Thursday, May 5, 2016
Craziest Game I've Ever Seen!
Okay, I watch the tail end of a bee-e-a-utifully played game after work Wednesday night in which the Tigers have to manufacture a run in the 8th to scratch out a 3-2 win over the Lotte Giants and then hold that lead for an inning. That's the kind of baseball a baseball purist or defensive specialist or rounders scholar or whatever they want to call themselves would absolutely LOVE! I don't like that kind of ball. If it's a good pitching duel and hits are at a premium, there's drama in the close score, I'll give you that. But there's boredom in the non-action. Give ME THAT!
I prefer a game where the pitchers suck and the hitters are feasting on them, padding their hitting stats and getting the fans' asses out of their seats so often that they just abandon the seats altogether. That's the kind of game we had, (and sorry for the Lotte fans but you have had your games like this versus Kia so pppttthhhhhbbbbtttt!), tonight and I absolutely loved every second of it! Craziest, and dare I say? I think I dare! Best game I've ever seen! Wait a second. I have to say that watching the Tigers' 10th championship winning game with my good buddy Guns in my dormitory apartment close enough to Moodeung Stadium that we could actually hear the cheers when Na Ji Wan hit the game winning homer..... yeah, THAT was better. But not because of sheer exciting play. Mostly for dramatic importance of the game. This game today held little importance. Even at the end of the season if Kia misses the playoffs by one game, there will be many other games they look to that they should have won. Already several this season.
But this game! This game was a once in a lifetime dream game for a guy like me! I may be overstating a tad but I may NOT!
Okay. I'm sure you're anxious to hear and see the results.
Here are the highlights of the game.
Now if you are like me, and you love baseball statistics, WOAH, brother or sister! Strap yourself in for this!
Where to begin? I guess the score. 17-1. Pretty self-explanatory. But what went into this drubbing? WAAAAY more interesting to a baseball person! Someone who doesn't just show up for the win or loss or to see their hero or to eat popcorn or drink beer or blabadee friggin blah. This was a treasure of a game for the statistician in me! And in all of you TRUE baseball fans who know how rare hitting for the cycle is, (or what it means). There were actually TWO guys who were within one hit of the cycle in this game! BOTH by the 6th inning so they had a couple at bats to complete it! When do you get a chance to see THAT?
I'll dispel the drama, and tell you that neither did it. There's still only one guy who has done it for the Tigers this year and that's Kim Ju Chan. Gives you an idea of how ridiculously hard it is. I mean having two guys trying for it in the same game sort of cheapened it a little. It's gotta be some sort of record just to have two guys going for it! Na Ji Wan had two at bats in which he needed a double. He normally has a discriminating eye at the plate and takes a lot of walks. You could tell he was swinging for a double. But he ended up swinging at bad pitches and striking out in the first cycle at bat, and hitting a ball out of the strike zone for a dribbler to the shortstop in the second. The other guy with a shot at the cycle, Oh Joon Hyuk, was in the more common, and less enviable position of needing a triple to complete it. He only got one chance and ended up taking a walk.
On this bizarre Cinco De Mayo/Children's Day May 5th afternoon, the 12 teams in the KBO combined for, (are you ready for this?), 82 runs! That's almost 7 runs per team! Kia wasn't even the team who scored the most runs! The SK Wyverns won THEIR game 19-6! And the NC Dinos hung up a 15 for the day. Maybe the players like hitting in the afternoon sun. They were all 2:00 games.
So anyway, back to the stats. The Tigers piled up 18 hits and 12 walks. They also had at least one bit batter. Which led to a bench clearing brawl. ON CHILDREN'S DAY! LMAO!!!
The Lotte Giants pitchers threw a total of 194 pitches. That's TWO games worth! Starter - 90, Reliever - 86, Closer - 18. That's what I call Loooooong relief!
Na Ji Wan, who gets a walk every 4 at bats, and gets hit by a lot of pitches, has an unbelievable on base percentage of almost .500. But he got his homerun by hitting a 3-0 pitch. Swinging at a 3-0 pitch is something he never does. It's something really NObody should ever do. But when you have a huge lead in the game, why not?
The captain of the Tigers, and their best hitter this season, Lee Bum Ho, did not even play this game. They piled up 17 runs without their power hitting, clean up slot man! He was seen massaging Na Ji Wan before his first at bat in search of his cycle-completing double though.
10 Kia players had a hit, 5 had multiple hit games and three had 3-hit games. The only guy who went hitless was Kim Ju Hyung, who has been hitting well this season, just not fielding so well.
Oddly, (heh heh), the Tigers only scored in the odd innings getting 2, 6, 5, and 4 runs in the first, third, fifth and seventh innings respectively. A guy like me hopes for just ONE big inning per game. This game had FOUR!!!
Kang Han Ool, the speedy #13 on Kia, had a banner day of his own. He got a hit in the 3rd inning then three consecutive walks, two in the same inning, the 5th. He and Oh Joon Hyuk both scored 3 times. NINE different players worked a walk in this game! The only regulars who didn't were Kim Joo Chan and Brett Pill, and they're not supposed to walk.
Ten different players scored at least one run, and ten different players batted at least one run in. The offense was evenly spread around. That is fantastic for the team!
A game like this is just what the doctor ordered for both the players and the Kia Tigers' fans. They've been under-performing this year and hopefully this game will put a resounding end to that!
We shall see...
Saturday, April 30, 2016
2016 Season so far
I am back. I have been watching the Tigers regularly this year and have a thing or two to say.
Coaching: We'll start with the goat of many seasons in my opinion: the coach. Kim Ki Tae, a Gwangjuian, is a former player. He played for the Wyverns, Lions and one of my favourite defunct teams, the Sang Bang Ool Raiders. To this day I don't know why they didn't call that team the Sox. (Sang Bang Ool is a clothing company. They make socks!).
At any rate, he is starting the season off well. He's not bunting in the annoying Jo Bunt Hyun style of his predecessor. He has even called a few hit and runs! I LOVE that! He's got a great hitting ball club with a long list of players who can knock it over the wall. This is NOT a team to manufacture runs with and he seems to recognize that. For now, I won't slag him. For now...
Pitching: Kia has a couple of the best Korean pitchers ever on their club! They are 28 and 29 respectively so as pitchers go, they should be in their prime. Yang Hyun Jong and Yoon Suk Min both could get 10-15 wins with a little bit of hitting support and faith from the coach. Yang got 15 wins last year and 16 the year before that, but this year has gotten off to a rocky start. He's pitched 33 2/3 innings and has two losses and two no decisions to show for it. He's just not fooling batters the way he was the last two years. His strikeout to walk ratio is most telling. Normally over 2, it's only 1.6 this year. It's not bad, 1.6, it's just not up to Yang's standards. He's giving up about a hit per inning and a run every two innings. Again, not terrible but he's not winning.
Yoon Suk Min has been my favourite pitcher for a long time and if you ask me he's had the worst luck of any pitcher. He has looked solid. He's got one win and two losses. In one of his losses he went the entire game giving up only 2 runs and scattering 9 hits. Not bad. Good enough for the win IF you can get some support from your team. Yoon just never seems to get that. Having said that, Kia GOT 11 hits in the game but managed only one run. That's what seems to happen to Yoon more than anyone! I watched the game and recall the Tigers having base runners on third at least two times with nobody out and both of those times wasted them. Once was a bonehead base running mistake by #33, their shortstop, a guy who made FIVE errors in Yoon's other loss including bungling a tailor-made double play ball that would have ended the inning. Instead 5 runs scored. There's no way of knowing, but Kia ended up scoring 6 runs in that game and losing 9-6. Would they have lost if not for the botched double play? This is the constant baseball life of Yoon. At any rate, Yoon's 3.5 strikeouts per walk is sparkling. His one hit per inning and one run per three innings mean he is pitching better than Yang or anyone on the club. But for some reason he has not made an appearance to my knowledge since April 17's 2-1 loss. Injured? Is he going to be wasted as the save guy again? I guess we'll see...
Zeke Spruill, a former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, looks okay. Just okay. He isn't pitching against the best pitchers on the other team so he should do okay. But so far, NOT so good. He's got two wins but also has 3 losses. Good 2.7 strikeout to walk ratio and the same one hit per inning as the other two. But he's giving up a run for every two innings as well. That's not so great.
Hector Noesi, another former major leaguer, is doing quite well if you ask me. He's got 2 wins and only one loss. In his 31 innings he has usually been solid. Nothing spectacular though. A strikeout to walk ratio of 2.2 and an earned run every 1.9 innings are not great but he's getting the job done.
On a lot of clubs they have the opposite of a Yoon Suk Min. Guys who have lousy numbers, but seem to win. They get all the run support the other pitchers crave. That is Han Ki Joo so far this season. I have serious doubts about whether that will hold up. Years ago he was a young fireballer who regularly threw over 150 km/h and had a bright future. He never really worked out for the Tigers. Now he's a blast from the past who has had the velocity sapping Tommy John surgery and, much like Seo Jae Eung, will have to make the transition from power pitcher to location pitcher. He is the only starter on the staff who has more walks than strikeouts. That's a less than 1 ratio compared to Yoon's 3.5. In fact his ratio is actually 0.66. Terrible! And that's not including the batters he's hit with pitches. But he has 3 wins and no losses. He even has a save in there! I have a feeling that his job was the save man to start the season and he has taken Yoon's place in the starting rotation. This is probably not a good idea. Unless Yoon is injured or he has requested this, I'm not a fan. But I sure hope Han keeps winning!
Key Players: Brett Pill had a .309 average and 101 RBI's for the Tigers last year. He's their best hitter. VERY dependable on 1st base too. In the majors he had gaudy fielding percentage numbers, sometimes perfect 100%! Nothing has changed. He's Mr. Baseball for Kia fans. He has started off well this year too. .333 avg. 3 homers, 11 RBI's. He's even thrown in a couple of stolen bases. He's the man!
Lee Bum Ho is the 34-year-old captain of the Tigers. Power hitting Lee Bum Ho! He had 28 homers last year compared to Pill's 22, but only 79 RBI's. His .270 average is very high for a power hitter and he has started the 2016 EN FUEGO! 4 homers, 13 RBI's and a .297 average is comparable to Pill! Hope he keeps it up! 
Kim Ju Chan had 18 homers, 62 RBI's and a .327 average last season. He has 16 RBI's already this season and hit for the cycle in one game. He's 35 but legs out a triple like a 25 year old. He's another veteran who is key on this team. 
Kim Weon Seop is 37. He has lost a step but that just makes him fast instead of super fast. He has never been a homerun or RBI guy, but his solid .270 average and ability to get to balls and catch them in the field, make him valuable. I shouldn't say this because if anybody reads it, his secret will be out, but he NEVER swings at the first pitch. He has a good veteran understanding of making the pitcher work. This helps the whole squad. NObody sees more pitches than Weon Seop! And he is a good clutch hitter. He's off to a slow start this year but he'll end the year around .270 as always. 
