'Trade → Injury → Winning luck → 3.8 billion FA contract → Surgery' The turbulent left-handed setup man is finally coming. 2K scoreless in the first 2nd team 1 inning. Up to 138km
Aug 04, 2024
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Ham Deok-joo pitched in a Futures League game against the Goyang Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome on the 3rd and recorded no hits, two strikeouts and no runs in one inning.
Ham Deok-ju, who took the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning with a 6-2 lead, struck out his first batters Song Jae-sun and Shim Hwi-yoon in a row, then caught Park Chae-yul with a fly to left field to end the inning neatly. He threw a total of 16 pitches with 8 fastballs and 8 changeups, and recorded a maximum speed of 138 kilometers.
Throwing in the Futures League is the last step. If you are a starting pitcher, you will go through the stage of raising the number of pitches in the Futures League, but bullpen pitchers have enough pitches inside and outside 30, so if you can pitch consecutively, you can call up the first team. Since there has been no actual appearance since the Korean Series in November last year, he may need more sense of practice.
Ham Deok-ju was a key player in LG's victory last year. Ham Deok-joo, who came to LG in a trade in 2021, did not play properly for two years due to injury, but he pitched in 57 games last year and recorded four wins, no losses, four saves, and 16 holds. He also had a very good ERA of 1.62. When closer Ko Woo-seok was out due to injury, he also served as a temporary closer, giving the bullpen a sense of stability.
He has not returned to the regular season since suffering from elbow pain at the end of August, which has slowed his recovery more than expected. However, he pitched in a total of four games, including Games 1, 2, 3, and 5, in the Korean Series, and recorded one win and an ERA of 2.70. In the second game, he became the first Korean Series winning pitcher in his career as he came from behind to win with Park Dong-won's dramatic two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning after keeping the top of the eighth inning scoreless.
He applied for the first FA in his life and signed an FA contract for a total of 3.8 billion won (600 million won in down payment, 1.4 billion won in annual salary, 1.8 billion won in incentives) for four years. Nearly half of the amount is incentives, but Ham Deok-ju showed confidence.
But as the new year passed, he suddenly had surgery. On January 16th, he underwent pin fixing surgery for a microfracture of the left elbow parietal bone. It was originally expected to return around June or July, but the recovery was slow.
Ham Deok-ju also pitched for the first time when Eliaser Hernandez pitched in a practice game against Korea-Japan Jangshin University on July 31. At that time, he threw 11 pitches and recorded a maximum speed of 137 kilometers.
LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said, `Ham Deok-ju is not a pitching pitcher.' `Change-ups can work well even if it's only about 142 kilometers away.' If Ham Deok-ju's fastball speed increases a little more, he will be able to see it in the first team quickly.
Park Myung-geun, who was out due to a back muscle injury, also took the mound following Ham Deok-ju and recorded one hit and one strikeout.
Although he allowed a double to the leadoff Lee Jae-sang, he handled Park Joo-hong with a third baseman fly and Lee Hyung-jong with a center fielder fly, struck out Lim Ji-yeol and finished without a run. He threw 10 fastballs and 4 curves, with a maximum speed of 145 kilometers.
indyk@sportschosun.com
