I'm watching my favourite pitcher pitch tonight: Yoon Suk Min. He always has close games and usually when he gets yanked, (too early), by Jo Beom Hyeon, the coach of the Tigers, he's either ahead or tied. Then the bullpen blows it for him. He's got one win this year but a combination of bad bullpen and defensive errors cost him another two. At this time he's just finished the 5th inning and he's cruising along. Has 7 or 8 strikeouts and has given up only two hits. But as usual he's up against a strong pitcher on the other club and the Tigers aren't giving him much offensive support. They've got 3 hits for him and the opposing pitcher, Kadokura is also doing well.
There's a reason why Kia never wins these close games for Yoon Suk Min and it has nothing to do with the players. It's the strategy. Last inning Kim Weon Seop got on to lead off the inning. Automatically the next batter was told to sacrifice bunt. There's absolutely no thought put into it. Happens almost all the time. I have watched every game the Tigers have played this year and this strategy has worked exactly ONE time. That is, the person bunted to second scored and would not have scored if he hadn't been bunted over. ONCE! That's all. Yet the strategy has been employed every time they get a guy on first with nobody out unless the next batter is Choi Hee Seop or Kim Sang Hyun. Why do the coaches of the Kia Tigers continue to do it? It's a mystery to me. They did it last season too. They're bunting the Tigers into mediocrity.
Just now it's the bottom of the 5th. Kia's leadoff hitter, Kim Sang Hoon got a single. So immediately the next batter squares for the sac bunt. He pops it up and gets out. I have seen games this year where sac bunts have resulted in pop outs and even double plays MORE than once in a game for the Tigers. This is exactly what they are trying to avoid when they call the sacrifice bunt. If they are so scared of the double play why don't they steal? I mean with Kim Weon Seop on first it's essentially a free base! He's been caught stealing ZERO times this season. But the coaching staff NEVER calls a steal of second when there's nobody out. They take away every chance for the runner to get to second WITHOUT an out. They hospitably hand the other team the free out or two with the sac bunt. This is not just costing the Tigers runs but games.
Here's the killer: the batter after Kim Weon Seop missed two bunt attempts then flied out so K.W.S. remained on first. The guy after Kim Sang Hoon popped out on the bunt. But both Kim Weon Seop and even Kim Sang Hyun ended up stealing second AFTER the Tigers had surrendered the requisite out. Later two slow grounders were hit and KWS never made it past second base. Any well coached team like SK or Doosan gets a leadoff single, stolen base and two grounders and they're gonna have a run on the board. Kia has to work a lot harder for their runs because of poor coaching.
The SK Wyverns got THEIR leadoff hitter aboard in between these two innings I'm writing about and they did NOT sacrifice bunt. They didn't score but at least the coach gave his team the opportunity. You'd think sooner or later Jo Beom Hyeon would learn from better coaches in the league. But he doesn't seem to.
His strategy has been erroneously called "small ball" by most people in and around the KBO. Small ball uses the bunt but it is a very small part of small ball and there are far more bunts used offensively than as a sacrifice. A bigger part of smallball is aggressive base running. The Tigers have the legs for it but not the coaching staff. They are CONSTANTLY holding guys up who are rounding third base when they should be waved. They don't steal enough. With the speedsters and good contact hitters the Tigers have it's a crime Jo Beom Hyeon only uses the hit-and-run when there are two outs and the batter has 3 balls and 2 strikes against him. Then it really isn't the hit-and-run.
Last game the Tigers tied things up in an inning where the leadoff hitter got aboard and Choi Hee Seop came up next. So Jo didn't call the automatic sac bunt. They scored a run because of it. Do you hear what I'm saying? The guy on first got home! That has happened only ONCE this whole season because of a bunt and just last game, (and many other times), it happened because they DIDN'T bunt. And then in extra innings the Tigers got the go-ahead run by waving the runner home instead of holding him at third. The play at the plate was close but An Chi Hong was called safe and Kia won. But amazingly, Jo Beom Hyeon doesn't even seem to learn from HIS OWN coaching. This game and the many others the Tigers have played this year that clearly illustrate the shortcomings of Jo's strategy go unnoticed by him.
A smart coaching staff would see these things happening regularly and make adjustments so that the team could manufacture more runs and win a few more of these close, low scoring games. But the Tigers coaches have been playing this chicken ball as long as I've been watching them. They get the lowest run production for their hits in the league. That's all on the coaches. There needs to be a change.
I feel sorry for Yoon Suk Min. If he played for, say, the Lotte Giants he'd get more wins. Lotte is a worse team than the Tigers but they have better coaching. As I type this the SK Wyverns have scored a run and it's now 1-0. My feed was cut off so I didn't see how it happened. But Yoon still has only given up 5 hits. What do you want to bet it was good coaching by SK that got them the run? Or bad defence by the Tigers. A missed double play or something. Yoon just has terrible luck! Now it's 3-0. The Tigers will continue playing scared and won't manage to come back. Another loss Yoon probably didn't deserve!
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