Guys to watch: Baek Yong Hwan is a young catcher with an explosive bat. He has no nerves! He doesn't get rattled under pressure. He got 10 homers and 30 RBI's in limited playing time last year. I think he'll get more plate appearances this year.
Kim Joo Hyung is the interim shortstop until Kim Sun Bin finishes his military training. He has everyone missing Sun Bin already. He's the guy who had a 5 error game already. BUT, his bat is awfully good. The question is, which leads to more runs, his hitting or his really, really bad base running and infielding? He's on a .273 clip right now with 4 homers and 10 walks. He's on base a lot and really contributes offensively. But not enough. The good news is base running and fielding can be coached and improved more easily than hitting. Somebody's gotta get on that!!!
Na Ji Weon??? YES! He's hitting again! .317! And in very limited action he's got 10 walks with that. And he WILL get hit by many pitches! That's his thing! That makes for a RIDICULOUS .451 on base percentage! He's contributing!
I'm gonna add one more. For a few seasons I have noticed the sweet swing of Kim Da Won. He's probably a .300 hitter if he gets regular playing time. He is a fielder and there isn't a lot of room on the Tigers for him, but I think they should play him more.
At this time, the Tigers are underperforming in my opinion. They have a good team with the only weakness being at shortstop. That's a big weakness, but this year the Tigers bullpen has been much better than usual. So we don't have THAT frustration as yet. I hope I don't jinx anything by saying that. Coaching has been good and batting has been exceptional. Starters have just been snake-bitten. If they could have spread their hitting around instead of getting it all in a couple of games, they could be in third place right now. I think this team will be one to watch this season. And I'm going to enjoy doing just that.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
D-11
If you've been around the Tigers you know that V-10 was on shirts, patches, jerseys, signs etc. last year and it meant Victory number 10. The Tigers are the most successful franchise in the KBO's history having won 10 league championships. This year the V-11 is almost as prominent. But as of yesterday I think D-11 would be more appropriate. D meaning defeat. The Tigers lost their 11th in a row yesterday and the causes were exactly the same as most of the losses in the current streak and the current season. I don't think I need to tell you what they are but I will one more time: coach and bullpen. And if you could narrow it down to one problem it would be the coach since he's the guy who chooses who to bring out from the bullpen.
It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the coach needs to go. LARRY Holmes could piece that together. You go from first to worst with virtually the same players on the team anywhere else and the coach is keeping a bag packed. But for some reason Jo Beom Hyeon seems untouchable. There are fans on the Kia Tiger website calling for his release every day. People at the ballpark are starting to show discontent with the coaching staff as well. Moreso people NOT at the ball park. As Yogi Berra might have said, "Lots of people are going to Tigers games now because there's nobody in the stands." If I wasn't such a fan of the conspiracy theory I wouldn't believe the team might be purposely losing games hoping to precipitate the demise of their leader. But I DO so love a good conspiracy theory!
So, until I think the Tigers are actually trying I'm not going to summarize their exploits. It wouldn't be fair because right now I support their losing efforts. I don't know if I'd give 110% either knowing that my coach would invariably try to sabotage my efforts. I WILL tell you that I think Jo himself wants the old heave-ho. He is doing everything he can to get the boot. Why, just today I checked to see who will be pitching at the game and it will be none other than the cause of more losses than any other single player on the Kia Tiger staff: Gwag Jung Cheol. He's normally a reliever but he's doing such a great job running up the losses for the Tigers this year, Coach Jo decided he'd better move him up to starter. I just wonder who Jo will call in from the bullpen after a faltering Gwag has given up 5 runs in each of the first two innings. I wouldn't want to follow THAT act!
I was planning to visit friends today out of town but I'm seriously thinking of going to the ballpark to see this massacre. With any luck it will be the beginning of the end for Jo Beom Hyun's coaching career. I hope the Tigers can find a good coach and recover from the damage Jo has done them this season. I have been on the Lee Jong Beom bandwagon for a while but I get the feeling he doesn't want to coach the team. Most likely because he sees Coach Jo, a former superstar for the Haitai Tigers in the glory years, doing a terrible job but not getting sacked because of the respect people have for his days as a player. He probably doesn't want to be exactly like Jo, although I imagine he'd be a more knowledgeable coach and a helluva lot more of a player's coach. That's what this team needs. We'll see what happens.
If you want to check out the meaningless stats from a team that's coasting along at maybe 75% with a coach that's trying to get himself fired the "honourable" way, just check the KBO website at www.koreabaseball.com
It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out the coach needs to go. LARRY Holmes could piece that together. You go from first to worst with virtually the same players on the team anywhere else and the coach is keeping a bag packed. But for some reason Jo Beom Hyeon seems untouchable. There are fans on the Kia Tiger website calling for his release every day. People at the ballpark are starting to show discontent with the coaching staff as well. Moreso people NOT at the ball park. As Yogi Berra might have said, "Lots of people are going to Tigers games now because there's nobody in the stands." If I wasn't such a fan of the conspiracy theory I wouldn't believe the team might be purposely losing games hoping to precipitate the demise of their leader. But I DO so love a good conspiracy theory!
So, until I think the Tigers are actually trying I'm not going to summarize their exploits. It wouldn't be fair because right now I support their losing efforts. I don't know if I'd give 110% either knowing that my coach would invariably try to sabotage my efforts. I WILL tell you that I think Jo himself wants the old heave-ho. He is doing everything he can to get the boot. Why, just today I checked to see who will be pitching at the game and it will be none other than the cause of more losses than any other single player on the Kia Tiger staff: Gwag Jung Cheol. He's normally a reliever but he's doing such a great job running up the losses for the Tigers this year, Coach Jo decided he'd better move him up to starter. I just wonder who Jo will call in from the bullpen after a faltering Gwag has given up 5 runs in each of the first two innings. I wouldn't want to follow THAT act!
I was planning to visit friends today out of town but I'm seriously thinking of going to the ballpark to see this massacre. With any luck it will be the beginning of the end for Jo Beom Hyun's coaching career. I hope the Tigers can find a good coach and recover from the damage Jo has done them this season. I have been on the Lee Jong Beom bandwagon for a while but I get the feeling he doesn't want to coach the team. Most likely because he sees Coach Jo, a former superstar for the Haitai Tigers in the glory years, doing a terrible job but not getting sacked because of the respect people have for his days as a player. He probably doesn't want to be exactly like Jo, although I imagine he'd be a more knowledgeable coach and a helluva lot more of a player's coach. That's what this team needs. We'll see what happens.
If you want to check out the meaningless stats from a team that's coasting along at maybe 75% with a coach that's trying to get himself fired the "honourable" way, just check the KBO website at www.koreabaseball.com
Monday, June 21, 2010
50/50
To start this double post I want to tell you my idea of a good baseball coach. Having played and coached, I can see the game from both sides so I have a pretty good idea of how to, AND how NOT to coach. It would take too long to say exactly what makes a good coach but I'll give you just a couple of points and you will see why when you read about the Tigers' games of the past two weeks.
A coach should never think, "What can I do to win this game?" A coach should try to get his team into a position to win the game and then have the humility to let the players win it. He should NOT be jumping in at crucial points trying to make pitching changes or sending in pinch hitters to make it look like it was coaching that won the game. Not just because that usually doesn't work but because it makes the coach look like an asshole in the eyes of his players and it kills team morale. He should depend on his best players and let them do what they do best.
Which leads us to the second point: the coach should trust his best players. For hitters, he should tell them to be selective but he shouldn't be calling the "take" sign too often because that forces good hitters to watch juicy pitches go into the catcher's mit without even taking a hack at them. This is the hardest thing for a hitter to do. Well, let me amend that: A good coach shouldn't call too many sacrifice bunts because THIS is the hardest thing for a hitter to do. All hitters sac bunt reluctantly thinking, no KNOWING that they could have easily connected for a base hit up the middle instead of wasting an out on that perfectly good pitch.
For runners a coach needs to run the bases according to the players. If you have speed on the basepaths and a good contact hitter at the plate, call the hit and run. Stealing second is a MUCH higher percentage way of avoiding a double play than the sac bunt. Also a good way to fill the bases. And for the love of BUDDHA if you have a speedster rounding third and the fielder still doesn't have the ball, wave him home! There's nothing a runner hates worse than dying on third especially after having a chance to run home squandered by the third base coach's stop sign. Hell, I say wave guys home even if the fielder HAS the ball because it'll force him to make a good throw to home and the catcher to make a good tag. If both can do so, they've earned the out. If not we get another run. I'd rather see an out at the plate because of aggressive base running than watch a guy stranded on third because of careful base running. And so would every single player on the bench.
And for pitchers, (and I'm talking about starters here, the most valuable guys on your team), DON'T worry about rest! It wasn't long ago that pitchers pitched consecutive games! When did they start becoming so fragile that they need a week's rest between starts? 6-man rotations NEVER work. Mostly because it's very hard to find 6 great pitchers. If you have 5, use 5. If you have 4, use 4. Don't throw mediocre pitchers into the rotation to give the good starters time to rest. That's ludicrous. Most starters get better as the game goes along. So if they struggle a bit in the early innings don't resort to the bullpen or you'll tire THEM out. And if you have a bad bullpen, as the Tigers most certainly do, you really don't want them working tired. Also, it rots my socks off when I see a starter give up a hit or walk in the 8th or 9th inning and get instantly pulled for it. Or if they're breezing along and for no other reason but pitch count they're yanked in the late innings. Be patient with them! They're human beings, not computers. Some dayst hey can throw 200 pitches, some days they cool off after 90. However, a warm starter is almost always gonna be better than a cold reliever. ALWAYS when you are the coach of the Kia Tigers.
These are all ways to get your players playing for you. If players want to win for you, they play better and they make you look good. You don't need to look good by acting like a great tactician. Chest bump a player. Get a fist bump or a high five. THAT makes you look like a good coach. Best coach in the KBO is coaching the Lotte Giants. Watch them to see what a difference it makes.
Anyway, you didn't have to watch the Tigers to know what happened in the past two weeks. More of the same with only a few new things.
