Kim Tae-hyoung, Not Confident in Batting Lineup

LOTTE MANAGER KIM TAE-HYOUNG: "I WASN'T CONFIDENT INT THE BATTING LINEUP... BUT THE TEAM IS GETTING BETTER"

Lotte, which was at the bottom, dreams of advancing to the postseason.

The Lotte Giants finished the first half in the lower ranks, but they have the momentum to make a comeback in the second half.

Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyoung (56) confessed, “I wasn’t sure about the batting lineup from the middle of the exhibition game,” and added, “Our team has improved little by little, and I think it will get better in the second half.”

Although he spoke cautiously, he certainly had the will to make a comeback in the second half.

On the 3rd, a day before the end of the first half of the 2024 KBO League professional baseball season, Manager Kim Tae-hyoung, who we met at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul, said, "The pre-season plan was changed at the beginning of the season. 에볼루션 바카라사이트

However, there is no season that goes as the manager originally planned."

He said, "We went through a difficult time, but the composition of both the fielders and pitchers is improving."

This is a compressed expression of Lotte's performance graph in the first half of this year.

Lotte, which had been hovering between 9th and 10th place until May, rebounded in June with the highest winning percentage of 0.609 (14 wins, 9 losses, 1 draw) among the 10 teams.

It is still in 7th place as of the 2nd, but the gap with 5th place SSG Landers is not that big at 3 games.

Lotte fans have been longing for the appointment of Coach Kim Tae-hyoung since the end of the 2023 season.

As the fans wished, Coach Kim Tae-hyoung took over the Lotte baton, and even when the team was in the lower ranks at the beginning of the season, many fans expressed their support for Coach Kim Tae-hyung.

As Lotte rose, the voices supporting Coach Kim Tae-hyoung grew louder.

Lotte fans were delighted to see the team grow stronger as young pitchers including Hwang Seong-bin, Yoon Dong-hee, Na Seung-yeop, and Ko Seung-min, as well as transfer player Son Ho-young, became regulars.

Manager Kim said, "As the young players settled in, their confidence grew, and as their individual records improved, the team gained strength," and added, "I think we're on a good run.

It wasn't me, it was the players who did well."

However, Manager Kim also feels proud when he sees the young players who have become the team's mainstays.

When asked by reporters to pick the "Most Valuable Player of the First Half," Manager Kim started by saying, "I'm really grateful to Victor Reyes, the foreign hitter who played in all the games," and continued the conversation by mentioning Hwang Seong-bin, Ko Seung-min, Na Seung-yeop, and Yoon Dong-hee one by one.

Manager Kim is a "future-oriented leader."

Even after taking charge of the Doosan Bears and achieving the feat of advancing to the Korean Series for seven consecutive seasons, Manager Kim said, "We have to leave the past in the past and look to the present and the future."

Even this year, after a brilliant June, Manager Kim looked ahead and said, "The second half is important."

Hope and concern coexist in Lotte's second half.

Manager Kim said, "Catcher Yoo Kang-nam is feeling pain (in his hamstring) again, and Son Ho-young (who suffered a thigh injury) will also take time to recover."

He added, "If Charlie Barnes, a foreign starter who felt pain in his thigh, returns, we can move Han Hyun-hee to the middle.

The middle will definitely become stronger."

As Manager Kim Tae-hyoung said, the second half of the season may not go as planned by the manager.

However, Manager Kim Tae-hyoung's expression is much brighter than before the start of the first half.