After 16 years of professional career, he is taking on the role of an unfamiliar designated hitter. Although he planned to increase his designated hitter appearances from before the season, it is his fourth consecutive designated hitter appearance due to overlapping injuries. LG batting machine Kim Hyun-soo (35) talked about how he is adapting to the designated hitter position.
It is not that there was no designated hitter appearance. Last year, out of a total of 604 at-bats, he played 194 at-bats as a designated hitter. Still, he has made the most appearances as a left fielder throughout his career. Players prefer to hit and defend rather than just stand at bat as a designated hitter. This is especially true of Kim Hyun-soo, who has more desire to participate than anyone else.
But injuries are holding back. For the purpose of arranging physical strength, he planned to play in left field for more than two out of six games a week, but he is in a situation where he has no choice but to put his name on the lineup as a designated hitter. On the 12th, he was hit hard on the knee by a batted ball in the game against Sajik Lotte, and he is playing as a designated hitter in all games this week until the game against Doosan in Jamsil on the 14th. Ahead of this week, LG coach Yeom Gyeong-yeop’s plan was to have Hong Chang-gi as the designated hitter and Kim Hyeon-soo as the left fielder in the game against Sajik Lotte on the 13th.
Even on the unavoidable designated hitter trip, he produces dazzling results. Kim Hyun-soo recorded a batting average of 0.383 OPS and 0.976 until the match against Doosan in Jamsil on the 14th. As a solver who always puts his name on the top of the final hit category, he is competing with Hanwha Chae Eun-seong (15 RBIs) for the lead in the RBI category with 14 RBIs. It is proof that he is adapting to the designated hitter position.
Regarding the fact that Kim Hyun-soo produced good results despite participating in 10 out of 12 games as a designated hitter, “I am swinging a lot. He continues to swing inside the dugout. And he tries to move as much as possible. He is trying to avoid sitting on the bench as much as possible.”
Regarding being hit by a ball on the 12th, he said, “It hurts, but it’s not a situation where I can show off the pain. He’s in the dugout on defense as a designated hitter, but he can’t show his pain to his teammates on the ground. There are players who are sick besides me. As I continued to go out as a designated hitter, I felt sorry for my colleagues.”
He’s doing well, but he’s not satisfied. Kim Hyun-soo thinks that although the batting pace has increased since the demonstration game period, it is still not on the right track. He said, “It seems to be getting better little by little, but I don’t know yet. He looked back at himself coldly, saying, “I can still see him missing the ball full of threads.”
He expressed his gratitude to his colleagues while evaluating himself coldly. Kim Hyun-soo said, “Our players are moving well according to the bench strategy. I feel good because it seems to be leading to good results. There will be players who are heartbroken by what happened recently, and there will be players who are not. Still, it seemed like everyone was trying to put up with it. So the whole team seems to be going well.”
The team is not shaken because there is Kim Hyun-soo’s leadership both inside and outside baseball. Director Yeom Gyeong-yeop,토토사이트 who wore the LG uniform for the first time in 12 years, said, “I am very grateful to Hyun-soo. The attitude and mindset of the players are much better than LG when I was there before. It is thanks to Hyeon-soo holding the team well.”