Lee Jung-hoo (25‧ Kiwoom), the best hitter in the KBO League, is off to a good start this season. He has a batting average of 0.207 in his first 15 games through the 21st. Although he had three home runs and 11 runs batted in, his OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) was just .740. Lee Jung-hoo’s batting average last year was 0.349 and OPS was 0.996.
When he said, “I’m not worried about Lee Jung-hoo,” Lee Jung-hoo, the person in charge, smiled awkwardly. I know that kind of story, but he seemed to be talking about the fact that he had a lot of troubles. At the same time, he also expressed his intention to trust the data and go silently. Lee Jung-hoo, who had a lot of conversations with the data analysis team, diagnosed, “The batting speed is better than last year, but the reason why the batting average is not coming out is that there is no luck in the end.” I could read his will not to be impatient even if he thought so.
Then, with about 10% of the season played, should we worry about Lee Jung-hoo or should we pay more attention to our livelihood? Lee Jung-hoo said that he confirmed that the data behind the numbers is not bad in a conversation with the data analysis team. Looking at the tally of ‘Trackman’, which provides tracking data to 9 KBO league teams, Lee Jung-hoo is right. On the contrary, there are better corners than last year, when they had the best results.
Exit velocity doesn’t simply improve with good power or with a heavy bat. These elements are necessary, but in the end, you have to hit the ball accurately to ultimately shine. It is a passage where you can look at strength and technique, and there is a tendency to see it as a leading indicator of batting performance in the major leagues. As Lee Jung-hoo said, his batting speed was better at the beginning of this season than last year.
Lee Jung-hoo’s average batting speed last season was 142.9 km per hour, which was at the top of the league. If only balls with valid launch angles were counted separately and averaged, it reached 148km. This year, the average batted ball speed is 148.3 km, which is Lee Jung-hoo’s personal best. The average effective angle launch speed was also 153.1 km, which was 5 km faster than last year. Lee Jung-hoo is still throwing strong batted balls.
Last year, Lee Jung-hoo had a 32.2% hit rate of 155 km or more, which can be seen as a tally of major league hard hits (balls hit at 95 mph or more). The rate of hitting more than 165 km, which can be literally called bullet hitting, was 8.5%. This year, although it is the beginning of the season, the ratio of hits over 155 km is 42.2%, and the ratio of hits over 165 km is 15.6%. It goes without saying that the faster the batted ball, the higher the chance of hitting. If this batting speed is maintained, it is reasonable to assume that Lee Jung-hoo’s excessively low in-play batting average and batting average will gradually rise. In fact, just looking at these numbers, the current batting average is too abnormal.
However, this exit velocity does not increase the number of ground balls that get stuck in the infield. Last year, Lee Jung-hoo had a ground ball rate of 37.2%,카지노 a line drive rate of 26%, a fly ball rate of 30.4%, and a shallow fly ball rate of 6.4%. This year, the percentage of ground balls decreased to 31.1%, and the percentage of line drives (28.9%) and fly balls (31.1%) increased. Although the pop fly rate has also increase
Although the launch angle is higher than last year’s average, it is still within the effective range. If the batted ball speed is supported, the batting ratio between 5 and 20 degrees, which is the area where hits come out well, is 28.9%, which is better than last year’s 26%. Conversely, the percentage of balls hit with a launch angle of -5 degrees to 5 degrees, which are likely to be grounders or stay in the infield, decreased from 16.8% last year to 13.3% this year.
So, why is the batting average so low? Lee Jung-hoo said, “Opponent pitchers seldom give misplaced pitches.” Is it an optical illusion that Lee Jung-hoo, who has fallen into a slump, feels? It’s not like that either. There is no way that pitchers will suddenly get better at batting after Lee Jeong-hu. In the end, you have to look at it. There is an increasing number of competitions where players throw a ball that is good if they hit it in a place where it is difficult to hit it, and ‘if they don’t hit it, just pick it out’. A slightly different trend can be read from the second half of last year, when Yasiel Puig, a tricky hitter, was behind.
This is also evident in the data. When dividing the strike zone, last year, 30.5% came in the middle, 37.1% came in the edge, and 32.3% went outside. However, this year, the rate of players falling outside the strike zone increased significantly to 39.7%. Lee Jung-hoo’s feeling that there is no mistake may be related to this.
However, there are areas of concern. Once hit, the contact rate of Lee Jung-hoo, who blows a good ball, is falling. If you don’t hit the bat, exit velocity doesn’t matter at all. Lee Jung-hoo’s walk rate increased significantly compared to last year (10.5% → 15.7%), but the miss rate (4.9% → 8.8%) also increased, and the strikeout rate (5.1% → 10%) also increased.
In conclusion, opposing pitchers do not give good balls, and Lee Jeong-hoo sometimes takes walks while enduring well, but sometimes swings and misses, and his contact rate is lower than last year. It could be that Lee Jung-hoo is embarrassed by the pitchers’ changed opponent pattern. A commentator from a hitter said, “Personally, I feel that the frequency of just throwing mistakes has increased. I changed my batting form during the off-season, but I can still feel awkward in the trajectory and preparations themselves. If so, the timing may be delayed.” did.
Regarding Lee Jung-hoo’s sluggish performance ahead of the Incheon SSG game on the 21st, coach Hong Won-ki said, “I think it would be better not to keep talking about it. I don’t think there’s anything good about it.” It is a concern that if there is a lot of talk about sluggish batting average, players may also be stressed, and that stress may worsen the current bad indicators. Looking at the data, it comes to the conclusion that there is no reason or basis to worry about Lee Jung-hoo ‘so far’. However, depending on Lee Jung-hoo’s future actions, it may be necessary to analyze the data again after 40 games.
d somewhat, there is no ‘absolute risk factor’ that causes ground balls to increase significantly.