A giant slugger, a tall fireballer.
It is the appearance of a foreign player that comes to mind easily. But prejudice is prohibited. The standardized frame is changing.
The foreign market is showing signs of diversification.
There is also a 1m73 short fireballer and a 1m75 short triple A home run king. A left-handed right-handed fielder, which is rare in modern baseball, also joins the KBO League.
SSG Landers officially announced on the 8th that it had signed left-hander Kirk McCarty (27) for a total of $775,000 (annual salary of 600,000, option of 175,000).
There is something peculiar about it. According to his official profile, McCarty’s height is 5 feet 8 inches, 1m72.7. He is quite small for a foreign pitcher. This is all the more true when considering the fact that the average height of domestic players in the major leagues is well over 1m80.
However, McCarty throws a fast ball with an average speed of 92.64 miles (about 149 km) this season. He has a cutter average velocity of 88 mph and covers over 141 km. Despite his small stature, he boasts a fast arm swing and a highly perfected breaking ball. He has control and is aggressive when it comes to batting.
On the 9th, the NC Dinos signed Jason Martin (27), a substitute for Nick Martini, for a total of $ 1 million (down payment 180,000, annual salary 720,000, option 100,000).
Martin, a right-handed and left-handed outfielder, is 5 feet 9 inches tall and 1m75 tall, one inch taller than McCarty.
He is small but has power. With his fast swing speed and strong wrists, he gets over the fence more times than bigger players. He hit 32 home runs this season for Triple-A Oklahoma City, affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and tied for first in the Pacific Coast League home run category. He has a slugging percentage of 0.564.
NC also paid attention to this point. NC’s home run power has significantly decreased due to the free agent transfer of Eui-ji Yang and Jin-hyeok Noh. This is the reason why they sent out elaborate martinis and found a big-shot type of foreigner. NC coach Kang In-kwon positively evaluated him as “a hitter with one shot capable of defending the center fielder.”
On the 11th, SSG Landers acquired Guillermo Heredia (31), a foreign hitter from the Atlanta Braves, for a total of $1 million (annual salary of 900,000, option of 100,000).
Heredia, from the Cuban national team, recorded a batting average of 0.231, 27 home runs and 114 RBIs in 591 games in 7 major league seasons. He is a player with enough skills to last seven seasons in the major leagues.
SSG evaluated Heredia as having stable skills in all aspects, including hitting, defense and running, and expects to show active movement and productive batting ability on the ground. In particular, his body rotation is fast, so he can cope with fastballs and breaking balls, and he has high batting speed and has many line drive balls.
There is something peculiar about it. It is true that he is the first left-handed and right-handed foreign fielder since the KBO League was launched. 스포츠토토
Right-handed and left-handed batting is common in modern baseball. This is because there are many players who naturally turn to left-handed batters in order to take advantage of left-handed hitters when they were young. However, it is a very rare case of left-handed hitting, where it is difficult to find advantages in position and at-bat.
Most left-handers are pitchers. Among foreign players, there has never been a single left-handed fielder. There were only pitchers who didn’t stand at the plate, such as Van Hecken, Eric Yorkish, and Wes Benjamin.
For the first time in the history of a foreign fielder in the KBO League, we are expected to see the rare appearance of Heredia, who throws with the left hand and swings from the right at-bat.