Kim Hye-sung’s path to the U.S. is blocked after a bleak start for Kiwoom.
For Kim Hye-sung of the Kiwoom Heroes, the 2024 season is a big one for her baseball career. After last season, she decided to try out for the American Major League Baseball. If she finishes this season well, she will be eligible to apply for a post. She is following in the footsteps of Lee Jung-hoo, who is one year her senior. Lee announced after the 2022 season that he would “challenge the major leagues in one year,” and after taking his time to prepare, he got his “big break” when he signed a six-year, $113 million contract with the San Francisco Giants.
Seeing Lee’s success must have been heartwarming for Kim, too. The two have different styles. Lee is a player whose focus is all on hitting. Kim, on the other hand, makes good contact, but is also considered a resource who can play defense and cover the bases. It’s hard to say which is more valuable, but it’s clear that major league teams are interested in Kim Hye-sung. When LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts visited the Gocheok Sky Dome for the Seoul Series, he paid lip service to the Korean national team’s second baseman, saying, “Our scouts love the Korean national team second baseman.”
Major League Baseball teams already know Kim stats.
But her performance this season is also very important. If she hits rock bottom before the draft, she’ll be less convincing. Even if she does make it, there’s a good chance she’ll be treated differently.
But the mood is not good. It’s safe to say that Kiwoom has one of the weakest squads this season. There are no homegrown starters, and four of the bullpen arms are high school rookies. There are six rookies on the opening day roster, 스포츠토토 and a 19-year-old is now the starting shortstop. It’s not that these players can’t play baseball, but their lack of experience, strength, and stamina will limit them in the long run.
It’s not just the rookies, but the rest of the team is clearly inferior. They lost their first two games against the KIA Tigers and NC Dinos. When the foreign starters are called up, they have to fight evenly with their opponents, but the two foreign starters collapsed and lost the game, which is bound to demoralize the team.
It’s bound to have an adverse effect on Kim Hye-sung as well.
When the team atmosphere is extremely low, it’s hard to get excited no matter how hard you try. Individual records are only worth something if the team wins, and if the opponent is too easy to beat, their morale goes through the roof. If they want to win three games, there is no way to stop them.
And the opponent’s focus on Kim Hye-sung becomes even more intense. The strategy is to stop Kim Hye-sung, and the more effort they put into his at-bats, the less likely he is to get a hit.
Kim looked to be on a roll this season, hitting the first home run in the KBO. However, he got off to a terrible start, going 1-for-9 with one home run and a 1-for-1 slugging percentage in the first two games. As the captain of the team, she has to look out for the team, so she can’t just focus on her own baseball.