1. Lotte Giants (4-1)
They talk a lot about how if teams are supposedly “for real” or not when they go from not good to good. This question was made for this year's Giants. After struggling early season after their last manager was replaced, rookie manager Yang Seung-ho has this team firmly in post season contention and just 3 games back of third place Kia. Lotte swept Kia and then split their series with SK. Impressive was their 9-1 thrashing of the headless SK in the week's finale.
2. Nexen Heroes (3-1)
Nexen did not have a dominating week, but they did play enough good baseball to get a 3-1 record for the week. Nexen is still in last place but the race to finish second last is still on as the Burgundy Boys hang 4 games back of second last place Hanhwa with 5 games in hand. Heroes' 5-5 record in their last ten is better than SK (4-6), Kia (3-7), and LG (4-6). Corey Aldridge is quietly joining the yearly short list of KBO imports that have pretty good years. He leads the team in home runs with 14 and RBI's with 51.
3. LG Twins (2-1)
Pandemonium happened with LG's fanbase when they repeatedly demonstrated outside of the team's players' exit demanding an explanation for the Twins' losing ways. Ignoring the pointlessness of that exercise, the Korean Twinkies did have a winning week this week after not having one last week. The LG's 3 games played was the least, and they do have a big chance to catch up with only 98 games played so far, compared to Lotte's 102. Radhames Liz has been letting in 2 or 3 or 4 runs a game every start and this needs to be made smaller if LG is going to make a run.
4. Samsung Lions (2-2)
After slapping around an SK team in turmoil (mini sweep), they couldn't hang against a more determined LG team. Still probably the best overall team in the league when you factor in games played plus wins, it might finally be the Lions year to get back into the win column when it comes to Korean Series championships. Still cruising in first place and 6 and 4 in their last 10 games, Samsung is propelled to the top mostly by their KBO leading pitching. Their 3.44 team ERA is tops and their starters have 60 wins, which is only 1 win less than Kia's starters who have played 10 more games.
5. Doosan Bears (2-2)
The Bears were having a decent week beating and annoying their Jamsil rivals in the only game played for that series. Highlight of the week was definitely the come-from-behind 18-9 thrashing of the Hanhwa Eagles in the Saturday game. Doosan had 18 hits and 18 runs to bat .429 for the game and made Hanhwa's 8 pitchers go home with a 20.3 ERA. The problem is, the Bears still couldn't beat a team that is as bad as this in the series and lost the series. Their next series is with SK and will be one to watch as two disasters meet.
6. Hanhwa Eagles (2-2)
Hanhwa is still out of last place and had a non-losing week for the second week in a row. The Eagles are actually 6-4 in their last 10 and in a good position to fight off Nexen for the battle of second last place. Beating Doosan in their series despite the embarrassing game described above is a good step in keeping this mini-drive alive. Hanhwa has no players hitting near .300, but there are five players Kang Dong-woo, Choi Jin-heng, Han Sang-hoon, and Lee Dae-su who are batting over .250. Actually, that wasn't even worth mentioning. Karim Garcia has been off and on, and he is hitting an embarrassing 0.226 after finally hitting a home run in many weeks.
7. SK Wyverns (1-3)
After canning their very celebrated manager Kim Seung-gen on Thursday, SK has gone 1-2 and has been shut out once and slapped around 9-1 another time. SK went absolutely limp against import rookie Chris Bootchek in that embarrassing loss to Lotte on Sunday. They only managed 2 hits, an Ahn Chi-hong home run in the 5th and a Choi Dong-su double in the eighth. SK took 5 innings to manage a hit against this rookie and whatever tension SK and their fans were feeling during those 5 innings, I believe they will be having a lot of opportunity to feel it again as this season drags on for this team. Kim Seung-geun has a brilliant baseball mind, taking this upstart team into the KBO's elite. SK will now revert right back to what it was before Kim Seung-geun.
8. Kia Tigers (1-4)
Injuries are finally catching up to the Kia Tigers. Luckily Yoon Suk-min (14-4, 2.42) is healthy and back to dominating mode after two losses. Yoon and the Tigers' pitching staff 2011 are actually looking kind of like Ryu Hyun-jin and the Eagles' staff from 2010. Where one pitcher dominates and everyone else hangs on. It's definitely not a fair comparison as Aq. Lopez is also very effective at 10-4 and 2.91. Lee Bum-ho is very much missed as his 17 home runs on the season and .306/.440/.535 slash would have helped quite a bit in their 9-3, 4-1, 3-2, 5-4 losing games this week against Lotte and Nexen.
7 comments:
LG was swept again by Nexen... The team is completely collapsing. Start thinking that the beginning of season was only pure luck!
By the Heroes too!
It's same, isn't it? =)
I didn't read how you wrote it was Nexen in your original post heh.
LG couldn't take out Hanhwa in extras today and still can't seem to win... what a disaster!
Gary Glover has been pitching with 75% TORN LIGAMENT in his pitching arm for the last couple of outings. The team insists that he pitch,and because he is a team player he continues to pitch in pain.He should be placed on the DISABLED LIST or SHUT DOWN for the season. The Team is now placing his career in jeapordy.
Wow. I wouldn't be surprised, many imports only stay one year, so some managers may not care about what happen to them later
this is glovers 2nd year .He helped them win the championship last year. He was MVP. In MLB his health would be more important. They would place him on disabled list and hopefully return for the postseason
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