The Hanwha Eagles, who went 5-2-2 in May and had a 7 percent chance of winning, are now 2-2-2 and 5-5 since the team pulled the knife on their head coach. The move didn’t work.
Since falling to the bottom of the standings on April 2, the day after the season opener, Hanwha has been stuck in 10th place for most of the year, although it has briefly reached 9th and 8th place. However, Hanwha began to climb in early May and finally moved up to 9th place on the 7th, where it has remained since.
However, Hanwha’s rebound has been accompanied by the fall of last-place KT Wiz, and while Hanwha recently lost three straight games again, KT’s two-game sweep has narrowed the gap between the two teams back to one game.
Coincidentally, Hanwha’s downturn coincided with the arrival of new coach Choi Won-ho.
After suffering its worst month of the year in April with a 6-1-1 record (0.261 winning percentage), Hanwha began to rebound in May. The team was on a roll under former manager Carlos Subero, going 5-2 with a 0.714 winning percentage. However, the club decided to make a managerial change, citing the destruction of pitching staffs, reckless use of shifts, and a lack of outfield depth as ostensible reasons, and Choi Won-ho was hired.
What Hanwha didn’t say publicly was that their primary goal in choosing Choi was to finish the rebuilding season and start winning games. Subero may have done a good job in the rebuilding process, but he was not a “winning baseball manager,” according to the organization.
However, the results since Choi’s arrival have been even worse. Since his arrival, the team has gone 2-2, tied, and lost 5 games, dropping back to the bottom of the standings with a .286 winning percentage. The sweep against LG in the last series was a big reason for this.
It’s significant that the team has played a series of tight games against teams ranked 1-3, including SSG, Lotte, and LG, since Choi took over. However, it doesn’t change the fact that they are not winning.
The mound, which surprisingly led the league in ERA in May (2.98), is still performing well. But the bats, which posted a team OPS of 0.747 from January 1-11, the second-best team metric of the period, have since cooled off completely. 안전놀이터
From the 12th through the present, Hanwha is dead last in the division with a team OPS of just 0.578. A whopping seven of their nine games in that span have been three runs or less, and four of them have been one run or less. The team has also played two overtime games since Choi’s arrival, both of which ended in draws.
Of course, it’s not easy to win against strong teams. Especially when SSG, Lotte, and LG have a high winning percentage in close games, and Hanwha has been outclassed by these teams in the past.
In the end, Hanwha’s struggles against SSG, Lotte, and LG under Choi will have to show up in results for the team to climb back up the ladder.
The only way to prove that Hanwha’s decision to change coaches was a good one was to win. Hanwha has pulled the pin, and now all we can hope for is an explosion.