June 8 - The Doosan Bears came to town and of course I went to see our ace, Yang Hyun Jong face down the second place team. He usually pitches a boring game and this one was no exception. He went 7 innings allowing 6 hits and 7 walks and only striking out 4. Not one of his best performances statistically. But he only allowed one run. When he left it was tied at 1. The relievers did well. This game was a tactical battle between the coaches and absolutely fugly to watch! WAY too much bunting and messing around! In the end it was a tactical mistake by Doosan's coach that lost the game for them. After Kim Sun Bin was bunted to second the coach of the Bears pulled the outfield in expecting Kim to score on a base hit. If he'd been watching the Tigers this season he'd know it would have taken TWO base hits to score Kim because he would have been held up at third. At any rate the EXTREME move of drawing in the outfield allowed Lee Yong Gyu to just swing hard and that's what he did hitting a lazy fly ball over the head of the fielder who would have caught it if the coaches had let the payers play. Unfortunately for Yang he didn't get the win. Virtual unknown An Yung Myung, (whose name sounds like chewing gum), threw 3 pitches and got the win. If you are a good coach you remember this game and how pulling the outfield in cost the opponent. Final Kia 2 Doosan 1
June 9 - I went to THIS one too. Colon looked good going 6 allowing only 3 hits and a walk and fanning 3. The relievers also pitched well. This was a great game to watch. Especially Kim Sun Bin who is Mr. Excitement right now for the Tigers! Hitting and running and stealing and sliding. The players played and the coach allowed them to. Nice to watch. And Colon is now 3-0 and starting to make his undefeated record look legitimate. Final Tigers 7 Bears 0
June 10 - Could we sweep the second place Bears? Extra starter Jeon Tae Hyun got the start on this day. He did well. Not a lot happened in this one. Gwag, who has been awful this year, let in the two extra runs that lost it for the Tigers but Jeon took the hit because they were let on base by him. I'd prefer to see the starter try to work his way out of trouble rather than letting the bullpen blow the game. Anyway, he's now 2-4. The Tigers outhit the Bears but couldn't get the win. Final Doosan 3 Kia 1
June 11 - LG came to town and with my favourite pitcher on the mound I was in the stands. I got wet for my trouble but it was also good to see Kim Sang Hyun, last year's league MVP, back in uniform for the Tigers. The game was what I've come to expect from a Yoon Suk Min outing. First run was unearned. Scored without the aid of a hit. Fourth run was scored by a guy reached base on a defensive error. And the relief pitching allowed a 2-run homer. Without that, Yoon would have won 3-2. But he's cursed. I'm sure of it! He went 7 2/3 giving up 5 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 5. How does that translate into 4 runs for any OTHER pitcher? Again the Tigers outhit the opposition with Kim Sun Bin remaining hot but they let this one get away. Final LG 6 Kia 3
June 12 - Lopez didn't pitch TERRIBLE in this one but he gave up a 2-run homer and a 3-run homer. It's hard to win like that. And after Kim Sun Bin was told to bunt a guy to second and heroically bunted aggressively sliding into first for a base hit, Lee Jong Beom was told to bunt the runners from 1st and 2nd to 2nd and 3rd and while attempting the bunt he got hit directly in the head by a pitch. As if there weren't enough reasons for coach Jo to stop the sac bunting! Anyway, I won't talk too much about this other than Lopez is now 1-4 and the final was LG 11 Kia 0
June 13 - Maybe Seo Jae Eung could get us a win at home against the lowly Twins who were feeding the Tigers their arses for the past two games. He gave up 5 hits and 2 runs over 5 2/3 innings. Not bad. Gwag Jung Cheol gave up 3 runs in his 1 inning stinking Moodeung Stadium up again but the Tigers bats were alive on the evening. Kim Sang Hyun got his first homer since returning, Kim Sun Bin continued to tear it up and An Chi Hong went 2/4 with a 3-run home run and 4 RBI's. The final was Kia 9 LG 5
What do you know? Another 3-3 week!
June 15 - Let's start the week off right with Yang Hyun Jong's 10th win shall we? Again he didn't pitch a gem giving up 7 hits and 4 walks in 5 2/3 innings but he only allowed a single run. The heart of the Kia Tiger batting order Choi Hee Seop, Kim Sang Hyun, Kim Sang Hoon and An Chi Hong all went 2/4 on the night. Final score Kia 7 Hanhwa 1
June 16 - Perfect record on the line, Colon pitched well once again. He gave up 4 hits, 2 walks and struck out 4 while only giving up a run before being pulled after his usual 6 innings. I'd like to see coach Jo leave him in longer. But on this night the bullpen didn't blow the lead and with three hit nights by Kim Sun Bin and An Chi Hong and with three guys getting home runs, (An, Big Choi and Na Ji Weon), the one run Colon surrendered didn't cost the team. Final score was Kia 8 Hanhwa 1
June 17 - Jeon Tae Hyun pitched so-so and his relief didn't do much better in this back and forth battle. The lead changed several times but the Tigers ended up on top for the sweep of the Hanhwa Eagles. An Yung Myung, who pitched an ugly inning and 2/3 ended up with the win. He's now got more wins than Lopez! Try to figure the game of baseball! Former Tiger Chang Sung Ho looked good going 2/3 with a walk and scoring twice. Jo doesn't think we can use him any more I guess. Big Choi, Kim Sang Hoon and Na Ji Weon picked up homers and for the second straight day Kia had three in a game! This was a strange one! I even saw Jo Beom Hyeon out of his shadowy corner of the dugout FIST BUMPING players! Maybe this is a good thing. Final Kia 7 Hanhwa 6
June 18 - Two of the best pitchers in the league battling it out in this one. Yoon Suk Min with his silly 4-3 record that should be like 7-1 and Kadokura at 8-4 for the dreaded SK Wyverns. Would the Yoon Suk Min curse continue? In the FIRST INNING Choi Hee Seop committed a throwing error that allowed the first run to score. Here we go again! However, later in the game Yoon obviously balked and it wasn't called. It allowed him to get out of a lot of trouble. A bit of good luck for the hard luck Yoon! I thought things might be changing. He went 8 1/3 giving up 6 hits and 2 walks to the solid SK lineup. He made it the whole game with a 3-1 lead. In the 9th he gave up a leadoff single and after getting an out the guy was singled home. It was 3-2 with a guy at first base. Yoon had been baffling the Wyvern batters all day long striking out 6 of them. Why bring in any member of the worst bullpen in the league at this point? A ground ball could be a game-ending double play! Do you think there's anybody in the bullpen more likely to induce that ground ball than Yoon? Or he could just get the next two guys. His pitch count was 132 but his speed was still up there. But Jo saw the opportunity to win the game by coaching instead of letting the players play. On comes Yoon-killer Son Young Min. How bad is it when your most feared opposing pitcher is a teammate? Son promptly allows a stolen base then walks the next batter. And then in this, his coaching magnum opus, Jo calls Seo Jae Eung out. To ensure it was his masterpiece he also draws in the outfield. With not the winning run two bases away standing on second, the TYING run on second base. You pull the outfield in to guard against a hit. A hit that knocks in the game winning run! In this case the hit MAY have only tied the game. Or it might have just loaded the bases if the runner was held at third. But a fly ball over the drawn-in infield, (which is far easier to get than a hit), wins the game. And that's exactly what happened. Harken back to the earlier game on June 8th. This is just one example of many I've noticed that indicate how Jo Beom Hyun just doesn't learn. This game WAS Jo's masterpiece in my mind. It just goes to show that the Tigers are not just playing against the other team, they're battling bad coaching as well. Final: Wyverns 4 Tigers 3
June 19 and 20. I was too depressed to watch these games. Instead, (OH MY GOD!), opting for soccer! But you know exactly what to expect. Kia lost both making sure to get their 3-3 split for the week. Lopez with yet another ugly loss and a 3-hitter hurled by SK pitcher Kim Gwang Hyun. Seo took the loss and Gwag stunk again. Finals SK 10 Kia 4 and SK 4 Kia 0
I don't think I'll be able to document all the games this year. I'll be on vacation in Canada soon and am not sure if I can watch the games on naver over there. Not sure I will want to. And I'm VERY sure I'll have better things to do. But I'll likely be back at the end of the year if Kia makes the playoff. I sure hope so.
A coach should never think, "What can I do to win this game?" A coach should try to get his team into a position to win the game and then have the humility to let the players win it. He should NOT be jumping in at crucial points trying to make pitching changes or sending in pinch hitters to make it look like it was coaching that won the game. Not just because that usually doesn't work but because it makes the coach look like an asshole in the eyes of his players and it kills team morale. He should depend on his best players and let them do what they do best.
Which leads us to the second point: the coach should trust his best players. For hitters, he should tell them to be selective but he shouldn't be calling the "take" sign too often because that forces good hitters to watch juicy pitches go into the catcher's mit without even taking a hack at them. This is the hardest thing for a hitter to do. Well, let me amend that: A good coach shouldn't call too many sacrifice bunts because THIS is the hardest thing for a hitter to do. All hitters sac bunt reluctantly thinking, no KNOWING that they could have easily connected for a base hit up the middle instead of wasting an out on that perfectly good pitch.
For runners a coach needs to run the bases according to the players. If you have speed on the basepaths and a good contact hitter at the plate, call the hit and run. Stealing second is a MUCH higher percentage way of avoiding a double play than the sac bunt. Also a good way to fill the bases. And for the love of BUDDHA if you have a speedster rounding third and the fielder still doesn't have the ball, wave him home! There's nothing a runner hates worse than dying on third especially after having a chance to run home squandered by the third base coach's stop sign. Hell, I say wave guys home even if the fielder HAS the ball because it'll force him to make a good throw to home and the catcher to make a good tag. If both can do so, they've earned the out. If not we get another run. I'd rather see an out at the plate because of aggressive base running than watch a guy stranded on third because of careful base running. And so would every single player on the bench.
And for pitchers, (and I'm talking about starters here, the most valuable guys on your team), DON'T worry about rest! It wasn't long ago that pitchers pitched consecutive games! When did they start becoming so fragile that they need a week's rest between starts? 6-man rotations NEVER work. Mostly because it's very hard to find 6 great pitchers. If you have 5, use 5. If you have 4, use 4. Don't throw mediocre pitchers into the rotation to give the good starters time to rest. That's ludicrous. Most starters get better as the game goes along. So if they struggle a bit in the early innings don't resort to the bullpen or you'll tire THEM out. And if you have a bad bullpen, as the Tigers most certainly do, you really don't want them working tired. Also, it rots my socks off when I see a starter give up a hit or walk in the 8th or 9th inning and get instantly pulled for it. Or if they're breezing along and for no other reason but pitch count they're yanked in the late innings. Be patient with them! They're human beings, not computers. Some dayst hey can throw 200 pitches, some days they cool off after 90. However, a warm starter is almost always gonna be better than a cold reliever. ALWAYS when you are the coach of the Kia Tigers.
These are all ways to get your players playing for you. If players want to win for you, they play better and they make you look good. You don't need to look good by acting like a great tactician. Chest bump a player. Get a fist bump or a high five. THAT makes you look like a good coach. Best coach in the KBO is coaching the Lotte Giants. Watch them to see what a difference it makes.
