Unfamiliar Lee Jeong-hoo’s batting average of 0.218… Will it be different in ‘Promised May’?

 The biggest news in April of the 2023 KBO League, which opened spectacularly on April 1, was the Lotte Giants’ rise to the top.

The batting performance of Lee Jung-hoo (Kiwoom Heroes), the hitter representing Korean baseball, feels as awkward as Lotte, which has been in first place for the first time in 11 years.

Lee Jung-hoo’s April report card was a batting average of 0.218 (19 hits in 87 at-bats), 3 homers, and 13 RBIs.

It is his worst monthly batting performance since his debut.

Lee Jung-hoo, who won the batting title for two consecutive years from 2021 and 2022, ranked only 54th in the batting average category among 62 hitters who filled the required at-bats in April.

The sluggish batting of Lee Jung-hoo, the captain and key player, did not avoid the influence of his team, Kiwoom.

Kiwoom, which has the league’s strongest 1-4 starters, was evaluated to settle in the upper ranks, but only ranked 8th with 11 wins and 13 losses.

Kiwoom’s faith in Lee Jung-hoo is solid.

Director Kiwoom Hong Won-gi said, “People say that the most useless thing in the world is ‘Worrying about Lee Jung-hoo.’

No matter how hard it gets, Lee Jung-hoo will firmly keep the number 3 hitter’s seat.

However, Lee Jung-hoo is also a human being, so when baseball doesn’t work out, he does things he wouldn’t normally do.

On the 30th of last month, against the Lotte Giants in Busan, he attempted a surprise bunt in the 5th inning when the score was 0-2, with 1 out and 1 base, but was out.

Lee Jung-hoo’s usual batting theory is ‘making a strong batting ball’.

No matter how much the Lotte infield defense showed an empty spot with a shift, the attempt of a surprise bunt itself proves Lee Jung-hoo’s unresolved blow.

If you look at the past performance of Lee Jung-hoo, who made his professional debut in 2017, it is close to a ‘slow starter’ that takes a late start.

Lee Jung-hoo’s career batting average from March to April was 0.293, about 5 pennies away from his professional career batting average of 0.341.

Even though it wasn’t especially right in April of this year, it means that Lee Jung-hoo’s slowdown in the beginning is not an incomprehensible phenomenon.

In fact, during the month of April, Lee Jung-hoo had to fight bad luck as well as a blow slump.

Among the batter’s batting indicators, BABIP (in-play batting average) shows a tendency to converge to a certain value if there are enough samples.

Lee Jung-hoo’s professional career BABIP was 0.354, but in April this year, his BABIP was only 0.213.

In a word, it means that there were many unlucky balls that went straight to the fielder.

Lee Jung-hoo, who usually joked, “I have no choice but to make a strong batted ball and leave it to luck” and “I try to pick up a lot of trash (for luck),” has no choice but to pick up more trash and expect good luck from May.토토사이트

If Lee Jung-hoo showed a weak appearance until April, he bombarded his mound with a completely different appearance from May.

Lee Jeong-hoo’s career batting average for May was 0.377, the best among monthly performances, and his career OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) for May was 1.010, the highest.

Even in 2021, just two years ago, Lee Jung-hoo was said to be somewhat sluggish with a batting average of 0.269 in April.

However, only in May he hit a batting average of 0.451, eventually ending the season with a batting average of 0.360 that year, winning his first batting title in his debut.

Lee Jung-hoo and Kiwoom look forward to the ‘Promised May’ coming again this year.