There is a player who appeared like a comet in the 2021 season and rose to stardom with a thrilling charm on a walk.
This is the story of LG Twins outfielder Hong Chang-ki (30).
Hong Chang-ki pulled off a full tie two years ago and picked out as many as 109 walks, proudly becoming the on-base king.
Hong Chang-ki now has to lead the LG outfield competition. However, the opponent is not the main player. He has to win first in competition with the backup players. He is a player who needs real exhaust competitiveness.
The LG outfield is saturated. As a foreign hitter outfielder Austin Dean joined the team, competition in the outfield intensified. .
The LG outfield has already been evaluated as being filled with high-quality players. It consisted of right fielder Hong Chang-ki, center fielder Park Hae-min, and left fielder Kim Hyun-soo. It was a very ornate composition.
But last year one axis collapsed. Hong Chang-ki could not adapt to the new strike zone and his overall performance dropped.
Good offense is not coming out of the outfield, which was believed, and the overall team’s batting ability has declined.
Hong Chang-ki’s on-base percentage, which recorded a whopping 0.456 last year, was 0.390, and the 40% range collapsed.
His overall performance fluctuated as his walks, which he had earned as many as 109, shrank to 59. He was cited as a representative player who failed to adapt to the wide strike zone.
As a result, the place became a little awkward. Dean’s primary position is the outfield. LG coach Yeom Gyeom-yeop is giving Lee Jae-won a chance as a first baseman and is trying to develop him. There is also Song Chan-eui, who is flying in the Australian league. 스포츠토토
Currently, Hong Chang-ki’s opponent is not the main players, but Moon Seong-ju, the number 1 backup in the outfield.
Moon Seong-joo recorded a batting average of 0.303 last year with 6 homers and 41 RBIs. His injury and poor physical strength hindered him, but his pace was fast enough to compete with top hitters at one time. He is being evaluated that if he manages his stamina well, he can get better results this season.
Moon Seong-joo is the number one backup candidate to fill the vacancy when outfielders enter the designated hitter through rotation. He is also Hong Chang-ki’s competitor at the same time.
Hong Chang-gi’s competition as the starting pitcher is not a problem. He has to prove that he is a better player than Sung-Joo Moon, so he has the basic conditions to play every day.
Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop is a manager who is good at managing the pool of key players widely and giving them breaks by using designated hitters.
It is true that the outfield also needs four or five players. Therefore, what matters now is who will be the fourth outfielder. This is a position that Hong Chang-ki and Moon Seong-joo are competing for. You have to win here to get into the gap between the three main outfielders once again.
Hong Chang-ki is a player who needs to look at himself calmly. He shouldn’t forget that he only batted 300 full-time just once in the 2021 season.
He must also keep in his heart the memory of not being able to properly seize the opportunity to play because of “weak defense” despite his good batting ability during his obscure days.
Things are different for him than when he was accumulating on-base with countless walks. He’s starting to see his flaws, and he’s not showing signs of getting better. That is Hong Chang-gi’s current baseball.
LG is a team that is attracting great attention to how the main competition will unfold this season. The hottest topic is the competition for the positions of outfielders outside of the center. Hong Chang-ki stands at the forefront of the hwadu. It remains to be seen whether Hong Chang-ki and LG will be able to overcome the hurdle and make a stable player rotation.