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| Han Dong-hee when he was at Lotte. Photo courtesy = Lotte Giants |
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| LG 이재원. Sports Chosun DB |
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The team that uses the largest stadium in Korea and the team that uses the highest fence.
Lotte Giants and LG Twins are two teams desperate for home runs. And the bud of the big guns that both teams are most looking forward to is in the Armed Forces Sports Unit (Sangmu). It's Han Dong-hee and Lee Jae-won.
The Futures (second division) are both players who used to be calm before. Although it is military service chosen after one career crisis in the first team, the Futures stage was still too narrow for them.
This year, Han Dong-hee swept the league with a batting average of 323, 11 home runs (9th in the Southern League), 38 RBIs, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging) of 1.006. Even after playing only 42 games, he showed the skills of the first-team mainstay. The ratio of strikeouts (22) to walks (22) was exactly one to one.
Han Dong-hee's overall OPS in the first team was 0.731. From 2020 to 2022, he stepped up at once and drove 48 home runs and 0.807 OPS over three years. It is a record even before the official ball was changed to the so-called 'Tang Taeng Ball'.
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| photo courtesy of Lotte Giants |
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However, after struggling for more than a year after falling into a severe slump, he chose to join the military. It is an opportunity to recover confidence along with steady participation in the second-tier stage.
Lee Jae-won also finished the Futures bombing in his first year in Sangmu with a batting average of 292 and 14 home runs (third in the Southern League) with a 42-run OPS of 1.032. With the strong trust of head coach Yeom Kyung-yeop, he was once promised the main first baseman, but he decided to prioritize the resolution of military service after failing to establish himself in the midst of repeated injuries.
Lotte succeeded in rebuilding its batters last year under the leadership of Lotte coach Kim Tae-hyung, including Son Ho-young, Yoon Dong-hee, Ko Seung-min, and Na Seung-yeop, and was reborn as a team with a team batting average of 2nd (2805) and a team OPS of 2nd place (on base rate + long hit rate, 0.782).
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| LG 이재원. Sports Chosun DB |
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However, he is ranked eighth overall with 125 team home runs. There is a whopping 60 differences from the first-place Samsung Lions (185). There is not a single batter with 20 home runs in the team. Son Ho-young (18) was ranked first in the team, followed by Jeon Jun-woo (17), and Reyes (15).
Yoon Dong-hee, Ko Seung-min (14), Na Seung-yeop (7), and others are growing rapidly, and Son Ho-young, who failed to meet the regular at-bats last season, is also expected to play full-time. On top of that, it is worth expecting the birth of a 20-homer hitter as the fence is lowered from this season.
Even so, it is inevitable that the potential of 'natural great guns' is awaited.
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| LG 이재원. Sports Chosun DB |
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LG is using Jamsil Stadium, but with Austin (32), Moon Bo-kyung (22) and Park Dong-won (20) exceeded 20 home runs.
But the problem is next. Oh Ji-hwan, the fourth-ranked home run in the team, has only 10 and Kim Hyun-soo, the fifth-ranked, has only eight. As a result, the number of team home runs is 115, which is lower than Lotte, ranking ninth overall. Under LG, there is only one Kiwoom Heroes (104) team undergoing massive rebuilding.
Also, considering that both Oh Ji-hwan and Kim Hyun-soo are veteran, it is not easy to hit more home runs in the long run. In the end, young blood guns are needed. There is a reason why manager Yeom Kyung-yeop plays baseball, and on the other hand, gives Kim Bum-seok (six) a chance to play in the first team consistently.
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| LG 이재원. Sports Chosun DB |
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If Lee Jae-won returns, and if he only shows his potential as a reality, there is no reason why he cannot win one of the first-team seats. Lee Jae-won is also a recognized player with long balls enough to shoot 13 home runs in 2022. In the practice game of the Seoul Series ahead of the opening game of the Major League, he fired a cool home run against Ko Woo-seok, who entered the U.S. stage.
Literally, the second-tier stage is Han Dong-hee and Lee Jae-won, who shout that it is too narrow. This is why both Lotte and LG are eagerly waiting for the spring of the 2026 season when the two players will return healthy.
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| 상무 이재원. Sports Chosun DB |
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
