There was a time when I felt proud of my catcher position. He shook his head at the suggestion of ‘turning to pitcher’ despite his nightmare-like first-team experience.
He was praised as the best catcher in high school and entered the pros. Just in time, Kang Min-ho (Samsung Lions) transferred and a position was created. However, while playing in 412 plate appearances in 210 games for two years, he suffered intense criticism as he struggled with a batting average of 1.2 0.4 and defense.
An unexpected left wrist injury suffered in 2020 changed his life. During the catcher’s break, he eventually gave in to the persistent persuasion, “Let’s try pitching for a while.”
That’s how I found my ‘vocation’. Na Kyun-an (25) got a spot as a full-time starting pitcher after 4 years of conversion. Lotte coach Larry Sutton revealed that the starting lineup for Lotte this season consists of Dan Straley, Charlie Barnes, Park Se-woong, Na Kyun-an, and Han Hyun-hee. He also added praise as “the player who has grown the most in spring camp this year.”
Even after becoming a pitcher, his life was not smooth. He quenched himself in the Futures League for a full year. In May 2021, he finally succeeded in his first team call-up, and made 7 starts and produced meaningful results. However, in the aftermath of his sudden conversion, he suffered from physical deterioration and finished the season with an ERA of 6.41.
2022 started as a bullpen longman. It was the number one contributor to supporting the Lotte pitching staff, which was on the verge of collapse at the beginning of the season. Despite being a catcher, he earned Sutton’s trust with various breaking balls and stable control. 먹튀검증
At the beginning of the season, out of 11 games, there were 7 games that digested 2 or more innings. Among them, there are games where he played the role of starting pitcher instead of a colleague who was virtually demolished early, such as 5 innings against Doosan on April 8 and 4 innings against Hanwha on April 21. When he showed potential in four starts in the first half, he was appointed as a starter in earnest from August. The result was a great success with an average ERA of 3.33 with 2 wins and 4 losses while digesting 9 games and 51⅓ innings.
Last winter, after 6 years of joining, I enjoyed the thrill of entering the ‘billion dollar annual salary’. As Han Hyun-hee (30) joined as a free agent, he was put in another competition. However, the sense of stability has already been verified, and the effort to raise the speed of fastball to 150km last year satisfied the command tower.