Last season, Merrill Kelly, who is showing the most outstanding performance in the major leagues among foreign pitchers from the KBO League, set career high records in most wins (13 wins), ERA (3.37), and Sohwa innings (200.1 innings). It’s not serious.
This season, Kelly recorded the most victories (8 wins, 3 losses) in the National League (NL), an ERA of 2.92, 82 strikeouts in 77 innings, and a WHIP (on base per inning) of 1.10, showing better performance than last season, which was the best of his career. are reaping
Kelly, who was considered a 5th starter at the time of signing ahead of the 2019 season, has shown an ace-level performance since last year, and Arizona’s choice, which signed a contract extension of up to 3 years and $25 million (approximately 32 billion won) in April of last year, is ‘faith’ It is being praised as ‘one number’.
Kelly, the best eight-color bird in ML, evolves into K-machine beyond inning eater
Kelly, who is in his 5th year in the major leagues, was able to achieve excellent results that exceeded expectations at the time of recruitment. This is because he has the ability to confuse others.
From his major league debut in 2019 until last year, Kelly recorded a pitch rate of 10% or more for all five pitches he uses, including four-seam, sinker, cutter, changeup, and curveball. In addition, from this season, a slider that flows outward against a right-handed hitter was added to the pitching repertoire, and he was reborn as a pitcher who uses a variety of pitches that are one of the best in the league.
Kelly doesn’t just throw a bunch of different pitches, he throws each of them in the right place and as he pleases. Kelly’s pitching style, which freely utilizes all areas of the strike zone, is evaluated as having complicated the minds of his opponent hitters.
In addition, this season, fastball-type pitches (four-seam, sinker, cutter) began to appear more frequently than before in other courses as well as courses that were frequently thrown.
Kelly’s three fastballs and changeup have long been praised for their excellent tunneling effect (a synergistic effect created by different pitches forming similar trajectories). However, as the pattern of the fastball became more diversified, it was possible to confuse the opponent batters more, and naturally, the changeup’s ability to induce a swing was greatly improved. (Career-high 34% changeup miss rate this season).
As a result, Kelly’s strikeouts per 9 innings this year has increased significantly to 9.6 (a career average of 8), and this season Kelly is evaluated as a complete ace with excellent strikeout ability beyond simple inning eater.
Constant efforts to improve the type of pitch, fruition of the success story of reverse export
Kelly is a pitcher who has consistently worked hard to develop his pitching ability, such as raising the speed of his fastball or polishing his cutter, even during his KBO days. This effort continued even after entering the major leagues. .
Kelly’s changeup in 2019, his debut season in the major leagues, was 15cm lower than the average changeup of other pitchers with similar conditions (release point and velocity).
However, this season, the drop of the changeup has increased significantly to the point of recording a vertical movement value that is more than 7cm higher than the league average. 352) exerts its power.
In addition to the changeup, the rising movement of the cutter and the drop width of the sinker also improved by more than 5cm compared to their major league debut season, improving pitches (season 19/season 23, OPS comparison: cutter 0.767 / 0.536, sinker 0.859 / .675) Efforts to improve pitches are leading to tangible results.
Kelly’s appearance as a top-notch ML starter this season seems to have a lot of implications for many foreign players, including Eric Peddy, who is currently making a big success in the KBO league by winning 10 wins in the shortest period of time.토토사이트
Meanwhile, Arizona, which is supported by Kelly’s performance, is running ahead of the league leader, Los Angeles Dodgers, by 4 games, defying expectations before the start of the season.
If the current pace is maintained, it seems possible to achieve 20 wins in the season, and attention is paid to whether Kelly, a ‘hard-working genius’, will maintain the evaluation as the league’s top starting pitcher even at the end of this season and achieve the team’s district championship and multiple wins at the same time.
