The beginning of the season, the mound's turbulence, which is shaking regardless of the starters and bullpen, is pointed out as the cause. 안전놀이터
Last year, when it remained at the bottom until May, there was a cause of "line injuries" by the main players of pitching and hitting, but this season, except for So Hyung-joon, who is rehabilitating after elbow surgery due to an injury last year, has not been able to get out of the swamp of sluggishness even though there is no significant power loss due to injury.
The batting line has some ups and downs for each player except for Park Byung-ho's severe slump, but it is not a big problem. Bae Jung-dae and Chun Sung-ho's table setters and the "clean-up trio" composed of Mel Rojas Jr., Kang Baek-ho and Moon Sang-chul are also consistently producing long balls.
On top of that, low-ranking batters such as Kim Min-hyuk, Jang Sung-woo, Cho Yong-ho, and Kim Sang-soo, who have recently revived their sense of hitting, are also showing signs of recovery.
The problem is the collapse of the mound. It is a difficult situation in general, regardless of whether the starting lineup or the bullpen session. Up until last season, KT's mound was called the "pitcher kingdom" due to its solid fourth starting lineup and well-organized bullpen session, but it is hard to find powerful performance.
Foreign "one-two punch" William Cuevas and Wes Benjamin have also not shown the same power as last year, and "native ace" Ko Young-pyo has stabilized, but the 4th and 5th starters and many bullpen pitchers have become "neighborhood drum."
The bullpen is also overloaded as the starting pitchers have failed to show their pitching performance. Park Young-hyun, the highly anticipated closing pitcher, is also collapsing under excessive pressure. This is evidenced by the fact that none of the starting pitchers and bullpen pitchers have an ERA of 3 or less.
With an average earned run of 8.35 points per game, 179 hits, 16 homers, 116 runs, a hit rate of 0.344, and a 1.91 on-base percentage per inning, they all have the disgrace of being a "hit and scoring vending machine," such as No. 1 in all and No. 2 in four Blon saves.
It is pointed out that the KT mound is being hit regardless of whether it is a starter or a bullpen, because pitchers' ball power is not showing power, and that major pitchers' pitch and ball mix are being identified by opposing analysts and are being intensively targeted, so changes and countermeasures need to be prepared.
If manager Lee Kang-chul, a former pitcher, fails to rebuild the collapsed mound, it is expected that it will not be easy to overcome the leaky shield no matter how sharp the end of the spear is. The advice is that the collapsed shield of KT, the candidate for the championship, should be found as soon as possible so that the batters can create synergy and escape from the nightmare of the early season.