Doosan Bears coach Lee Seung-yeop’s plans for the 2024 season clearly included Hong Geon-hee. 

With no news on the conclusion of Hong Kun-hee’s free agent contract

it appears that the key will be whether the player and the club can reach an agreement before departure for the Spree Camp in Sydney

Australia at the end of this month. 먹튀검증사이트

Doosan held a founding ceremony at the restaurant at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 15th.

A meeting was held with coach Lee Seung-yeop, Doosan Baseball Team CEO Ko Young-seop, general manager Kim Tae-ryong

coaching staff, and players, and pledged to do well in the 2024 season.

Coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “In 15 days from now, 2024 will truly begin (with spring camp in Sydney, Australia).

What I really want to tell you is that I will change first. Everyone, forget everything that happened last year and do what the CEO said.

I hope he adapts well to the changing environment of the KBO League,” he said.

In the 2023 season, under the leadership of new coach Seung-Yeop Lee

Doosan ranked 5th with 74 wins, 68 losses, 2 draws, and a winning percentage of 0.521 in the regular league.

It finished in 9th place in the 2022 season, washing away the pain of having spent a fall without

baseball’ for the first time in 8 years since 2014. We had a not bad year, achieving our goal of advancing to the postseason.

However, Doosan’s journey in the fall of 2023 was too short. The 2023 season ended with one game, losing 9-14 to the NC Dinos, 4th place in the regular league, in the wild card game.

After a short break, Doosan immediately began preparations for the 2024 season at the 2nd team training center in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do.

Coach Lee Seung-yeop worked hard during a month-long wrap-up camp with 1.5-level players as well as key players, including veteran Kim Jae-hwan.

The Doosan front office was also busy. First, they succeeded in retaining the one-two punch Raul Alcantara and Brandon Waddell

which was one of the key tasks in the Stove League.

Alcantara started 31 games in the 2023 season and pitched 192 innings, recording 13 wins, 9 losses, and an ERA of 2.67

taking center stage on the Doosan mound. He played the most innings in the entire league, showing off his unique ‘inning eating’ ability.

He ranked first in this category with 22 quality starts, standing tall as the best starting pitcher not only for Doosan but also for the 10 teams.

Brandon will also wear the Doosan uniform for three consecutive years.

After wearing the Doosan uniform as a substitute foreign player in the 2022 season

he achieved respectable results of 5 wins, 3 losses, and an ERA of 3.60 in 11 games and 65 innings, and although his contract was not renewed ahead of the 2023 season

he was once again selected by Doosan during the season based on his good performance in Taiwanese professional baseball. I was called.

Brandon showed off even more outstanding pitching in his second year in the KBO League.

In the 2023 season, with 18 games, 104⅔ innings, 11 wins, 3 losses, and an average ERA of 2.49, he served as a one-two punch for Doosan along with Alcantara.

Because he joined mid-season, he was unable to fill the required number of innings

but he recorded 13 quality starts in 18 starts and delivered stable pitching every time he took the mound.

It also made history as a substitute foreign player recorded double-digit wins for the first time in the history of the Doosan club.

The main foreign batsman was Henry Ramos. Ramos played in 76 games in the pitcher-friendly International League (Triple A) last year

recording a batting average of 0.318, an on-base percentage of 0.411, 13 home runs, 55 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.954

 Another factor Doosan is looking forward to is that he showed good performance before being released from KT Wiz due to injury in 2022.

Doosan also retained starting first baseman Yang Seok-hwan, who was an internal free agent.

Seok-Hwan Yang will continue to wear the Bears uniform as he signed a contract worth 7.8 billion won and a contract period of 4+2 years.

The strong central batting line of Kim Jae-hwan, Yang Eui-ji, and Yang Seok-hwan can now be operated in 2024.

Now all that’s left is to catch Hong Geon-hee, another internal free agent.

Hong Geon-hee played a key role in the Doosan bullpen with 64 games, 61⅔ innings, 1 win, 5 losses, 22 saves, and 5 holds in the 2023 season.

Hong Geon-hee had 36 games, 35 innings, 3 losses, 1 hold, 20 saves, and an ERA of 2.31 in the first half of last year, and in the second half of 28 games, 26⅔ innings, 1 win, 2 losses, 4 holds, 2 saves, and an ERA of 4.05, he is clearly an indispensable member of the Doosan mound. You can’t deny that.

Hong Geon-hee’s greatest strength is consistency. The only pitchers who have pitched more innings than Hong Geon-hee in the entire league over the past four seasons from 2020 to last year are Seo Jin-yong (268⅔ innings) of the SSG Landers and Kim Jae-yoon (259⅔ innings)

who transferred as a free agent from KT Wiz to Samsung Lions.

Hong Geon-hee served as a pillar of the Doosan bullpen by playing 254⅔ innings over the past four seasons.

Although Hong Kun-hee did not record the league’s best performance

the weight of Doosan’s mound would inevitably be greatly reduced without Hong Kun-hee.

It is known that Hong Kun-hee’s agent had a meeting with the Doosan club earlier this month.

Since Doosan is scheduled to leave for spring camp in Sydney, Australia on the 29th, it is best for the player and team to get their seal of approval as soon as possible.

Coach Lee Seung-yeop is also desperately hoping that Hong Geon-hee will remain in Doosan.

He is in the position that he will make the final decision on the position of this season’s sure-win team after spring training

but he has consistently stated his position that Hong Geon-hee is clearly a necessary player.

Coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “I think Hong Kun-hee’s free agent contract will be good news,” and “I believe he will do well for the club.”

He continued, “Last year, the closing pitcher was changed from Hong Geon-hee to Jeong Cheol-won during the season

but this year we have not decided yet,” and added, “We plan to make a decision after discussing it with first-team main pitching coach Jo Woong-cheon through spring camp and exhibition games.”