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| Brooks Reilly during his Lotte days. Sports Chosun DB |
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| Shane Uman during Lotte. Sports Chosun DB |
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| Lotte starter Barnes is pitching. Busan = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.9.28/ |
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The position of the best foreign pitcher in Lotte Giants history. Will the name tag be changed to 'Charlie Barnes' now.
Barnes will also play in Busan next year. It renewed its contract with Lotte for a total of $1.5 million (1.35 million guaranteed and 150,000 incentives). He is set for his fourth season since he wore the Lotte uniform for the first time in 2022.
The best foreign player in Lotte's history may be controversial, but if the scope is limited to 'pitchers', the main character is clear. This is Brooks Raley, who played for five years from 2015 to 2019.
In particular, he has led Lotte to advance to autumn baseball only once in the past 12 years, along with Park Se-woong and Lindblom in 2017. It's Rayleigh's career high season. He started 30 games and played 187 ⅓ innings, pitching 13 wins and 7 losses (one complete pitch) with a 3.80 ERA. In the understanding inning - 5th in strikeouts, 6th in multiple wins and 9th in ERA.
He started more than 30 games (152 games in total) every season without major injuries for five years and played a total of 910 ⅔ innings. The innings were also consistent, moving between 178 ⅓ and 187 ⅓ innings without much ups and downs.
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| Brooks Reilly during his Lotte days. Sports Chosun DB |
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His career record of 48 wins and 53 losses and 4.13 ERA remains somewhat regrettable. However, Reilly's performance depends more on the team's power than on individual players. He is a player who stands out not only for his skills but also for his sincerity and dedication.
There are reasons why Lotte chose to renew its contract every year, and reasons why Reilly later entered the Major League and went through the Cincinnati Reds, Houston Astros, Tampa Bay Rays, and New York Mets to remain a good example of reverse export by KBO-born foreigners.
In particular, 48 wins are the most wins for Lotte's foreign pitchers in 27 years since the introduction of foreign players in professional baseball in 1998. Pitchers comparable to Rayleigh's presence include Uman (38 wins in three seasons), Strayley (32 wins in four seasons) and Lindblom (28 wins in three seasons), but they are little short of career consistency and accumulation. Repeated re-signing is a symbol of trust given to the team.
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| Lotte's Lindblom. Sports Chosun DB |
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In that sense, Barnes' fourth season is of great symbolic significance. At his first debut, Barnes' expectation was that he was a second-starter foreign pitcher who would support Strayley. There was not much expectation that it would be this long.
But the reality was beyond expectation. Fastball, which averages 143-145km, is one of the fastest left-handers in the KBO League. Here is a sharp slider that makes left-handed hitters feel awkward, and the curve and change-up pitches were also brilliant.
Although it was often pointed out as a weakness due to its fierce nature, the introduction of ABS (automatic ball determination system) this year gave wings. Now, he has transformed into a cooler foreign pitcher than anyone else. It's a pity that he missed for more than a month due to an adductor injury in his thigh during the season, but he ranked third overall with 171 strikeouts even after throwing just 150 ⅓ innings.
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| Strayley from Lotte. Sports Chosun DB |
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WAR (contributing to victory over substitute players) is also the fourth-largest pitcher in both Stattiz and Sports-to-I in the league. There is a reason why the annual salary, which was only $610,000 in the first year of his debut, nearly tripled.
Barnes has 32 wins and 28 losses in Lotte's career. He needs 17 wins next season to get past Reilly. If he achieves 17 wins, he will also surpass Strayley's most wins (2020, 15 wins) in a single season of Lotte foreign pitchers.
And if Barnes performs well enough to become the most wins in Lotte's career and the most wins in a single season, Lotte is likely to achieve its long-cherished entry into fall baseball. It's the best result for Barnes and Lotte.
It is not just a dream to surpass Felix Jose, who left the greatest impact in Lotte's history. Of course, to overcome Jose, we also need the results of advancing to the Korean Series, which has failed for 25 years since 1999.
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| 롯데 반즈. Sports Chosun DB |
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lunarfly@sportschosun.com
