Korean Monster Ryu Hyun Jin

Robin’s Article

“Korean Monster” Ryu Hyun Jin, former MLB superstar struggling to register a win.

After his return to the Hanwha Eagles, Ryu is struggling to put up a win for the team. Out of his three games, he is yet to offer a triumph.

             After 11 years in the big league, Ryu has come back to the KBO to help the Eagles win the championship, but with his current state, it is not looking too good for him. In his first season back, Ryu is throwing an ERA of 8.36 which is quite high for someone who threw an average of 3.28 in the major league. Moreover, even after returning from his Tommy John elbow surgery, he threw an ERA of 3.46 on his first 11 starts for the Blue Jays. Putting his name next to his current stats in the KBO, he is not living up to the hype.

             Ryu’s next game will be on Thursday with the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, 6:30 pm. Currently, the Bears are having a tough run where they are 7^th in the league. They are also having trouble with their batters being consistent with their hit and runs which could be a chance for the “Korean monster” to redeem himself by achieving his very first win

(Source: The Korea Times)

However, it is very much looking like the KBO teams are getting used to the pitching style of Ryu. If he wants to register his first dub, he will need to switch it up for his next game fast. So far, in all of his starts, Ryu has pitched prominently in the early innings, but he then becomes a different person on the latter. This can be seen where Ryu has played 14 innings and gave out 23 hits. Of those 23 hits, all of them came from between 61 to 76^th pitch. Moreover, during his recent game against the Kiwoom Heroes, he has surrendered 7 hits in a row during his late 5^th inning. On the bright side, even after all the games that he has played, he has not given out a home run.

             Out of the 23 hits he has given up, 12 of those hits came out from his early first and second throws. But, according to the batters, they stated that this is no coincidence. Batters realized that Ryu has great control over his pitches, they did not want to fall behind where Ryu would have the upper hand. Most of the time, batters will let the first pitch go to get a feel of the pitcher’s ball. In fact, around 70 to 75 percent of the time, the batters will let the first throw go. During the Heroes game, batters started to adjust to this “swing first, questions later” technique. This technique also shocked the Eagles’ bench because of the unexpected outcome. Because of the harsh and sudden hits Ryu was getting, the bench did not have time to warm up the relievers making Choi Won-ho (Hanwha manager) say he had failed to properly time it and if this prolongs, the batters would be in for a treat.

             Ryu Hyun Jin’s manager, Choi, stated that most of the starting pitchers take about a month to recover from the pre-season and think that he will be fine in his late games in the future. For now, we will have to observe how the former MLB superstar tackles this slump he is having.