“I don’t think we’re going to be as forgiving anymore because he’s young.”
In baseball, the NC Dinos don’t have to worry about a starting shortstop for the next decade. There’s Kim Joo-won, 22, who was drafted in the second round of the 2021 First-Year Player Draft and is entering his fourth season and third full-time season. He won a gold medal at last year’s Asian Games in Hangzhou and was granted a special exemption from military service, so he can continue his career without worrying about a possible career break.
Kim Joo-won is a valuable asset for NC. He is athletic and has the rare combination of being a switch-hitter and a long hitter. His defense is expected to improve with experience. NC treated Kim’s trials and errors as a tax, patiently encouraging and taking care of him in order to get a big refund later.
After the Asian Games gold medal, Kim said that everyone around him was “noticeably more relaxed,” underscoring the effect of big-stage experience. In the postseason, he continued to reign as the infield commander of NC’s fall baseball miracle. 스포츠토토 His diving catch with the bases loaded in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the playoffs against KT Wiz is one that will live on in NC franchise history. Kim Joo-won seemed to be growing up. NC couldn’t help but smile as he gained experience and became a starting shortstop for the national team.
However, his stats don’t speak for themselves.
In 127 games last year, Kim batted .233 (94-for-403) with 10 home runs, 54 RBIs, 56 runs scored, 15 doubles, 44 walks, 106 strikeouts, and a .668 OPS. On offense, he had the power to hit double-digit home runs, but his accuracy and initiative were still lacking. On defense, he made 30 errors. That was the most in the league and the second-most in a single season in history.
You can look at Kim’s current performance as more than a record, an investment for the future. But now, he needs to actually contribute more to the team. Last year”s performance wasn”t really an improvement over the previous year. His experience and impact at the end of last year may have given the illusion of an upward trend, but he didn’t actually improve.
Thanks to the time and patience NC put in, coach Kang Kwon-hwa no longer sees Kim Joo-won as just a young player. Rather than a young player who needed to be nurtured, he now saw him as a centerpiece player who needed to be shown, a mindset that could be called taming, but one that was natural for a coach.
Kang emphasized that he would no longer write Kim Joo-won’s parenting diary, which he wrote with pride and care.
It was also a clear message to Kim Joo-won.
“If you’ve been a player who had expectations, I think you need to grow a little more and show them,” Kang said of Kim Joo-won before the opening game against the Doosan Bears at Changwon NC Park on March 23. “I think you need to raise your batting average a little more and make fewer mistakes. I think this is a very important season for Kim Joo-won.”
The cold, hard look at Kim continued. “What he’s been doing is being given opportunities as a young player and being evaluated as having good skills at his age,” he said. “He’s been playing as a regular shortstop for the last two years, so this year he needs to show what he has, grow all his graphs, and establish himself.”
“I don’t think we can give him a lot of leeway just because he’s younger now. It’s important for him to take responsibility for himself,” and asked him to take a stronger sense of responsibility and a more solid mindset.
Among players of his age, Kim Joo-won’s skills, 바카라사이트 추천 potential, and experience are all superior and overwhelming. It is clear that Kim Joo-won will be the national shortstop for the next 10 years. But the NC is reminding him that nothing can be taken for granted. If you let your guard down, you can be eliminated, and that’s a clear message for Kim in 2024.