Anyway, you didn't have to watch the Tigers to know what happened in the past two weeks. More of the same with only a few new things.
June 8 - The Doosan Bears came to town and of course I went to see our ace, Yang Hyun Jong face down the second place team. He usually pitches a boring game and this one was no exception. He went 7 innings allowing 6 hits and 7 walks and only striking out 4. Not one of his best performances statistically. But he only allowed one run. When he left it was tied at 1. The relievers did well. This game was a tactical battle between the coaches and absolutely fugly to watch! WAY too much bunting and messing around! In the end it was a tactical mistake by Doosan's coach that lost the game for them. After Kim Sun Bin was bunted to second the coach of the Bears pulled the outfield in expecting Kim to score on a base hit. If he'd been watching the Tigers this season he'd know it would have taken TWO base hits to score Kim because he would have been held up at third. At any rate the EXTREME move of drawing in the outfield allowed Lee Yong Gyu to just swing hard and that's what he did hitting a lazy fly ball over the head of the fielder who would have caught it if the coaches had let the payers play. Unfortunately for Yang he didn't get the win. Virtual unknown An Yung Myung, (whose name sounds like chewing gum), threw 3 pitches and got the win. If you are a good coach you remember this game and how pulling the outfield in cost the opponent. Final Kia 2 Doosan 1
June 9 - I went to THIS one too. Colon looked good going 6 allowing only 3 hits and a walk and fanning 3. The relievers also pitched well. This was a great game to watch. Especially Kim Sun Bin who is Mr. Excitement right now for the Tigers! Hitting and running and stealing and sliding. The players played and the coach allowed them to. Nice to watch. And Colon is now 3-0 and starting to make his undefeated record look legitimate. Final Tigers 7 Bears 0
June 10 - Could we sweep the second place Bears? Extra starter Jeon Tae Hyun got the start on this day. He did well. Not a lot happened in this one. Gwag, who has been awful this year, let in the two extra runs that lost it for the Tigers but Jeon took the hit because they were let on base by him. I'd prefer to see the starter try to work his way out of trouble rather than letting the bullpen blow the game. Anyway, he's now 2-4. The Tigers outhit the Bears but couldn't get the win. Final Doosan 3 Kia 1
June 11 - LG came to town and with my favourite pitcher on the mound I was in the stands. I got wet for my trouble but it was also good to see Kim Sang Hyun, last year's league MVP, back in uniform for the Tigers. The game was what I've come to expect from a Yoon Suk Min outing. First run was unearned. Scored without the aid of a hit. Fourth run was scored by a guy reached base on a defensive error. And the relief pitching allowed a 2-run homer. Without that, Yoon would have won 3-2. But he's cursed. I'm sure of it! He went 7 2/3 giving up 5 hits and 2 walks. He struck out 5. How does that translate into 4 runs for any OTHER pitcher? Again the Tigers outhit the opposition with Kim Sun Bin remaining hot but they let this one get away. Final LG 6 Kia 3
June 12 - Lopez didn't pitch TERRIBLE in this one but he gave up a 2-run homer and a 3-run homer. It's hard to win like that. And after Kim Sun Bin was told to bunt a guy to second and heroically bunted aggressively sliding into first for a base hit, Lee Jong Beom was told to bunt the runners from 1st and 2nd to 2nd and 3rd and while attempting the bunt he got hit directly in the head by a pitch. As if there weren't enough reasons for coach Jo to stop the sac bunting! Anyway, I won't talk too much about this other than Lopez is now 1-4 and the final was LG 11 Kia 0
June 13 - Maybe Seo Jae Eung could get us a win at home against the lowly Twins who were feeding the Tigers their arses for the past two games. He gave up 5 hits and 2 runs over 5 2/3 innings. Not bad. Gwag Jung Cheol gave up 3 runs in his 1 inning stinking Moodeung Stadium up again but the Tigers bats were alive on the evening. Kim Sang Hyun got his first homer since returning, Kim Sun Bin continued to tear it up and An Chi Hong went 2/4 with a 3-run home run and 4 RBI's. The final was Kia 9 LG 5
What do you know? Another 3-3 week!
June 15 - Let's start the week off right with Yang Hyun Jong's 10th win shall we? Again he didn't pitch a gem giving up 7 hits and 4 walks in 5 2/3 innings but he only allowed a single run. The heart of the Kia Tiger batting order Choi Hee Seop, Kim Sang Hyun, Kim Sang Hoon and An Chi Hong all went 2/4 on the night. Final score Kia 7 Hanhwa 1
June 16 - Perfect record on the line, Colon pitched well once again. He gave up 4 hits, 2 walks and struck out 4 while only giving up a run before being pulled after his usual 6 innings. I'd like to see coach Jo leave him in longer. But on this night the bullpen didn't blow the lead and with three hit nights by Kim Sun Bin and An Chi Hong and with three guys getting home runs, (An, Big Choi and Na Ji Weon), the one run Colon surrendered didn't cost the team. Final score was Kia 8 Hanhwa 1
June 17 - Jeon Tae Hyun pitched so-so and his relief didn't do much better in this back and forth battle. The lead changed several times but the Tigers ended up on top for the sweep of the Hanhwa Eagles. An Yung Myung, who pitched an ugly inning and 2/3 ended up with the win. He's now got more wins than Lopez! Try to figure the game of baseball! Former Tiger Chang Sung Ho looked good going 2/3 with a walk and scoring twice. Jo doesn't think we can use him any more I guess. Big Choi, Kim Sang Hoon and Na Ji Weon picked up homers and for the second straight day Kia had three in a game! This was a strange one! I even saw Jo Beom Hyeon out of his shadowy corner of the dugout FIST BUMPING players! Maybe this is a good thing. Final Kia 7 Hanhwa 6
June 18 - Two of the best pitchers in the league battling it out in this one. Yoon Suk Min with his silly 4-3 record that should be like 7-1 and Kadokura at 8-4 for the dreaded SK Wyverns. Would the Yoon Suk Min curse continue? In the FIRST INNING Choi Hee Seop committed a throwing error that allowed the first run to score. Here we go again! However, later in the game Yoon obviously balked and it wasn't called. It allowed him to get out of a lot of trouble. A bit of good luck for the hard luck Yoon! I thought things might be changing. He went 8 1/3 giving up 6 hits and 2 walks to the solid SK lineup. He made it the whole game with a 3-1 lead. In the 9th he gave up a leadoff single and after getting an out the guy was singled home. It was 3-2 with a guy at first base. Yoon had been baffling the Wyvern batters all day long striking out 6 of them. Why bring in any member of the worst bullpen in the league at this point? A ground ball could be a game-ending double play! Do you think there's anybody in the bullpen more likely to induce that ground ball than Yoon? Or he could just get the next two guys. His pitch count was 132 but his speed was still up there. But Jo saw the opportunity to win the game by coaching instead of letting the players play. On comes Yoon-killer Son Young Min. How bad is it when your most feared opposing pitcher is a teammate? Son promptly allows a stolen base then walks the next batter. And then in this, his coaching magnum opus, Jo calls Seo Jae Eung out. To ensure it was his masterpiece he also draws in the outfield. With not the winning run two bases away standing on second, the TYING run on second base. You pull the outfield in to guard against a hit. A hit that knocks in the game winning run! In this case the hit MAY have only tied the game. Or it might have just loaded the bases if the runner was held at third. But a fly ball over the drawn-in infield, (which is far easier to get than a hit), wins the game. And that's exactly what happened. Harken back to the earlier game on June 8th. This is just one example of many I've noticed that indicate how Jo Beom Hyun just doesn't learn. This game WAS Jo's masterpiece in my mind. It just goes to show that the Tigers are not just playing against the other team, they're battling bad coaching as well. Final: Wyverns 4 Tigers 3
June 19 and 20. I was too depressed to watch these games. Instead, (OH MY GOD!), opting for soccer! But you know exactly what to expect. Kia lost both making sure to get their 3-3 split for the week. Lopez with yet another ugly loss and a 3-hitter hurled by SK pitcher Kim Gwang Hyun. Seo took the loss and Gwag stunk again. Finals SK 10 Kia 4 and SK 4 Kia 0
I don't think I'll be able to document all the games this year. I'll be on vacation in Canada soon and am not sure if I can watch the games on naver over there. Not sure I will want to. And I'm VERY sure I'll have better things to do. But I'll likely be back at the end of the year if Kia makes the playoff. I sure hope so.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Waiting to pounce
I think the Tigers are much better than a .500 ball club but that's the team's record overall, we seem to be winning half our games every week, last week we were 3 and 3 and what do you wanna bet we'll do the same this week? (Since I wrote this on Monday, I already know that I would WIN that bet.) It seems to me like tigers, this team is lurking in the tall grass of the savannah just beyond pouncing range of the rest of the teams in the league. So the Wyverns are like Wild Boar; the Bears are like Buffalo; the Lions are like Lizards, (large monitor lizards - yum); the Giants are like Gazelles, (is it gazelles or gazelle?); the Twins are like Turtles, (the delicious kind that live in the ponds the Tigers swim in); and the Eagles are like Elephant Babies. Tigers eat elephant babies! They do!
I think it'll take some real effort on the part of the coach to improve morale on the team before they pounce, however. If this team were set loose they could win it all again. Right now they ARE playing like stalking tigers. Being very careful not to get noticed and although they're hungry for a good, fat kill, they seem more concerned right now about scaring the herd away.
Anyhoo,
June 1 - Lopez came into this one with a 1-4 record and an ERA of 4.79. He improved his ERA but didn't get the win. This was yet another game Lopez deserved to win but didn't. He pitched 5 1/3 giving up 5 hits and a run but striking out 4. Don't know why he was pulled. He was happily cruising along with a 2-0 lead until he was called for a balk. It was a mysterious call since he had been pitching most of the game with only a fraction of a second of discernable stoppage in his windup. The timing of it allowed a runner to advance to second and then score on the ensuing base hit. Otherwise Lopez would have left with a 2-0 lead. But the Tiger bullpen can blow ANY lead. It was 2-1 in the 7th when Son Young Min came in. He pitched GREAT! Gave up only one hit and struck out 3! Then he got hit by a ball hit up the middle and for the first time EVER I was sad to see him LEAVING the field. Why can't he get hit on the nights when he's blowing somebody's 4-run lead? NO! He's gotta get hit when he's got the other team baffled as to what's coming next. So on came Kwag Jung Cheol.
