The new foreign hitter Esteban Floral (28, Hanwha), who was expected to upgrade the Hanwha fielders in both ball, water and state this season, was making a dark history in the early days of the season amid a severe batting slump. Even so, the batting was too sluggish, even if the "S-class" advantage was not seen in defense or base running.스포츠토토

With the Hanwha Eagles already struggling with a batting average of around 100%, it was difficult for Floral to avoid criticism. Rather, he seemed to be facing the criticism at the forefront. Floral faced a crisis from the start by failing to hit a single hit in the first five games of this season, and his batting average was only 0.103 until the game against Samsung on Wednesday. If he fails, his batting average of 100 would be broken.

Still, he couldn't take it out because he is a foreign hitter and plays an important role in defense. In other words, there was nothing he could do but lower the batting order of Florentine, who mainly hit No. 3, a little bit. All he had to do was adjust to the pitches of KBO league pitchers, find the timing to hit himself, and rebound on his own. It was an unwanted raincoat.

In the process, he suffered humiliation both inside and outside the stadium, even recalling the name of Brian Ogreddy, who is considered one of the worst players in Hanwha's foreign batter history. Ogreddy, who Hanwha brought in expecting a long hit in 2023, is a player who was kicked out after playing in only 22 games amid a severe drop in batting average. No matter how strong he was, he was not hit by the bat, so he had no choice.

This shows how serious his performance was. Ogreddy had a batting average of 0.174, an on-base percentage of 0.220, a slugging percentage of 0.217, and an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) of 0.437 in the first 11 games of this season. He had eight hits, and two of them were doubles. In his first 11 games, he had a batting average of 0.103, an on-base percentage of 0.222, a slugging percentage of 0.154, and an OPS of 0.376. Rather, he performed worse than Ogreddy in terms of OPS in the first 11 games.

In 11 games, he had just four hits. All four of them were actually not massive hits. According to a tally by Trackman, the official speed measuring platform for the KBO League and which provides tracking data to nine teams, none of Ogreddie's four hits were standard-issue barrel hits (pitch speed of 98 miles or higher, angle of launch 26 to 30 degrees, and expansion of the angle of launch depending on the speed of the hit). There were even few balls that went nearby.

On March 27, the first hit against LG in Jamsil was only 139 kilometers per hour. In a way, it was a good hit with a good course, when a late-timed ball fell in front of the outfielder in a parabolic shape. The hit against Hanwha in Daejeon on March 28 was also a case where a missed ball with a batting speed of 107.2 kilometers slightly exceeded the infield. The hit on March 29 was an infield hit, and the double (162.4 kilometers of batting speed, 72 meters of flying distance) on March 30 was a good hit, but it was not a category of barrel hit.

Such a florrealist expressed a possibility at the match against Samsung Electronics in Daegu on Saturday. On the day, florreal completed his first multi-hit game since his debut in the KBO League. Having hit all three at-bats (baseball to left fielder, fly ball to left fielder, fly ball to center fielder), florreal gained strength by scoring a double to left center in the fourth at-bat in the eighth inning, when his team was trailing 2-5 with Moon Hyun-bin's solo shot. The double led to a two-run shot by subsequent batter Lee Jin-young, which shone all the more.

The left-center double's batting speed was 166.8 kilometers per hour, the fastest among Floral's hits this year, with a launch angle of 15.6 degrees and a driving distance of 102.9 meters. Although the launch angle was not high, the batting speed recovered so much that the ball fell into the category of the first barrel hit this season. As expected, the long hit came out. Floral, who gained momentum, also hit a relatively good hit in his last at-bat in the ninth inning, making him look forward to the next game.

Officials analyze that Floral's bat speed is not slow. Contact with the ball entering the zone is not bad either. It is said that his pioneering eye is by no means poor. However, there was a timing problem. As his performance was not good, he hesitated about something, and he couldn't hit the ball properly even though he could see it coming into the zone. It is also related to this that there were frequent fouls going to the back net.

Recently, Floral has made consistent efforts by experimenting with various postures to pull this timing forward, and his efforts were gradually shining in the match against Daegu Samsung on Saturday. However, his batting average is still 0.136 and his OPS is at the bottom at 0.445. The current grade is certainly not what Floral really is, but no one can listen to excuses or excuses long on the harsh floor where he has to produce grades. Attention is focusing on whether Ogredi's name can be completely shaken off.