After Ko Woo-suk left for the U.S., Ham Deok-ju took the surgery table? Or what other reason? Where did all those LG bullpen pitchers go? Why did starting pitchers have to take the bullpen part-time job every day in fall baseball.

Before shouting out “dynasties,” it’s a question LG needs to find the answer. And now could be the golden time. If a problem that has not been experienced in years has emerged in just one year, it may be easier to find the cause. Before the problem becomes more complicated.

The LG Twins finished the 2024 season by losing 0-1 to the Samsung Lions in Game 4 of the playoffs at Jamsil Stadium on the 19th. LG, which finished the regular season third, advanced to the playoffs with a 3-2 record in the series after putting the starting pitchers in the bullpen in the semi-playoff with kt Wiz. As the playoffs became an “all-time” series due to two rain delays, it seemed to open up the bullpen operation, but unlike the semi-playoff, it lost the lead this time by being pushed out of the first two games.

In retrospect, all of the postseason games LG won included the use of starting pitchers as bullpens. Elijah Hernandez took the mound in all five games regardless of whether he won or lost during the semi-playoff period. Son pitched in five ⅓ innings in Game 3 and two innings in Game 5, recording one win and one hold. One win in the playoffs was attributed to Hernandez taking charge of three ⅔ innings following Lim Chan-kyu (five ⅓ innings).

Short-term game-specific strategy that is rarely seen during the regular season hit the bull pen. However, LG’s postseason came to an end in Game 4 of the playoffs, and now it is time to re-establish its regular season strategy. Above all, we need to look into why the bullpen, which has been the team’s strength for the past few years, has not been able to display much strength this year.

Since 2020, LG has always displayed good performance by banking on its pitching capability, especially stable bullpen, rather than offense capability. From 2020 to last year, LG’s earned run average (ERA) in the bullpen was 4.61 (second place) in 2020, 3.28 (first place) in 2021, 2.89 (first place) in 2022, and 3.43 (first place) in 2023. Last year, LG was able to rank No. 1 in the regular season and win the Korean Series four wins and one loss combined because of its offense capability. However, this year’s ERA in the bullpen stood at 5.21, ranking sixth.
There may be many factors, including the environment of riding and pitching and the loss of main bullpen resources, but there is another thing that stands out. The players who had good results last year suddenly fell into a slump, and collectively. As the candidates for “new faces” taken by manager Yeom Kyung-yeop also failed to grow as expected, LG could not get out of the back door concern throughout the season. 안전놀이터

Lee Woo-chan, who pitched 38 ⅓ innings, the second-most among left-handed bullpen volunteers, nearly doubled his ERA in a year from 3.52 to 7.83. Choi saw his ERA soar from 3.19 to 6.95 and eventually jumped into the job market by voluntarily releasing him. Baek Seung-hyun, who was a must-winner, rose to 9.11 this year from 1.58 last year. Lee Ji-gang, who showed promise by scoring an ERA of 1.08 in his relief appearance last year, posted an ERA of 4.15 this year under the same conditions.

Park Myung-geun, who joined last year, saw his ERA rise from 5.03 last year to 6.39 this year. This year, rookie Jin Woo-young had a top class in the team for fastball rotation, but he spent a long time in the Futures team with only 4.7 million ERA in six games left in the first team. It was an achievement that Yoo Young-chan settled down at the end of the season and Lee Jong-joon, who joined as a second draft, showed potential by gaining experience in the first team at the end of the season, but the number also proves that there were not many successful cases.

It has already been confirmed that replacement of pitching coaches cannot be the answer. During Yeom Kyung-yeop’s two-year tenure, four pitching coaches at LG moved to the first team. First of all, with the opening just around the corner, pitcher coach Kyung Heon-ho has moved to the Futures pitching coach for health reasons. He was serving as the first team pitching coach during the exhibition game following the spring camp, but a sudden change occurred right before the opening.

As many as three pitching coaches have been replaced this year when the bullpen has emerged as a weakness. Coach Kim Kyung-tae, who shared the Korean Series title last year, moved from the first team to the Futures team on July 16. Again, he left the first team due to health problems. At that time, Choi Sang-deok, who had a deep relationship with Yeom Kyung-yeop, who came from the remaining team as the first team pitching coach, stepped down from his position in less than two months. As of August 29, former bullpen coach Kim Kwang-sam was appointed as the first team’s main pitching coach and took charge of the postseason.

LG’s team performance by pitching coach in 2024

Coach Kim Kyung-tae (opening to July 15) Team ERA 4.52 (3rd place) bullpen ERA 4.87 (3rd place)
Coach Choi Sang-deok (July 16th to August 28th) Team ERA 4.99 (6th) bullpen ERA 6.04 (8th)
Coach Kim Kwang-sam (August 29th to the end of the season) Team ERA 4.59 (3rd) bullpen ERA 5.51 (5th)

Coach Yeom Kyung-yeop said at the end of the playoffs, “I have a lot of regrets this year. I did my best during the entire season. I want to say that I did my best. I had a difficult season due to slow growth of intermediate pitchers. I will try to fill up the final training sessions of this year.” The problem was obvious to everyone. Finding the cause is another problem. LG began its final training session on Sunday.