He didn't pitch badly. Well not badly for HIM. There was a blooper hit into no-man's-land in shallow right center that was NOT caught by three guys. As I was saying, team morale is important. It's sometimes the difference between "I got it" and "You get it" on a team. Here was an example. SOMEbody gets to that ball normally. Then with 2 outs and guys on 2nd and 3rd Kwag threw four pitches a couple feet out of the strike zone OBVIOUSLY having been told to walk the bases full. This is another one of those bonehead coaching plays that is more popular than it should be. It's done so that the third out can be made at any base. But it's done in the major leagues where pitchers can throw strikes. It should NEVER EVER be done when any member of the Kia Tiger bullpen is pitching. So with the bases loaded Kwag starts looking shakey. He throws a wild pitch that almost scores a run. Then the batter gets the count to 3 and 2. Or 2 and 3 here in Korea. Everybody in the building knows there's a batting practice fastball right down the middle coming because you don't want to walk in the winning run. BLAM base hit - 4-2. Lee Jong Beom was 2/4 and had the only RBI for the Tigers. It's always nice to see him hitting well. Nobody else hit though. The Lions bullpen sent out pitcher after pitcher with ERA's below 3! If Kia just had ONE relief pitcher like that we might win some of these bullpen battles! Let me rephrase that: if Kia just USED one.... We have them but they're not being used much. Final score: Lions 4 Tigers 2
June 2 - Brandon Knight against the winningest pitcher in the KBO, our very own Yang Hyun Jong. It's odd that even though he's got 8 wins his ERA is at 3.86. It's be nice to see that drop a little bit. How about a complete game shutout to lower it? For I think only the second time this year Jo left the starting pitcher in for the entire game and Yang fired a gem! 129 pitches in a 4-hitter that included 9 K's. Not much else to report here. Cha Il Mok got the 2 RBI's and went 2/4 on the night. For the second game in a row the Tigers got only 5 hits. But they didn't need any more than that because they didn't need to use their bullpen. I actually fell asleep while watching this game but I like the result! Final score: Kia 2 Samsung 0
June 3 - Colon on the mound with a perfect 1-0 record, (har), and an ERA of 5.74. He gave up 7 hits but only walked one in this one. The Lions got 2 runs on him but he struck out 5 batters. He was in trouble a bit but never looked too bad. A well earned victory for him. Choi Hee Seop who had 3 walks on Tuesday and 3 walks on Wednesday decided to swing his bat and went 3/4 with a homer, 2 RBI's and 3 runs scored. Lee Yong Gyu was 3/5 too and Kim Weon Seop went 1/2 with a homer, an RBI, a run and 2 walks. When Lee Yong Gyu and Kim Weon Seop get on base things happen. If you want to truly play "small ball" you have to utilize these two speedsters!
In the 7th inning Lee led off with a base hit. Then he stole second because Kim wasn't told to sac bunt. The throw to get him at second floated into center field so Lee went to 3rd. Kim worked a walk. Then he stole second and maintained his 100% stealing rate. While doing so Lee almost took off for home. I was hoping he would. I bet he'd have made it. They almost got a run off a hit and a walk! I just WISH coach Jo would stop telling Kim to bunt so much! Like he did in the 9th inning when he bunted Lee to second then he reached 3rd on Na's sac fly and Choi Hee Seop cranked one out of the park making the sac bunt yet another wasted at bat for Kim, one of the team's best players. Who knows what would have happened if Kim was allowed to hit? In the 4th Lee got an out so Kim HAD to hit because there was nobody to sacrifice bunt for. He got a home run! HEY he had 8 of them last year! It's such a waste to see him bunting! But maybe this pattern won't remain unnoticed by the coaching staff all season long. Final score: Kia 8 Samsung 3
June 4 - After taking 2 of 3 from the Lions, Kia swaggered into the thin air of Mok Dong to play the Heroe's, a team below them in the KBO standings. The ball was really flying in this one. The Tigers sent Jeon Tae Hyun out for the start. His 1-3 record and 5.76 ERA are remarkably similar to Lopez's even though Jeon is nowhere near as good a pitcher. Pitchers' numbers depend on a lot of things other than just their talent. Jeon gave up 6 hits and 3 walks in his 5 2/3 innings in this one. That's not bad. He did give up 2 runs both by way of the solo home run but at the end of the day he had the same record as Lopez with a lower ERA. Never would have predicted THAT! Choi Hee Seop went 3/3 in the game and STILL got 2 walks. In the 4th Kim Sun Bin almost got an inside-the-park homerun but he was held at third. I was nervous that he'd die there like so many have but Lee Jong Hwan homered him in. Then in the 5th Na Ji Weon hit a MONSTER 3-run job and he KNEW it! Clark hit two out for the other team but that wasn't enough. I won't mention the bullpen collapse because it didn't lose us the game and I like seeing coach Jo using some of the other guys. The final was: Kia 7 Nexen 4
June 5 - Ugh! Do I have to re-live this? Yoon Suk Min was the pitcher again. He's 4-2 this season with a 3.66 ERA. I went bowling with friends on this night. While waiting for everybody to show up I caught the first inning on the TV at the alley. The Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a pitcher named Ko Weon Joon, who is not bad! He's 2-2 but he's got a 2.16 ERA! We smoked his ERA in the FIRST inning! He threw 46 pitches and I thought for sure we'd just keep on shelling him. Either way a 4-0 lead should have been enough for Yoon since he doesn't give up that many runs a game. So in this amazing first inning the Tigers had 4 runs and still had no outs against them. With runners on 2nd and 3rd Kim Sun Bin hit a fly ball to right field. Na Ji Weon tagged up and started home. I thought he would have made it but he stopped. Lee Jong Hwan walked and bases were loaded. Hong Jae Ho, who had a nice bases loaded double for his first base hit in the KBO, came up. He hit a foul ball down the right field line. If the first or second baseman had caught it, Na probably could have run home, but they didn't get there. Actually at the time I was thinking they might just have slowed up and not tried for it. It turned out to be smart. Hong struck out and Lee Yong Gyu came up for the second time in the inning and grounded out. I thought it should have been 5-0 but was hopeful that this wouldn't hurt the Tigers' efforts on this day.
Yoon didn't look his best. He walked a guy in the first then two guys hit the ball solidly but right into Lee Yong Gyu's mitt. But in the 2nd they got to him. In a way that must have made OUR coach fall in love with the bunt again. With runners at 1st and 2nd the Nexen coach sac bunted them to 2nd and 3rd. Then they BOTH got home on a productive out and a Yoon wild pitch. I just hate to see that! So it was 4-3.
This game actually came down to one PITCH in my opinion. In the 5th inning Yoon gave up a leadoff single. Then the second batter was started off with a strike. The second pitch was better than the first but the ump didn't do anything. The announcer made a wind-sucking hissing noise, the crowd went silent, Yoon, the catcher and the batter were all waiting for the strike call but it never came. They showed a replay and it looked even better in slow mo. The announcers questioned it and Yoon shook his head but it was called a ball. Maybe the ump got something caught in his throat. Had the ump called it right it would have been a strike-out since the 4th pitch in the at-bat was a strike. Instead there was a stolen base and an RBI double to tie the game at 4-4. Yoon struck out the next two guys so if not for that non-call he would have been out of the inning with the 4-3 lead intact. Next guy comes up and gets a hit to make it 5-4 Nexen.
Yoon Suk Min is my favourite player so take this with a grain of salt if you will but he deserved a win on this night too. He had two strikes on 16 batters in the 7 innings he pitched in this game. He managed to get the 3rd strike 5 times but 6 guys got hits and 1 got a walk after Yoon had them down 2 strikes. It always seems to be that third strike that's the hardest! Before Yoon exited the Tigers made the game interesting by tying it at 5 on ANOTHER Kim Weon Seop solo homerun. But with Kia's bullpen a tie in the late innings is rarely interesting. Yoo Dong Hoon walked a couple and gave up a hit and it was 6-5 in no time. That was the final.
June 6 - I actually didn't watch this game. I think it might be the first of the season I have completely missed. And I'm kind of glad I did. This could be used as a template for most of the Tigers' losses this year. In fact scroll back to June 1st and read that. This was almost a carbon copy. Lopez came out and pitched well. He gave up 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 runs all in the 7th inning, which was his last. He had been cruising along with a 4-0 lead to that point. Then the bullpen took over and Kwag Jung Cheol gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in the 10th and, VOILA, another .500 week. The Tigers managed only 4 hits in this one so I suppose the Heroes deserved the win. Final: Heroes 5 Tigers 4
It was a better week for coaching. I noticed more people rounding 3rd without jamming on the brakes this week. I also saw what I believe to have been a hit and run attempt in the second inning of Wednesday's game. Granted it was with Choi and Cha who probably aren't the best candidates for this strategy and Choi DID get nailed at second since Cha didn't make contact with the pitch but maybe this is a work in progress. Also it's good to see the leadoff speed on the basepaths. But our losses came down to bad bullpen in this one so although the coach is the guy who makes the decision to bring in relief pitching, I don't feel that the coach was so much at fault this week. Which is nice. But I STILL made a sign that I'm bringing to the ball game tomorrow that says, Jo Bum Hyun --> Jo BUNT Hyun. Just in case.
I think it'll take some real effort on the part of the coach to improve morale on the team before they pounce, however. If this team were set loose they could win it all again. Right now they ARE playing like stalking tigers. Being very careful not to get noticed and although they're hungry for a good, fat kill, they seem more concerned right now about scaring the herd away.
Anyhoo,
June 1 - Lopez came into this one with a 1-4 record and an ERA of 4.79. He improved his ERA but didn't get the win. This was yet another game Lopez deserved to win but didn't. He pitched 5 1/3 giving up 5 hits and a run but striking out 4. Don't know why he was pulled. He was happily cruising along with a 2-0 lead until he was called for a balk. It was a mysterious call since he had been pitching most of the game with only a fraction of a second of discernable stoppage in his windup. The timing of it allowed a runner to advance to second and then score on the ensuing base hit. Otherwise Lopez would have left with a 2-0 lead. But the Tiger bullpen can blow ANY lead. It was 2-1 in the 7th when Son Young Min came in. He pitched GREAT! Gave up only one hit and struck out 3! Then he got hit by a ball hit up the middle and for the first time EVER I was sad to see him LEAVING the field. Why can't he get hit on the nights when he's blowing somebody's 4-run lead? NO! He's gotta get hit when he's got the other team baffled as to what's coming next. So on came Kwag Jung Cheol.
