When it comes to Samsung Lions in the past, the first image that comes to mind is the corps of home runs. Samsung has produced 12 home run kings, the most among the 10 teams. Starting with Lee Man-soo, the first-year home run king, Samsung's home run king, Kim Sung-rae, Lee Seung-yeop, Shim Jung-soo, and Choi Hyung-woo, is also the most with five.
The past is just the past. Unlike his old reputation, there was no single 20-homer hitter this season. It is the first time in 15 years that Samsung has recorded 0 home run batters since 2008. At that time, Choi Hyung-woo ranked first in the team with 19 home runs. Moreover, it is all the more regrettable that it failed to produce 20 home run batters while using Daegu Samsung Lions Park, well known as a batter-friendly stadium, as its home turf.
In 2016, the first year of the opening of Daegu Samsung Lions Park, Choi Hyung-woo (31), Lee Seung-yeop (27), Darin Ruf (31), Lee Seung-yeop (24), Koo Ja-wook (21), Darin Ruf (33), Kang Min-ho (22), Koo Ja-wook, Lee Won-seok (20), Darin Ruf (22), Kim Dong-yeop (20), Jose Pirella (29), Oh Jae-il (25), Koo Ja-wook (22), Jose Pirella (28) and Oh Jae-il (21) in 2022 were consistent with 20 home run hitters.
However, not a single batter with 20 home runs came out this season. Kang Min-ho and Jose Pirella tied for first place in this category with 16 home runs. This contrasts with LG, which uses Jamsil Stadium, the largest in Korea, producing two 20 home run hitters, Austin Dean (23) and Park Dong-won (20).
The failure to produce 20 home run hitters this season was largely due to Jose Pirella and Oh Jae-il, who are considered so-called hitters to be done, falling short of expectations.
Pirella hit 28 home runs last year following 29 home runs in 2021, but his ability to produce long hits has significantly decreased this year. He had a batting average of 0.565 last year, but only 0.425 this year.
Oh Jae-il, who hit more than 20 home runs in 2021 and 2022, also hit only 11 home runs this season with less than expected performances. Not only the number of home runs but also the batting average fell sharply from .268 last year to .23 this season. 동행복권파워볼
Samsung finished this season with 61 wins, 82 losses and one draw (0.427 win rate) with the last game against Changwon NC on the 15th. There are many reasons for the team's poor performance. Lack of slugging power is not the main cause of sluggishness, but it is clearly one of the areas that needs to be improved.