“Austin becomes a breaking ball cop.”
The LG Twins are a team that boasts the best mound and batting line in the KBO League. But one point was always lacking. There may be many reasons, but the key is the successive sluggishness of foreign hitters, who are called cruelty.
However, this season is a little different. The performance of the new foreign batter Austin Dean is not bad. After being silent in the opening game, he recorded multi-hits in two consecutive games. His early season record was a batting average of 0.375, 6 hits, 5 runs, 1 RBI, and an OPS of 0.944.먹튀검증
Austin failed to continue his upward trend with 1 hit in 4 at-bats against the Kiwoom Heroes on the 5th. However, in the 1st and 8th innings, had it not been for Hyung-Jong Lee and Byung-Wook Lim’s hobo rain, his batted balls were of such good quality that they could have led to long hits.
Another thing that is better than a simple record is that there are fewer misses. There was no swing until he was defeated by Kiwoom starter Choi Won-tae. In the KBO League, which enjoys breaking ball-oriented matches against foreign hitters, Austin’s good starting line and contact skills are clearly impressive.
LG coach Yeom Gyeong-yeop, whom I met before the game, said of Austin, “It seems that he is going in the direction he thought. Being able to hit a breaking ball once means that it will not go bankrupt,” he said. But Austin has none of that. So he basically thought he could hit 2/7 to 8 minutes.”
He said, “When I saw it in the United States, the first thing I saw was the ability to cope with breaking balls. If that’s the case, the average can be done unconditionally. Austin is such a player,” he added.
It is Director Yeom who continued to praise the mind. “He is very sincere. Mind is also good. He is a foreign player, but he is a player who leads by example. He has been very sincere since camp,” he said. “In fact, he worked so hard that he had to tell Austin not to overdo it (laughs). He told me to do it the way he did in America. They tried to follow our training load. Then, a bunch came to his side,” he looked back.
Austin is a very valuable resource in LG, where there are many left-handed hitters. If Lee Jae-won and Son Ho-young join in, the left and right balance can be met. Coach Yeom said, “We are a team with a lot of left-handed hitters, so Austin shouldn’t get lost. If Jaewon (Lee) and Hoyeong (Son) come back after holding on like now, you can use a variety of batting order. He also showed his faith, saying, “I can afford to give myself a break.”
As of now, it is highly likely that Austin will end LG’s cruelty to foreign batters. However, it is still only at the beginning of the season. I need to watch some more. Nevertheless, the performance he is currently showing is enough to raise expectations.