Lotte, which started this season with high expectations with the appointment of “master” Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung, is having an eventful season, exposing both positive and negative aspects. On the fielder’s side, new faces have settled down, indicating a clear possibility, but on the pitcher’s side, the players who had expected it were sluggish, leaving worries.
Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung also cited the establishment of the lineup of fielders as the biggest achievement of this season. “We have become a lineup that can keep up with the losing games.” On the contrary, the pitching staff has struggled to run its full capacity as the highly anticipated players who have led the team’s mound have been sluggish. Key players are Koo Seung-min, a key setup man who showed poor performance in the early days of the season, Park Se-woong, a native ace, and Na Kyun-an, a starting pitcher who suffered severe ups and downs this year.
These players have shown performance in the league so far, so when calculating the season, they set it as a constant to some extent. If these players perform worse than usual, it is a negative calculation in itself. New players who did not expect this minus should fill it, but Lotte’s mound became difficult as they could not make up for the minus of these players even if all of their plus factors were added together.
Nonetheless, Park Se-woong and Koo Seung-min have continued to play in the first division to show off their performances. However, Na has completely disappeared from the first division stage. Having had difficulties due to her personal life issues being exposed to the public even before the start of the season, Na was sluggish in the early days of the season, leaving huge concern on the Lotte mound. In many cases, pitchers who expected to win 10 games collapsed early on, increasing the burden on the bullpen. Fans were also disappointed.
The Lotte Giants did not disappoint their expectations for Na, but the fact that they drank alcohol the day before the starting pitcher spread through social networking services, fueling public anger. Everyone understands that people can drink lightly during the season. However, it was not easy to forgive a starting pitcher who takes the mound every five days for drinking alcohol on the eve of a game. Eventually, Lotte ordered Na to take disciplinary action against him. Thus, Na disappeared in public for a while.
Then, will Na Kyun-an be able to meet him within this season? Disciplinary action is over for now. He made a mistake and was punished for it. A Lotte official said that Na is currently joining a second-tier facility in Sangdong to boost his physical condition. However, he failed to train for the club during the disciplinary period and had individual training. Of course, his physical condition will deteriorate. He needs to take steps including bullpen pitching, live pitching, and games for the second-tier team. It will take some time before he returns to the top-tier team.
As he has been fully disciplined, there is no administrative shackle to his return to the first team. It is an emotional issue, but Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung plans to decide whether to deploy Na Kyun-an to the next team once he is ready. In any case, since it is a resource that we should continue to work with next year, we cannot give up as it is. When he is ready, there is a possibility that he will be given a chance at least once before the end of the regular season. 메이저놀이터
He needs to regroup in the second division and finish preparations to return to the first division. A Lotte official said, “After going through all the processes, it will be around Chuseok at the earliest.” Lotte has the most games left among the 10 teams in the KBO League. Other teams can play the remaining games with four starters, but Lotte is not good enough with four. The more starters there are, the better.
However, as it takes a long time to build up as a starter and it is not known whether he will perform well in the starting lineup with the conditions he showed this year, observers say that he is more likely to return quickly after thinking about using it as a bullpen. It was this season for Na Kyun-an, who was marked by various incidents and sluggish performances. It is the last month of attention to how much he will be able to regain his honor and create a foothold for next year.
