One of the highlights of KIA’s 2023 season is the return of outfielder Choi Won-joon in mid-June. Choi Won-jun is recording a career batting average of 0.288, and is a left-handed alternate hitter who can hit 30% and has the ability to produce doubles. Along with this, he has such a run sense that he stole 76 bases in his career. He stole 40 bases in the 2021 season. 2nd in league steals.

When Choi Won-joon returns, the number of players capable of stealing 3-40 bases in the KIA lineup will increase from one to two (Park Chan-ho, Choi Won-jun). Park Chan-ho is recording 110 stolen bases in his personal career, and won the stealing king in the 2019 season (39 steals) and 2022 season (42 steals).

If you add the total steals of Park Chan-ho (110 steals) and Choi Won-joon (76 steals), the total is 186. Moreover, at the age of 28 and 26, it is the time to show the peak athletic ability. In addition, Choi Won-joon played leadoff in the 2021 season, and Park Chan-ho also upgraded his batting in 2022, moving back and forth between leadoff and lower batting order. KIA can create a table setter combination with two young guns with strong base stealing ability since June.

If Kim Do-young, who is in his second year here, can settle down as a third baseman, a strong mobility lineup will be completed that will lead to No. 9 Kim Do-young, No. 1 Choi Won-joon, and No. 2 Park Chan-ho. An environment is created where they will create strong synergy with Socrates Brito, Na Seong-beom, Choi Hyeong-woo, Hwang Dae-in, and Kim Sun-bin, who will form the center line.

When coach Kim Jong-guk took office in the 2022 season, he gave a green light to almost all players. He gave a sign that he shouldn’t run according to the flow of the game, but basically ordered one base run. Mid-June is the time when the energy levels of the main axes gradually drop. At this time, KIA can obtain a sure weapon called strong mobility.

The key is, of course, average maintenance and adaptation. Choi Won-joon, who has a sophisticated batting ability, will fully show his previous years skills once he has time to adapt in the first team. On the other hand, Park Chan-ho needs to show at least the same level of productivity as last year this season if he wants his graph improvement from last year to solidify into his average. Kim Do-young’s priority is to secure enough at-bats.

KIA’s 2022 season hitting indicators were mostly at the top. However, there were ups and downs, and it was also true that the dependence on the starting pitcher was high. There is no guarantee that this weakness will be completely resolved even if one Choi Won-joon returns. However, diversification of scoring routes and better lineup diversity will definitely be a plus in the long run. If the table setters Choi Won-joon and Park Chan-ho are actually operated, it is likely to attract a lot of attention. 안전놀이터