The KIA Tigers’ success next year will depend on foreign pitchers. 2024 is the final year of KIA manager Kim Jong-kook’s contract. Both KIA’s “fall baseball” and Kim Jong-kook’s contract will be determined by the performance of foreign pitchers.

Kim Jong-kook was appointed as KIA manager in December 2021. It was a fairly good contract for a rookie manager. Beginning managers usually have a two-year contract, but Kim Jong-guk’s contract was for three years, with a down payment of 300 million won and an annual salary of 250 million won, for a total of 1.05 billion won. It was not easy for a rookie coach to sign a contract totaling more than 1 billion won. Coming from the KIA franchise, a lot was expected of him.

In his first year in 2022, Kim Jong-kook’s team finished fifth in the regular season and advanced to the wild card round. They were eliminated in the first round by KT. This year, the team finished with 73 wins, two ties, and 69 losses, one game behind fifth-place Doosan (74 wins, two ties, and 68 losses).

KIA’s two-year record (5th-6th) was disappointing for a team that bolstered its lineup with the return of Major League Baseball’s Yang Hyun-jong ahead of the 2022 season and the signing of Na Sung-beom to a six-year, 토토사이트 15 billion won free agent contract.

KIA’s offense is one of the best in the league, not far behind LG and KT

Who both reached the Korean Series this year. KIA was second in the league with a team batting average of 2.076 and second with a .735 OPS. They also had 101 team home runs, second only to SSG (125).

The top and bottom of the batting order is well-structured, with Na Sung-bum as the leadoff hitter, foreign-born Socrates, and veterans Choi Hyung-woo, Park Chan-ho, Choi Won-joon, and Kim Do-young. If it weren’t for the injury bug, KIA could have finished in the top five this season on the strength of its bats alone.

The KIA batting lineup won’t change much next year. On the 18th, KIA re-signed foreign hitter Socrates for a total of $1.2 million ($300,000 signing bonus, $500,000 annual salary, $400,000 option). He will stay with the team for a third year through next year.

Socrates played in 127 games (514-for-160) with 17 home runs, 77 RBI, 12 doubles, 83 runs scored and an .848 OPS in 2022. This year, in 142 games, he batted .285 with 20 homers, 96 RBIs, 91 runs scored, 15 doubles, and an OPS of .807. He led the team in hits, home runs, runs scored, and RBI. He served as the team’s center fielder when starters went down with injuries.

KIA hasn’t seen much success with foreign pitchers lately.

This year, the four foreign pitchers combined for 16 wins. Even in the 2022 season, foreign pitchers were disastrous. Nolin (8 wins), Williams (3 wins), and Panoni (3 wins) combined for 13 wins. In 2021, Mengden (8 wins), Brooks (3 wins), and Takahashi (1 win) combined for 12 wins.

For the third year in a row, no foreign pitcher reached 10 wins. Brooks’ 11 wins and Ganong’s 11 wins in 2020 were KIA’s last 10-win foreign pitchers.

KIA has a solid 3-5 Korean starters, including homegrown ace Yang Hyun-jong, former Rookie of the Year Lee Yi-ri, and Yoon Young-cheol, who showed good form as a rookie this year. If the foreign pitchers are solid first starters and bring in quality second starters, they can contend for the top spot in fall baseball.

KIA needs to find a new face for next year’s foreign players. This year, KIA started the season with foreign pitchers Anderson and Medina, but both were released in July due to poor performance. The team then brought in Panoni and Sanchez as replacements. Injuries to key hitters this year (Na Sung-beom, Kim Do-young, Park Chan-ho, etc.) have been a major blow, but the lack of success from foreign pitchers has also been disappointing.

KIA placed Pannoni on the disabled list and did not retain Sanchez.

While the team added two new faces to the roster, with the option to re-sign Pannoni if necessary, the team has yet to sign any of them due to the difficult market conditions for quality foreign pitchers.

Instead of waiting for an offer from Kia, Panoni signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs. John Heyman of the New York Post reported on July 19 (KST), “Panoni signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs. He will receive $800,000 if he reaches the major leagues. He will participate in Cubs spring training next year as an invitee.”

This is the second year in a row that Pannoni has played for KIA as a substitute. He donned a KIA uniform in July 2022 and went 3-4 with a 2.72 ERA in 14 games. However, he was unable to re-sign with the organization after the season. In July of this year, KIA reunited with Pannoni again. In 16 appearances, he went 6-3 with a 4.26 ERA. His performance was the best of the four foreign pitchers who played for KIA this year. Can KIA produce a 10-win foreign pitcher next year?

Meanwhile, KIA confirmed its coaching staff for the 2024 season on Tuesday.

The first team is led by head coach Kim Jong-kook and consists of Jin Gap-yong, pitching coach Jung Jae-hoon, Lee Dong-gul, hitting coach Lee Beom-ho, Hong Se-wan, operations coach Lee Hyun-gon, first base coach Cho Jae-young, defense coach Park Ki-nam, and battery coach Takeshi.

The Future Team will be coached by Son Seung-rak, pitching coach Lee Jung-ho and Lee Sang-hwa, hitting coach Choi Hee-seop, first base coach Park Hyo-il, defense coach Yoon Hae-jin, and battery coach Lee Hae-chang.

Coach Takeshi, who served as the battery coach for the KIA Tigers from the 2015 to 2018 seasons, is a new addition to the first team, 에볼루션 바카라사이트 while Coach Kim Sang-hoon, who served as the first team battery coach, will help strengthen the team’s power as a power analysis coach. In addition, Hitting Coach Kim Seok-yeon and Pitching Coach Seo Deok-won
will join the remaining coaches to help the players improve their skills.