He didn't pitch badly. Well not badly for HIM. There was a blooper hit into no-man's-land in shallow right center that was NOT caught by three guys. As I was saying, team morale is important. It's sometimes the difference between "I got it" and "You get it" on a team. Here was an example. SOMEbody gets to that ball normally. Then with 2 outs and guys on 2nd and 3rd Kwag threw four pitches a couple feet out of the strike zone OBVIOUSLY having been told to walk the bases full. This is another one of those bonehead coaching plays that is more popular than it should be. It's done so that the third out can be made at any base. But it's done in the major leagues where pitchers can throw strikes. It should NEVER EVER be done when any member of the Kia Tiger bullpen is pitching. So with the bases loaded Kwag starts looking shakey. He throws a wild pitch that almost scores a run. Then the batter gets the count to 3 and 2. Or 2 and 3 here in Korea. Everybody in the building knows there's a batting practice fastball right down the middle coming because you don't want to walk in the winning run. BLAM base hit - 4-2. Lee Jong Beom was 2/4 and had the only RBI for the Tigers. It's always nice to see him hitting well. Nobody else hit though. The Lions bullpen sent out pitcher after pitcher with ERA's below 3! If Kia just had ONE relief pitcher like that we might win some of these bullpen battles! Let me rephrase that: if Kia just USED one.... We have them but they're not being used much. Final score: Lions 4 Tigers 2
June 2 - Brandon Knight against the winningest pitcher in the KBO, our very own Yang Hyun Jong. It's odd that even though he's got 8 wins his ERA is at 3.86. It's be nice to see that drop a little bit. How about a complete game shutout to lower it? For I think only the second time this year Jo left the starting pitcher in for the entire game and Yang fired a gem! 129 pitches in a 4-hitter that included 9 K's. Not much else to report here. Cha Il Mok got the 2 RBI's and went 2/4 on the night. For the second game in a row the Tigers got only 5 hits. But they didn't need any more than that because they didn't need to use their bullpen. I actually fell asleep while watching this game but I like the result! Final score: Kia 2 Samsung 0
June 3 - Colon on the mound with a perfect 1-0 record, (har), and an ERA of 5.74. He gave up 7 hits but only walked one in this one. The Lions got 2 runs on him but he struck out 5 batters. He was in trouble a bit but never looked too bad. A well earned victory for him. Choi Hee Seop who had 3 walks on Tuesday and 3 walks on Wednesday decided to swing his bat and went 3/4 with a homer, 2 RBI's and 3 runs scored. Lee Yong Gyu was 3/5 too and Kim Weon Seop went 1/2 with a homer, an RBI, a run and 2 walks. When Lee Yong Gyu and Kim Weon Seop get on base things happen. If you want to truly play "small ball" you have to utilize these two speedsters!
In the 7th inning Lee led off with a base hit. Then he stole second because Kim wasn't told to sac bunt. The throw to get him at second floated into center field so Lee went to 3rd. Kim worked a walk. Then he stole second and maintained his 100% stealing rate. While doing so Lee almost took off for home. I was hoping he would. I bet he'd have made it. They almost got a run off a hit and a walk! I just WISH coach Jo would stop telling Kim to bunt so much! Like he did in the 9th inning when he bunted Lee to second then he reached 3rd on Na's sac fly and Choi Hee Seop cranked one out of the park making the sac bunt yet another wasted at bat for Kim, one of the team's best players. Who knows what would have happened if Kim was allowed to hit? In the 4th Lee got an out so Kim HAD to hit because there was nobody to sacrifice bunt for. He got a home run! HEY he had 8 of them last year! It's such a waste to see him bunting! But maybe this pattern won't remain unnoticed by the coaching staff all season long. Final score: Kia 8 Samsung 3
June 4 - After taking 2 of 3 from the Lions, Kia swaggered into the thin air of Mok Dong to play the Heroe's, a team below them in the KBO standings. The ball was really flying in this one. The Tigers sent Jeon Tae Hyun out for the start. His 1-3 record and 5.76 ERA are remarkably similar to Lopez's even though Jeon is nowhere near as good a pitcher. Pitchers' numbers depend on a lot of things other than just their talent. Jeon gave up 6 hits and 3 walks in his 5 2/3 innings in this one. That's not bad. He did give up 2 runs both by way of the solo home run but at the end of the day he had the same record as Lopez with a lower ERA. Never would have predicted THAT! Choi Hee Seop went 3/3 in the game and STILL got 2 walks. In the 4th Kim Sun Bin almost got an inside-the-park homerun but he was held at third. I was nervous that he'd die there like so many have but Lee Jong Hwan homered him in. Then in the 5th Na Ji Weon hit a MONSTER 3-run job and he KNEW it! Clark hit two out for the other team but that wasn't enough. I won't mention the bullpen collapse because it didn't lose us the game and I like seeing coach Jo using some of the other guys. The final was: Kia 7 Nexen 4
June 5 - Ugh! Do I have to re-live this? Yoon Suk Min was the pitcher again. He's 4-2 this season with a 3.66 ERA. I went bowling with friends on this night. While waiting for everybody to show up I caught the first inning on the TV at the alley. The Tigers jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a pitcher named Ko Weon Joon, who is not bad! He's 2-2 but he's got a 2.16 ERA! We smoked his ERA in the FIRST inning! He threw 46 pitches and I thought for sure we'd just keep on shelling him. Either way a 4-0 lead should have been enough for Yoon since he doesn't give up that many runs a game. So in this amazing first inning the Tigers had 4 runs and still had no outs against them. With runners on 2nd and 3rd Kim Sun Bin hit a fly ball to right field. Na Ji Weon tagged up and started home. I thought he would have made it but he stopped. Lee Jong Hwan walked and bases were loaded. Hong Jae Ho, who had a nice bases loaded double for his first base hit in the KBO, came up. He hit a foul ball down the right field line. If the first or second baseman had caught it, Na probably could have run home, but they didn't get there. Actually at the time I was thinking they might just have slowed up and not tried for it. It turned out to be smart. Hong struck out and Lee Yong Gyu came up for the second time in the inning and grounded out. I thought it should have been 5-0 but was hopeful that this wouldn't hurt the Tigers' efforts on this day.
Yoon didn't look his best. He walked a guy in the first then two guys hit the ball solidly but right into Lee Yong Gyu's mitt. But in the 2nd they got to him. In a way that must have made OUR coach fall in love with the bunt again. With runners at 1st and 2nd the Nexen coach sac bunted them to 2nd and 3rd. Then they BOTH got home on a productive out and a Yoon wild pitch. I just hate to see that! So it was 4-3.
This game actually came down to one PITCH in my opinion. In the 5th inning Yoon gave up a leadoff single. Then the second batter was started off with a strike. The second pitch was better than the first but the ump didn't do anything. The announcer made a wind-sucking hissing noise, the crowd went silent, Yoon, the catcher and the batter were all waiting for the strike call but it never came. They showed a replay and it looked even better in slow mo. The announcers questioned it and Yoon shook his head but it was called a ball. Maybe the ump got something caught in his throat. Had the ump called it right it would have been a strike-out since the 4th pitch in the at-bat was a strike. Instead there was a stolen base and an RBI double to tie the game at 4-4. Yoon struck out the next two guys so if not for that non-call he would have been out of the inning with the 4-3 lead intact. Next guy comes up and gets a hit to make it 5-4 Nexen.
Yoon Suk Min is my favourite player so take this with a grain of salt if you will but he deserved a win on this night too. He had two strikes on 16 batters in the 7 innings he pitched in this game. He managed to get the 3rd strike 5 times but 6 guys got hits and 1 got a walk after Yoon had them down 2 strikes. It always seems to be that third strike that's the hardest! Before Yoon exited the Tigers made the game interesting by tying it at 5 on ANOTHER Kim Weon Seop solo homerun. But with Kia's bullpen a tie in the late innings is rarely interesting. Yoo Dong Hoon walked a couple and gave up a hit and it was 6-5 in no time. That was the final.
June 6 - I actually didn't watch this game. I think it might be the first of the season I have completely missed. And I'm kind of glad I did. This could be used as a template for most of the Tigers' losses this year. In fact scroll back to June 1st and read that. This was almost a carbon copy. Lopez came out and pitched well. He gave up 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 runs all in the 7th inning, which was his last. He had been cruising along with a 4-0 lead to that point. Then the bullpen took over and Kwag Jung Cheol gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in the 10th and, VOILA, another .500 week. The Tigers managed only 4 hits in this one so I suppose the Heroes deserved the win. Final: Heroes 5 Tigers 4
It was a better week for coaching. I noticed more people rounding 3rd without jamming on the brakes this week. I also saw what I believe to have been a hit and run attempt in the second inning of Wednesday's game. Granted it was with Choi and Cha who probably aren't the best candidates for this strategy and Choi DID get nailed at second since Cha didn't make contact with the pitch but maybe this is a work in progress. Also it's good to see the leadoff speed on the basepaths. But our losses came down to bad bullpen in this one so although the coach is the guy who makes the decision to bring in relief pitching, I don't feel that the coach was so much at fault this week. Which is nice. But I STILL made a sign that I'm bringing to the ball game tomorrow that says, Jo Bum Hyun --> Jo BUNT Hyun. Just in case.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Into June - More questionable coaching
The baseball world was shocked by the loss of Jose Lima this past week. One of the real characters in the game! While he was pitching for the Tigers I got the chance to shake his hand a couple of times and chatted a bit with him. He told me that he, like me, loved golfing. He talked about the courses in Texas and I told him a bit about the courses in Thailand. It would have been a real pleasure to golf with him I'm sure.
He was a flamboyant one-time MLB all star who had a 21-win season in '99 with the Astros. Here's some footage of him in a Tiger uniform. He was a fan favourite here as he was everywhere he pitched. It wasn't hard to see that he enjoyed a good time and although that may have contributed to his inconsistancy at times, he was great for the Tigers' team morale. I liked him in the short time he was here. I am not sure why he was released by the Tigers but I remember one time asking him why he was pulled in a game and he shook his head like I have so many times in wonder at Jo Bum Hyun's tendancy to yank starters who are pitching well and are not tired.
A candle that burns brightest always burns fastest. Farewell Jose.
May 25th - The Tigers travelled to Seoul to face the LG Twins. They started the series with workhorse Aquilino Lopez. He pitched 8 full innings giving up 12 hits and 5 runs. Despite the previous comment about Jo Bum Hyun, he seems to be leaving starters in a bit longer this season. That's a good thing! However this was yet another game that was probably lost via the sac bunt. In the 2nd inning Lee Jung Hwan got a leadoff single and Cha Il Mok was promptly squaring around for the sac. Pak Ki Nam lined out and then Lee Hyun Gon got an RBI double. It seemed to all watching like the bunt worked but the double would have scored Lee from first even if the hot-hitting Cha didn't get a productive out. And, of course, if he managed to reach safely the Tigers would have had another run and another out and who knows what would have happened? It came back to bite them later in the game.
In the 6th Choi Hee Seop led off with a walk and immediately got bunted to second. Lee grounded out and Cha struck out. Again, what might have happened if the bunter, who I think was Kim Sang Hoon, had been allowed to swing the bat?
