In this season, Lotte Giants changed entry into the main league team frequently. The number of registered and canceled entries reached 27 times in 44 days from March 5 after the opening entry was confirmed. Among them, most of them were in the secondary league due to sluggish performance. Manager Kim Tae-hyung was very cool-headed in dealing with not only key players such as Koo Seung-min and Han Dong-hee, but also players whose parent company invested a huge amount of money in Lotte, including Yoo Kang-nam, Noh Jin-hyuk, and Han Hyun-hee.
Jung Hoon (37) and Jeon Jun-woo (38) were the only players who did not get hit by a knife attack. According to the WPA index based on Sports2i, the official KBO record statistics firm, Jung Hoon (-0.17) and Jeon Joon-woo (-0.88) have not been troubleshooters so far. However, the reality was that it was hard to find a player who could hit as much as Jung Hoon (0.294) and Jeon Jun-woo (0.311: batting average from March to April) in the Lotte lineup, which had been struggling with beatings every day. “We are the team that (Jeon) Jun-woo and (Jeong) Hoon should play for,” Kim said, putting them in the main batting order.
Fortunately, Lotte began to wake up as these two served as troubleshooters. According to Sports2I, the odds of winning in the top of the fourth inning, when Jeon Jun-woo fired a signal with a solo home run, and then Jung Hoon hit a winning two-run homer from 46.4% to 89.3% in the top of the ninth inning when he was 6-6. On the 4th, Jeon Jun-woo hit a double that brought in two runners in the top of the seventh inning with a 3-2 lead, raising his winning probability from 43.9% to 89.8%, and Jung Hoon hit a wedge one-run double. In the end, Lotte hummed its first three-game winning streak of the season after losing five consecutive games.
Jung Hoon and Jeon have played leadership roles to keep the team in balance. The same is true in stadiums. While Hwang Sung-bin and Son Ho-young, who account for a large portion of the team’s recent performance, have been out due to injury, Jeon Joon-woo and Jung Hoon have taken the lead in minimizing the gap. Jung also played as a third baseman. He had been in charge of only the first base and the outfield for a while, so it was the first time in five years to wear an infield glove. He did his part not only in offense but also in defense. There was also a reason why Kim had strong trust in Jung Hoon and Jeon.
BY: 사설토토