The 173.8 kilometers were no fluke.
KIA third baseman Kim Do-young (20) hit a 145-kilometer fastball high in the body from Doosan’s Kwak Bin on June 6 in Jamsil and launched it 125.4 meters to left field. It had a tremendous parabolic shape that disappeared upon impact. The launch angle was a whopping 38.1 degrees. The batting speed was a whopping 173.8 kilometers. It was a very large two-run shot that is rarely seen even in Jamsil.
Kim Do-young surprised people again on Wednesday at Samsung Electronics in Daegu. In the top of the seventh inning, trailing 4-9, Kim hit a 142-kilometer fastball over the left field fence on a 2B2S count to Samsung’s Lee Seung-hyun. At first glance, it wasn’t as high as the home run he hit in his sleep. According to SPOTV, which broadcast the game, the launch angle was 28.8 degrees.
Instead, the ball traveled a whopping 174.4 kilometers. The distance was 126.3 meters. It had more speed and a bit more distance than the one he hit on Kwak-Bin. While Kwak’s fastball was high and away from the body, Lee’s fastball was low and away from the body. It wasn’t a miss by any means. If anything, it makes it easier to pull the low outside pitch for a home run.
What both home runs have in common is that they clearly demonstrate that Kim’s talent is not ordinary. Sure, she’s been rehabbing from ankle surgery in the first half of the year and has been learning from Na Sung-bum about weight training, but her power and technique are solid.
He has adapted perfectly to the change of taking the bat away from his body and lowering it slightly, rather than the old form of hitting with the bat resting on his shoulder. He once said that he was adapting well to the new batting stance he adopted at the end of last month during the ‘Gwangju Moon Kimdae’. It has the advantage of getting to the hitting point a little faster than his previous stance. He can hit the ball hard and far.
Kim”s athleticism is also evident in his incredible speed. In 55 games, he managed to steal 19 bases. That”s an 86.4% success rate with only three failed attempts. Not only that, but he can steal two bases on a single hit. In short, it’s almost as if he’s running the bases. 메이저사이트
There are very few Korean players in the KBO with this level of athleticism. Add to that his ability to hit home runs and long balls, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. As SBS Sports commentator Lee Soon-cheol said while covering KIA’s games this season, the prospect of a 30-30, 100-RBI season is not out of the question. Right now, it seems possible if he plays full-time next year.
In 55 games, he hit .302 with five home runs, 34 RBIs, 51 runs scored, 19 doubles, a .370 on-base percentage, a .458 OPS, a .828 slugging percentage, and a .282 wOBA. He ranked 28th with a WAR of 2.49, 133.5 adjusted runs produced, a 0.379 weighted slugging percentage, and a 0.44 wins above replacement on Baseball-Reference.com.
Too bad we won’t be seeing any of these players at the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games. KIA has already confirmed the departures of Choi Won-jun, Lee Yi-ri, and Choi Ji-min. The roster is expected to change one more time before the 22nd. However, the maximum three-player per team rule will remain unchanged, as there have been injuries since the final roster was announced in June.
There’s no need to be disappointed. We’ll see him wearing the Korean flag as early as the Asian Pro Baseball Championship in November. He’s on the preliminary roster. There’s also the 2024 Premier12, the 2026 WBC and Aichi/Nagoya Asian Games, and the 2028 LA Olympics.