The 7th inning included an even bigger coaching mistake. Pak Ki Nam led off with a walk and Lee Hyun Gon was NOT told to bunt behind him. What do you know - base hit! Next batter was Lee Yong Gyu and because HE wasn't sacrificing he got hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases. Here's where the brain fart occured. Jo decides to pinch hit for the fastest guy on the team, (and therefore the worst double-play candidate), Kim Weon Seop and put in a guy who ALWAYS looks very nervous at the plate, Choi Yong Gyu. Pull the veteran who's warm and already has a hit in the game and put in the nervous youngster, cold off the bench in a crucial bases-loaded situation. It may have appeared that he was pulling a lefty to put in a righty but the previous lefty got hit by a pitch and I don't put a lot of stock in that philosophy anyways. I bat right and hit better against right-handed pitchers and there are a LOT of guys like me. Anyway, we'll see that this probably wasn't what Jo was thinking. What he WAS thinking, nobody knows. If he wanted a righty he could have put in Na Ji Weon or even Hong Sae Weon, two guys who would not have been nervous and are FAR more likely to get hits or maybe even grand slams. Predictably Choi struck out and he looked so nervous he probably would have run to third had he hit the ball. Next batter An Chi Hong hit into a rally-squelching double play.
In the 8th Choi led off again with a single. Kim Sang Hoon flied out. I was happy not to see him bunting. Then Jo pulled the lefty Lee Jong Hwan to put in a righty against a right-handed pitcher. Amazingly Lee Yeong Su hit a home run that tied the game at 4. But it wasn't enough. LG managed to pull out the win. This is definitely another game the Tigers lost because of bad coaching. Final score: LG 5 Kia 4.
May 26th - This was the start of some very strange games for the Tigers. Yoon Suk Min was on the mound for what would prove to be the worst outing I've ever seen for him. He threw 45 pitches, got only 2 outs and gave up 6 hits, 3 walks and 8 runs! In his defence Lee Jong Beom had hit a solo homerun in top of the first inning and if Lee Yong Gyu hadn't been picked off at first Yoon would have started with a 2-0 lead! He's just not used to that! Also errors have plagued the defence during his starts and there was one bases-loaded mistake by Pak Ki Nam at third that caused 2 of the runs to score. But he just didn't have it on this day. Neither did Lee Dae Jin or Kwag Jung Cheol. Maybe it was a new shipment of corked bats for the LG Twins cuz they were hitting EVERYTHING! On the bright side... well, there was no bright side. Final score: LG 20 Kia I don't know, it doesn't matter. Next! (4)
May 27th - Yang Hyun Jong was hoping the Twins got all their hits out of their system the night before. He cruised right along until the 7th inning before giving up a couple of runs. He surrendered 7 hits, 4 walks and 2 runs. He got 5 strikeouts though. He improved his 3.98 ERA and became the league's leading pitcher with his 8th win. Lee Jong Beom, Choi Hee Seop - 3 hits, Cha Il Mok, Kim Weon Seop, Kim Sun Bin - 2 hits apiece. And relative unknown Lee Young Soo almost got his second homer in as many days but had to settle for an RBI double off the wall. He got 2 hits and 2 RBI's. Big Choi got 4 RBI's and 2 runs and Cha Il Mok got 3 RBI's and 3 runs. What a difference a day makes! A virtual reversal of the game the night before.
I hate to find anything wrong in a gorgeous game like this but I have to bring this up: in the 4th inning Kia was LEADING 5-0 and Kim Sun Bin got a leadoff double. The next batter was Lee Hyun Gon and he was told to bunt. I'm sorry folks but there is absolutely no defending incompetent coaching like this! Imagine if you're Lee Hyun Gon. He's a former batting title winner. And he's told to bunt FAR too often. In this case Lee Yong Gyu, the next batter, got a double that the fielder misplayed, which would have allowed Kim Sun Bin to crawl home. From SECOND! Lee Hyun Gon is like any baseball player in the world, he wants to hit. When the coach blatantly wastes a good hitting opportunity like this it sure doesn't make him want to play his heart out for the coach. And when the team sees him just WASTING outs like he does EVERY game, they get demoralized. In the same inning the Tigers went from 5-0 to 11-0 with the only out being the inexplicable sacrifice from 2nd to 3rd. That's 6 runs on one out, folks. When you sacrifice bunt, you sacrifice an out. How many of the outs Jo needlessly gives up would have been 6-run outs like this one? Nobody knows. That's the only reason Jo hasn't been fired, although he should have been by now. And I suppose the fact that despite his tactics the team STILL managed to win the championship last year.
Maybe a lot of the fans don't know it but the players do. Other than the overused relief pitching staff, do ANY of the Tigers actually LIKE playing for Jo Beom Hyun? I don't know how they could. It just hurts the team. Final Kia 15 LG 4
May 28th - Seo Jae Eung takes the mound with a 3-1 record and 3.69 ERA. After the huge scoring of the previous two games I said to my students I was watching the game with, "Now watch this game be 1-0." It just might have been if Seo was left in. We'll never know. He got into trouble a couple times but got out of it and had a great day. 5 hits, 2 walks, NO runs and 4 strikeouts. Then on comes Son Young Min. He allows 5 runs to score and that's pretty much the ball game. The Tigers made a good attempt to come back in the bottom of the inning but came up short. It's gotta be tough on a pitcher like Seo watching a really good effort destroyed in such a short time! Another thing that will drive your team morale into the dirt. Final Hanhwa 5 Kia 3
May 29th - Colon took the mound looking for his first win as a Tiger and hoping to lower his gaudy 5.23 ERA. The Eagles seemed to have something going in every inning but to his credit, Colon pitched out of trouble a lot in this game. He was helped by some officiating too. In the 4th there was an Eagle on 3rd and the batter hit a grounder to the 3rd baseman. The runner tried to run home but the throw beat him so he was in a run-down. It looked to me like the Kia catcher waited too long to throw the ball back to 3rd but the ump ruled that the runner had been tagged out before getting back. Lucky for Colon because his next pitch was a wild one that would have scored a run. He went 5 innings giving up 6 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 2 and hit two guys. It wasn't pretty but his only run came on a homer in the 5th that was thrown back a la Chicago's Wrigly Field at the insistance of the house full of foreigners. And despite some more awful pitching by Kim Hee Geol and Kwag Jeong Cheol, (who gave up 5 runs between them), Colon got his first win. An Chi Hong and Choi Hee Seop each went 2/4 with 3 RBI's in the game. Final: Kia 8 Hanhwa 6
May 30th - Even though it was a Sunday game and I knew it would be chock-a-block full I went to Moodeung Stadium and stood in line for an hour to get good seats for this one. It was Yoon Suk Min's chance to make ammends for his horrible 8-run inning in his previous appearance. And he wanted to lower his ERA that had ballooned to 3.86 because of his disastrous last start. He did all of the above going 8 innings striking out 8 allowing only 3 hits, 5 walks and 2 runs. He looked a bit shaky in the beginnning giving up a run but he's just more comfortable pitching while he's behind I guess. And the Tigers DID give him some runs in this one. The batters turned a modest 7 hits into 6 runs for the Tigers. That was plenty for Yoon. Kim Sun Bin went 2/3 with 2 RBI's but the hero of the day was Na Ji Weon who took a baseball off the noggin in the 2nd inning but kept playing. He was 1/2 with 2 RBI's and a run scored in the same inning he got beaned. What a stud! I was watching with my friends Guns and Amber and we all like Na Ji Weon even more now. Pretty hard for Amber who already wanted to marry him. Final: Kia 6 Hanhwa 2
So like Yoon Suk Min, the Tigers were .500 for the week. 4-2 sounds so much better than 3-3 doesn't it? With a little bit of smart coaching we could have been... But that's the joy of being a fan of the Terrible Tigers. See you next week.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Take the good with the bad
The games were rained out May 18th. It was the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Riots or massacre or uprising or whatever you choose to call the incidents, and I went downtown in the rain to have a beer with friends. Or to have beers with a friend. Either was fine. The taxi couldn't stop where I wanted because the streets were blocked off for an "Oh Il Pal" memorial of sorts. They had a stage set up with some bands playing and people dancing. There were memorial paintings and such. And there were plastic wrapped reporters talking into mini walkie-talkie-looking mikes with red lights on them. As I walked by one I pulled a crazy face and threw up a deuce. I forgot to say hi to Mom though. Don't know if I made it onto TV or not. The higher paid reporters were in a glass box on a stage with a panel of dignitaries waxing historical and the concert was their backdrop. The celebrations really brought the house down lemme tell you!
May 19th - This was a painful game for me to watch! If you missed the game but follow this blog, you can guess what happened. Yoon Suk Min was the starting pitcher. The game was in Koonsan but it was considered a home game for the Tigers. I didn't go because I would have had to stay overnight in Koonsan. Yoon pitched very well giving up only 3 hits over 8 innings. This is a very LONG appearance. Two in a row now for Yoon. Maybe coach Jo is starting to trust him. He only gave up one walk but struck out 5. And he had a LOT batters with 2 strikes on them. One guy hit the ball solid and got a home run but when Yoon was pulled after the 8th he had a 2-1 lead. He had only thrown 100 pitches and as usual there were no real signs that he couldn't continue dominating. But I guess Jo was getting bored on the bench. In his defence, I too was getting bored watching the Tiger batters give their usual support to Yoon: a grand total of 4 hits. I don't know how Choi Hee Seop and Cha Il Mok go yard back to back in the 2nd inning and for the rest of the game the whole team manages just 2 hits. The opposing pitcher, Song Seung Joon is pretty good but he's only 3-3 this year. He's not Nolan Ryan. The Yoon Suk Min curse I guess.
That was it. That was all. Shoulda been a boring 4th win for Yoon. But Jo spiced it up by bringing in Yoo Dong Hoon. He's a pretty dependable closer but he stunk the place out on this night. First batter - double. Next batter - single but the drawn in outfielder, Kim Weon Seop, bobbled the ball and allowed the runner to score. Voila! Tie game! 2-2. Another fine Yoon Suk Min performance wasted. Next batter bunts the guy from second to 3rd. Then Jo shakes things up a bit more by walking Lee Dae Ho intentionally and giving an intentional/unintentional four-pitch walk to Garcia thereby leaving no margin of error for Yoo Dong Hoon because the bases were loaded. Have I asked this question before: Is there any bullpen that hits more batters than the Tiger bullpen? Yoo Dong Hoon hit a batter with the bases loaded and that made the final score: Lotte 3 Kia 2
May 20th - Seo Jae Eung got the start. He's been great this year and has a 3-0 record but could be 5-0. He went 5 1/3 giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and striking out 4. Not too shabby. Somehow 5 runs were scored on him! You don't suppose it had anything to do with being replaced by Kim Hee Geol, who had a bazillion ERA on the night because he didn't get an out, do you? The Tigers had a great rally in the 7th that went 2B, 2B, 1B, 2B, BB, 1B but ended abruptly on a bases loaded double play hit into by Lee Yong Gyu. The worst part was in that same at bat he spanked a ball out of the park but it was a bit foul. However, some more bad pitching, this time by Jo Tae Soo, got Lotte the win. An Chi Hong went 3/3, Choi Yong Gyu was 2/2 pinch hitting, and there was yet another good performance by Park Gyung Tae pitching 1 1/3 and giving up no hits. But the final was Lotte 9 Kia 4
May 21st - The Nexen Heroes came to town. This KBO's second most winning pitcher Yang Hyun Jong took the mound for the Tigers in this one. He pitched great! A full 7 innings of 4-hit ball with 3 walks and 6 K's. He gave up 3 runs in there but the Tigers' gave him 7 hits and 5 runs worth of support.
