Is the level of Major League pitchers so high. Or was Lee Jung-hoo's ability to dominate the KBO League just a bubble.
San Francisco Giants outfielder Lee Jung-hoo showed helplessness again at the plate. He seemed to escape the slump of seven consecutive hitless games with multiple hits the previous day, but he ended up with no hit again in a day and dropped his head.
Lee Jung-hoo started as the sixth center fielder in an away game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, USA on the morning of the 22nd (Korea time), but had no hits in four times at bat. 'Floating ball (2 times)-Floating ball (4 times)-ground ball (7 times)-Floating ball (9 times)" is the batting content that Lee Jung-hoo showed on the day.
Not a single hard hit (over 95 mph) came out in four at-bats. It means that everything was a helpless waste of time.
As a result, Lee's batting average for the season fell from 0.263 to 0.261 (141 hits in 541 times at bat). In about three weeks, another 260,000 line is on the verge of collapse. Lee Jung-hoo had a batting average of 0.259 with no hits in three at-bats in the home game against the Baltimore Orioles on August 31. On September 3, he returned to the 260 level with two hits in three at-bats against Colorado.
After that, the hitting sense was fine until early September. On the 9th, he went 3 for 4 against Arizona, raising his batting average to 0.271. It was a time when expectations for entering the 280 percent range were also raised. However, this expectation quickly disappeared. Lee Jung-hoo fell into a seven-game hitless slump like a lie since the game against Arizona on the 11th.
If Lee Jung-hoo fails to escape his recent batting slump, he may end the season batting average in the quarter of a century or less. In the end, this means that Lee Jung-hoo is a batter who barely reaches the average level of 'MLB', contrary to high expectations.
According to Baseball Reference, a U.S. baseball statistics website, the average batting average in the Major League this season is 0.246. Lee Jung-hoo has a batting average of late 50th to early 60th among hitters who have filled the regular at-bats. But there is still a season left. Looking at Lee Jung-hoo's current pace, there is more possibility of going down than going up here.
If Lee Jung-hoo fails to maintain a batting average of 250, the problem becomes serious. This is because it may have worked in the KBO League, but it is evidence that it shows a significant difference from MLB's level.
Lee Jung-hoo averaged 0.340 (1,181 hits in 3,476 at-bats) for seven seasons during the KBO League and won the batting title for the second consecutive year (2021-2022). After actively appealing this point, he was able to sign a six-year total of $113 million (about 158.1 billion won) with San Francisco through posting in the winter of 2023.
However, Lee Jung-hoo showed a reality that maintaining the 260 level, let alone batting average of .300, was in jeopardy this year, his second and practically first full-time MLB season. If this happens, there may be criticism that there is an error in the San Francisco club's player valuation system. This is because it is a huge waste of resources to spend an average of about $18.83 million (about 26.3 billion won) annually on hitters who are only on or below the MLB average.
There could also be criticism that San Francisco played into Scott Boras's sech tongue 'Devil's Agent'.
Another problem is that it can also have a bad effect on other Korean players who want to advance to MLB through posting or FA. The fact that the KBO league's highest-level athletic ability is only average or below in MLB could lead to side effects that MLB clubs' interest in Korean players in the future.
In the end, Lee Jung-hoo had a homework to shake off the slump in the rest of the season and bring out the batting average as much as possible. It is time to make efforts not only for his career but also for his fellow seniors and juniors who will challenge the MLB stage in the future.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
