Sorry for not being as solid with the rankings postings. I'm in Canada moving around starting a new position, etc. An unfair week as there were teams like Doosan which played all 6 games on the week and Samsung who only played 2. But, if you're over 20 you've probably found out that neither baseball nor life is fair.
1. Samsung Lions 2-0 -> Only played two games but have not lost since the 19th, that means they're riding a 5 game winning streak, and this isn't any surprise at this point. Burden for Lions' small ball offence is being spread around like communism with Shin Myung-chul, Park Han-yi, Lee Yong-ok, Choi Tae-in, Choi Hyung-woo all hitting well. Win-loss records for Samsung's top 5 pitchers Chang Won-sam, Ahn Ji-man, Jeong Hyun-ok, Cha Woo-chan, and Kwon Hyuk read 12-4, 8-3, 8-1, 8-1, and 7-1. This team will at least make the final series.
2. SK Wyverns 4-1 -> Had more of a workload but they did lose a game. You can't lose no matter what. SK's still on the top of the standings, as they've been all year. That one loss came to non-playoff Kia. But they did beat the hard hitting Giants by hitting even harder (10-5 and 8-5 wins). I have a feeling that this could be the end of the SK's run as the dominant team in the KBO. They are a team's team in both batting and pitching with the exception of Kim Kwang-hyun. But the team is individually weaker than Samsung or even Doosan or Lotte. They'll probably play Samsung in the Korean Series, but ace Kim Kwang-hyun and Ken Kotokura are the only SK pitchers that can hang with Samsung.
3. Doosan Bears 2-3-1 -> Had the burden of playing a full week. And put up mediocre numbers doing it. Troubling is Doosan is 9 games back of 1st place SK. While Samsung is only 2.5 games back. Fortunately for the Bears, the Giants are a monstrous 17 games back. That almost makes Doosan seem like a part of the elite. Either way, their numbers are decidedly mediocre. Their Sunday loss to a non-Ryu Hyun-jin starting Eagles team seems to stick out. Got 3 games coming up with SK this week. Make or break?
4. Lotte Giants 1-3 -> Lee Dae-ho has been the talk of the KBO leading in many offensive categories. But Lotte the team has not changed a whole lot from what they always were. Still a solid 5 wins ahead of Kia and probably will slide into the playoff position. But all their starters except Kim Soo-wan riding ERA's over 4 (as usual). Kim Soo-wan is having a great rookie season with a 5-1, 3.02 record. Hopefully he will usher in a new Lotte era focused on pitching. An easy early week against LG and Kia will help them hold onto that #4 position.
5. LG Twins, 1-1-1 -> They're not doing as bad as ther standings say. Actually, for the year they are. But for this week, with just 3 games, they did hang tough in a tough week. Well, evey week is a tough week for this team. Regardless, they've only lost 1nce in their last 5 games. Lee Jin-young (hitting .336) and the main man Cho In-song (25 home-runs, 96 RBI's) are providing some offensive spark. But that's like it for offense for this team. Lee Byong-gyu is way down in 23rd place in KBO BA standings with a decent .289. But, your 3rd best hitter should be better than decent. And Lee Bong-geun's doing what he always does, but he's always been kind of mediocre. Which brings us to the magic word for this team (and many other teams in the league): mediocre.
6. Kia Tigers 2-3 -> Good news is they only blew out the Friday game against SK 0-7. All their other losses this week were only by 1 run and they even beat Lotte on the Tuesday. Needless to say they still lost. Here's a problem, Kia hit .161, .176, .138 in their last 3 games. And they haven't hit over .300 since the Lotte win on Tuesday. Lee Yong-gyu is the only Kia hitter anywhere near the elite hitters in the league. So, the deduction is, Kia has problems hitting. Seo Jae-woong (7-6, 3.13) and Yang Hyun-joon (14-6, 4.07) are doing decent, but as you can see by their numbers, not very elite. It's going to be tough for this team to make the post-season.
7. Nexen Heroes 2-1 -> Not a lot to work with and not a lot to talk about. I did watch a lot of their games in the beginning of the year half because I felt sorry for them and half because they played sort of exciting ball (occasionally). But now sitting at second last place with no hope for the season and a .395 winning percentage, it's kind of a chore to think about things to say about this team. Good thing is, they're not in last place, bad thing is .295, 14 home runs, and 69 RBI's are the top team numbers for each category by 3 separate Nexen batters. I won't say their names because it'll just embarass them and.. you probably won't even care. Their individual pitching stats are equally.. mediocre.
8. Hanhwa Eagles 2-1 -> Even though this team is in last place, they are notable for individual standouts they seem to produce (and lose). The two this season being Ryu Hyun-jin and Choi Tae-in. Julio DePaula did a great job in their Doosan win for the week going 5 and a third and letting in 1 run for his win. That doesn't happen much though. Daejeon fans not interested in Ryu will probably be getting excited for the battle for second last the Eagles are faced with against Nexen as the season winds down. Either way, Hanhwa's logo is still pretty cool and I'd rather play for the Eagles than Nexen or LG if that means anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment