee Jung-hoo hits a hit in the top of the second inning against Toronto on the 19th (Korea time). ImagesYonhap News



Lee Jung-hoo, who has a lot of ground balls at second base, has a lot of top 11 batting average, but the quality of the ball is also the key
San Francisco Giants Lee Jung-hoo. AFP Yonhap News
San Francisco Giants Lee Jung-hoo continues to rise in July even in the second half of the year.

Lee Jung-hoo started as a leadoff center fielder in an away game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada on the 21st (Korea time) and scored two hits, one RBI and one run in five at-bats.

Lee Jung-hoo, the first batter in 33 days, hit a lucky double in his first at-bat in the top of the first inning and homered, and in the fourth at-bat in the sixth inning, he hit a heavy hit with two outs and runners on first and second to hit an RBI. And the other three at-bats were swinging strikeouts, ground balls to the first base, and ground balls to the second base.




Lee Jung-hoo, who scored multiple hits in five games after the LA Dodgers match (3 hits in 4 at-bats) on the 12th, marked a batting average of 0.249 (89 hits in 357 at-bats) and an OPS of 0.716 with six home runs, 41 RBIs and 50 runs. He hit multiple hits for the fourth time in July, raising his monthly batting average to 0.306 (15 hits in 49 times at bat). Overall, it is safe to say that it is not a bad start to the second half.

However, it is pointed out that Lee Jung-hoo must hit a high-quality ball in order to dramatically increase his batting average.

Lee Jung-hoo, who has a lot of ground balls at second base, has a lot of top 11 batting average, but the quality of the ball is also the key
San Diego Padres Luis Arraez. ImagesYonhap News
Local media outlet McCovie Chronicles said on the 18th that Lee Jung-hoo's batting average in May was 0.231 and June was 0.143 because there were many ground balls at second base and ordinary center field flies. The opponent already knows that he is vulnerable to fast balls due to his slow bat speed. He said, 'He targets breaking balls and off-speed pitches to some extent, but he has not yet adapted to fastballs.




The problem is that there are also many ground balls at second base. I looked into the statistics on groundball outs, especially ground balls to second base.

The ratio (GO/AO) of groundout to flyout (AO) is 0.92, for Lee. A flyout of 100 means 92 groundout. Coincidentally, it is the same as the average of 0.92 in the Major League this season. It can be interpreted as meaning that he is not a batter who hits a lot of ground balls.

Looking at this ratio of hitters focusing on contact heating like Lee Jung-hoo, San Diego Padres Luis Arraez is 0.85, Chicago Cubs Nico Horner is 0.85, and Cleveland Guardians Steven Kwan is 0.86, which is slightly lower than Lee Jung-hoo. Just as the swing trajectory and bat speed are different, GO/AO is bound to be different for each batter.




Lee Jung-hoo, who has a lot of ground balls at second base, has a lot of top 11 batting average, but the quality of the ball is also the key
Atlanta Braves Michael Harris II. AFP Yonhap News
What's important is that the batting average depends on how often you hit hard, and Lee Jung-hoo's hard hit ratio is 30.1%, the bottom 12% with an average batting speed of 87.3 miles, and the bottom 16% with 'floor zone', so a way to overcome or at least offset it should be devised.

Records also show that Lee Jung-hoo is a batter with a lot of ground balls at second base. According to Statcast, Lee Jung-hoo has 43 ground balls (including second baseman errors, second baseman fielder selection, and second baseman double play) and is the sixth largest among all hitters.

The first place was Atlanta Braves Michael Harris II, who hit 53 ground balls to second base, followed by Arraez with 48. It is notable that LA Dodgers Shohei Ohtani and Baltimore Orioles Gunner Henderson, who are classified as big guns, are tied for third with 45 each. It can be attributed to the blocking of the defensive shift.

Los Angeles Angels Nolan Shanuel ranks fifth with 44, while Lee Jung-hoo and Washington Nationals Luis Garcia Jr. are tied for sixth.

Harris II has 14.8%, Araez 12.7%, Ohtani 11.8%, Henderson 13.0%, Shanuel 12.5%, and Lee Jung-hoo and Garcia 12.0% and 13.8%, respectively. The figure is overwhelmingly high for Harris II, most of which are in the 12% range.

St. Louis Cardinals Brandon Donovan, who is 8th to 11th on the ground ball to second base, is 11.9% (42 for 354), Baltimore Ryan O'Hearn is 14.8% (42 for 284), Arizona Diamondbacks Josh Naylor is 12.5% (42 for 336), Baltimore Jackson Holiday is 11.1% (40 for 361), and Stephen Kwan is 10.8% (39 for 361).

Lee Jung-hoo, who has a lot of ground balls at second base, has a lot of top 11 batting average, but the quality of the ball is also the key
Lee Jung-hoo's pulling hit is pointed out as the reason for the large number of ground balls at second base. AFP Yonhap News
Of course, all 11 of them are left-handed hitters. In the case of Lee Jung-hoo, it is pointed out that the problem is that it often flows to the second base or the first base ground ball due to the excessive attraction of the breaking ball flying outside. In order to improve the quality of the ball, you have to hit it accurately and strongly, but at least a hit that pulls too hard does not help.

Among these 11, Lee Jung-hoo has the lowest batting average after Harris II (0.212).





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.