KIA's eye-dog Wisdom and home run king Davidson's parallel theory → 140 strikeouts are good. Just hit 40 home runs
Dec 16, 2024
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KIA Tigers threw a winning move. He decided to break up with Socrates, a son-in-law who hit a career batting average of 320 and 63 home runs in the past three seasons. KIA's new batter is Patrick Wisdom. Wisdom is less accurate than Socrates, but it is expected to have superior slugging power.
Above all, Wisdom's profile is surprisingly similar to Matt Davidson of the NC Dinos, the KBO League home run king in the 2024 season. Although the batting average is only in the early 20% in the Major League, it is the same that he has hit more than 20 home runs. The ratio of walks and strikeouts is similar. The difference is that Davison went through a period of adaptation to Asian baseball after going through Japanese professional baseball in 2023.
First, Davison hit 20 home runs in the major leagues for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018. He hit 226 home runs in the 2017 season and 20 home runs in the 2018 season for the Chicago White Sox. Wisdom hit 20 home runs for the third straight year in a Chicago Cubs uniform from 2021 to 2023. He has 28 homers with a batting average of .231 in the 2021 season, 25 homers with a batting average of .27 in the 2022 season, and 23 homers with a batting average of .25 in the 2023 season. The records are very similar when they were good in the major leagues.
The ratio of walks and strikeouts, which is an indicator of a trailblazing plan, is also very similar. Davison walked 88 and struck out 381 in 1,112 at-bats in the major leagues. The strikeout rate per at-bat is 34.3 percent. The walk/strikeout ratio is 23.1%. Wisdom had 132 walks and 540 strikeouts in 1,473 at-bats in the Major League. The strikeout rate is 36.7% and the walk/strikeout rate is 24.4%.
The two even have similar minor league records. Davison has a minor league strikeout rate of about 26.6% and a walk/strikeout rate of about 36%, improving slightly in both categories. Wisdom also showed a difference of less than 1 percentage point from Davison, with 26.7% and 35.6%, respectively.
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Based on this, Wisdom's success can also be expected. KIA wants 40 home runs because Wisdom can strike out 140.
KIA's batting lineup needs a home run hitter. KIA ranked first with a team OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 0.828 in 2024. However, Kim Do-young was the only batter with more than 30 home runs. Choi Hyung-woo will turn 42 next year. I desperately needed a big gun to be paired with Na Sung-beom. With the recruitment of a right-handed slugger, a zigzag-centered lineup can be formed. In this case, the timing of the left-hander's bullpen deployment in the opponent team becomes ambiguous. This is why he decided to say goodbye to Socrates, who is guaranteed to have 30-20 home runs.
The variable is the period of adaptation. Davison played in Japanese baseball last year for NPB Hiroshima. It was not a remarkable performance with a batting average of 219 home runs in 112 games. Regardless of the league level difference between Japan and Korea, there should be some time to melt into East Asian culture. Wisdom immediately enters the KBO League. At the beginning of the season, the possibility of struggling somewhat through trial and error cannot be ruled out.
Reporter Han Dong-hoon dhhan@sportschosun.com
dhhan@sportschosun.com