I hated watching this game because it started like so many with the 1st batter of the 1st inning, Lee Yong Gyu, getting a hit and the next batter sacrifice bunting. Obviously Jo decided to play chicken ball on the night. In the 3rd again Lee Yong Gyu got on and the next batter sac bunted. I was happy to see the Heroes rather unheroic booting of the bunt and the ensuing An Chi Hong 2 RBI single and Choi Hee Seop 2-run Homer, BUT, this is just gonna make Jo think that bunting is working! Even worse, in the 6th Kim Sang Hoon was walked and the next guy sac bunted, then Park Ki Nam got an RBI double. The sac bunt DID work! Now we'll NEVER see the end of it! Yang got his seventh win, Lopez, (for some reason), got a save, but none of it was because of the bunting. Final score Kia 5 Nexen 3
May 22nd - The game was rained out. I was visiting friends so I didn't mind the game being cancelled. I couldn't go anyway.
May 23rd - I was on the train home when this game began. Colon got the start and threw 59 pitches in the first two innings. He gave up 3 hits, 5 walks and 3 runs. I was nearing Gwangju Station while this was happening. Then another pretty good appearance by oldster Lee Dae Jin. That's a treat. But the pitching wasn't the story. I was walking home from the train station with a heavy backpack full of groceries and clothes from the weekend and it was a bit bofore 7 pm. I reckoned it would be about the 6th inning so I decided not to go into Moodeung Stadium to catch the end of the game. What a mistake! As it turns out because of the marathon pitching session by Colon, it was only the 5th. And WHAT A 5th!
With the score 3-3, Choi Hee Seop leads off the festivities with a 1-out walk. Next Kim Sang Hoon worked a walk. Then Cha Il Mok did something he's probably never done: he got a base hit, Choi was wisely waved home and the throw to home wasn't in time. Cha chugged his way to second. Then the catcher tried to throw Kim out at 3rd but the throw sailed into deep left field, which had been vacated by the fielder covering Cha's hit up the middle. Cha continued his odyssey to 3rd behind the scoring Kim Sang Hoon. Two catchers running the bases like jackrabbits! Then Cha made the turn for home. He made an ugly slide and was SAFE! An error-assisted inside the park home run that plated, (aside from pitchers and Na Ji Weon), probably the three biggest and slowest guys on the team! SEE? You don't need to be Ricky Henderson to run the bases aggressively. This would have been worth the price of admission all by itself. But there was more to come! Pak Ki Nam, who by the way is ON FIRE, hit a solo homer. 7-3 Tigers.
In the 7th inning there were two walks to start off. No sac bunt resulted in a walk. By this time I was home and watching the game on my computer. I was talking to myself when I saw the third batter, Cha Il Mok square around to bunt the runners from 1st and 2nd to 2nd and 3rd. But then, the unthinkable! He pulls back and gets a base hit into right field! Bases loaded without a sacrifice! Then Park Ki Nam 2 RBI's with a single; Kim Weon Seop 2 RBI's with a double; then Lee Yong Gyu and Lee Hyun Gon follow up with RBI singles. SEE? This would have bee sacrificed if they had sacrificed. I didn't see this full game but it looked completely different from the chicken ball in the previous game. Why oh why can't we just stick with this kind of baseball? Anyway, the final score was Kia 13 Nexen 3
Again I'm confused by the coaching. Very inconsistant. But we're back to .500 and on a two-game winning streak. Cautious optimism.
May 19th - This was a painful game for me to watch! If you missed the game but follow this blog, you can guess what happened. Yoon Suk Min was the starting pitcher. The game was in Koonsan but it was considered a home game for the Tigers. I didn't go because I would have had to stay overnight in Koonsan. Yoon pitched very well giving up only 3 hits over 8 innings. This is a very LONG appearance. Two in a row now for Yoon. Maybe coach Jo is starting to trust him. He only gave up one walk but struck out 5. And he had a LOT batters with 2 strikes on them. One guy hit the ball solid and got a home run but when Yoon was pulled after the 8th he had a 2-1 lead. He had only thrown 100 pitches and as usual there were no real signs that he couldn't continue dominating. But I guess Jo was getting bored on the bench. In his defence, I too was getting bored watching the Tiger batters give their usual support to Yoon: a grand total of 4 hits. I don't know how Choi Hee Seop and Cha Il Mok go yard back to back in the 2nd inning and for the rest of the game the whole team manages just 2 hits. The opposing pitcher, Song Seung Joon is pretty good but he's only 3-3 this year. He's not Nolan Ryan. The Yoon Suk Min curse I guess.
That was it. That was all. Shoulda been a boring 4th win for Yoon. But Jo spiced it up by bringing in Yoo Dong Hoon. He's a pretty dependable closer but he stunk the place out on this night. First batter - double. Next batter - single but the drawn in outfielder, Kim Weon Seop, bobbled the ball and allowed the runner to score. Voila! Tie game! 2-2. Another fine Yoon Suk Min performance wasted. Next batter bunts the guy from second to 3rd. Then Jo shakes things up a bit more by walking Lee Dae Ho intentionally and giving an intentional/unintentional four-pitch walk to Garcia thereby leaving no margin of error for Yoo Dong Hoon because the bases were loaded. Have I asked this question before: Is there any bullpen that hits more batters than the Tiger bullpen? Yoo Dong Hoon hit a batter with the bases loaded and that made the final score: Lotte 3 Kia 2
May 20th - Seo Jae Eung got the start. He's been great this year and has a 3-0 record but could be 5-0. He went 5 1/3 giving up 6 hits, 2 walks and striking out 4. Not too shabby. Somehow 5 runs were scored on him! You don't suppose it had anything to do with being replaced by Kim Hee Geol, who had a bazillion ERA on the night because he didn't get an out, do you? The Tigers had a great rally in the 7th that went 2B, 2B, 1B, 2B, BB, 1B but ended abruptly on a bases loaded double play hit into by Lee Yong Gyu. The worst part was in that same at bat he spanked a ball out of the park but it was a bit foul. However, some more bad pitching, this time by Jo Tae Soo, got Lotte the win. An Chi Hong went 3/3, Choi Yong Gyu was 2/2 pinch hitting, and there was yet another good performance by Park Gyung Tae pitching 1 1/3 and giving up no hits. But the final was Lotte 9 Kia 4
May 21st - The Nexen Heroes came to town. This KBO's second most winning pitcher Yang Hyun Jong took the mound for the Tigers in this one. He pitched great! A full 7 innings of 4-hit ball with 3 walks and 6 K's. He gave up 3 runs in there but the Tigers' gave him 7 hits and 5 runs worth of support.
I hated watching this game because it started like so many with the 1st batter of the 1st inning, Lee Yong Gyu, getting a hit and the next batter sacrifice bunting. Obviously Jo decided to play chicken ball on the night. In the 3rd again Lee Yong Gyu got on and the next batter sac bunted. I was happy to see the Heroes rather unheroic booting of the bunt and the ensuing An Chi Hong 2 RBI single and Choi Hee Seop 2-run Homer, BUT, this is just gonna make Jo think that bunting is working! Even worse, in the 6th Kim Sang Hoon was walked and the next guy sac bunted, then Park Ki Nam got an RBI double. The sac bunt DID work! Now we'll NEVER see the end of it! Yang got his seventh win, Lopez, (for some reason), got a save, but none of it was because of the bunting. Final score Kia 5 Nexen 3
May 22nd - The game was rained out. I was visiting friends so I didn't mind the game being cancelled. I couldn't go anyway.
May 23rd - I was on the train home when this game began. Colon got the start and threw 59 pitches in the first two innings. He gave up 3 hits, 5 walks and 3 runs. I was nearing Gwangju Station while this was happening. Then another pretty good appearance by oldster Lee Dae Jin. That's a treat. But the pitching wasn't the story. I was walking home from the train station with a heavy backpack full of groceries and clothes from the weekend and it was a bit bofore 7 pm. I reckoned it would be about the 6th inning so I decided not to go into Moodeung Stadium to catch the end of the game. What a mistake! As it turns out because of the marathon pitching session by Colon, it was only the 5th. And WHAT A 5th!
With the score 3-3, Choi Hee Seop leads off the festivities with a 1-out walk. Next Kim Sang Hoon worked a walk. Then Cha Il Mok did something he's probably never done: he got a base hit, Choi was wisely waved home and the throw to home wasn't in time. Cha chugged his way to second. Then the catcher tried to throw Kim out at 3rd but the throw sailed into deep left field, which had been vacated by the fielder covering Cha's hit up the middle. Cha continued his odyssey to 3rd behind the scoring Kim Sang Hoon. Two catchers running the bases like jackrabbits! Then Cha made the turn for home. He made an ugly slide and was SAFE! An error-assisted inside the park home run that plated, (aside from pitchers and Na Ji Weon), probably the three biggest and slowest guys on the team! SEE? You don't need to be Ricky Henderson to run the bases aggressively. This would have been worth the price of admission all by itself. But there was more to come! Pak Ki Nam, who by the way is ON FIRE, hit a solo homer. 7-3 Tigers.
In the 7th inning there were two walks to start off. No sac bunt resulted in a walk. By this time I was home and watching the game on my computer. I was talking to myself when I saw the third batter, Cha Il Mok square around to bunt the runners from 1st and 2nd to 2nd and 3rd. But then, the unthinkable! He pulls back and gets a base hit into right field! Bases loaded without a sacrifice! Then Park Ki Nam 2 RBI's with a single; Kim Weon Seop 2 RBI's with a double; then Lee Yong Gyu and Lee Hyun Gon follow up with RBI singles. SEE? This would have bee sacrificed if they had sacrificed. I didn't see this full game but it looked completely different from the chicken ball in the previous game. Why oh why can't we just stick with this kind of baseball? Anyway, the final score was Kia 13 Nexen 3
Again I'm confused by the coaching. Very inconsistant. But we're back to .500 and on a two-game winning streak. Cautious optimism.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)