“Definitely when it counts.”
NC outfielder Park Se-hyuk, 33, has been designated for assignment. He left the first team on Nov. 14 with left wrist inflammation. Ahn Jung-yeol took over the role on the 15th. In 79 games this season, Park is batting .212 with 47 doubles, four home runs, 27 RBIs, 31 runs scored, a .646 OPS and a .208 slugging percentage.
“I decided to give him a break because he’s having a shock when he’s defending and he’s not hitting normally,” manager Kang Myung-ho said before the game against the Changwon Hanwha on Friday. “It won’t be a long break. There are injuries every time it matters this season, but I will use Ahn Joong-yeol.”
The catcher’s batting is crucial. NC didn’t sign Park Se-hyuk expecting him to have the bat of Yang Ji (Doosan), but it’s true that his batting production has dropped a lot. This problem has not been solved since the end of his time with Doosan.
“I think he changed his batting form at the beginning of the season, but it didn’t show in his performance, so I think he was impatient,” Kang said. That’s fine if you’re in the process of finding your own hitting style, but the problem is that Park is a catcher who is in charge of communicating with the pitchers and fielding the batters.
“Even if we focused on the game operation with the pitchers, there were some injuries and some aspects that were not very clean, but there was no big abnormality in the communication with the pitchers,” Kang said. This year, the NC mound has been struggling to manage the starting lineup, and the bullpen has recently slumped after performing beyond expectations. The team’s second-best ERA (3.67) would not have been possible without Park’s leadership.
Park is the fourth-best catcher in the league with a 0.513 WAA according to Baseball-Reference.com. His 3.72 ERA ranks sixth, his 0.453 PASS/9 ranks sixth, and his 30% stolen base rate ranks seventh. He’s not at the top of the league, but he’s having a good enough season. 스포츠토토
In the end, the conclusion is that he’s a pretty good catcher who just needs a little more support. In order for him to hit better, he needs to stop hurting. At the beginning of the season, he was hit in the head by Guillermo Heredia’s (SSG) bat, and now it’s a wrist injury. It’s hard to get into a good rhythm when you’ve had two breaks.
However, injuries are inevitable, and we can only hope to come back healthy and ready to give our best. In the end, it is Park Se-hyuk who will overcome the ordeal. More importantly, the climax of the best-of-five fight awaits. From now on, Park will have to show his true colors. “I’m hoping that he will be able to lead me more clearly when it’s crucial,” Kang said.