It’s time to bring in reinforcements for both the individual and the team.
Kia Tigers pitcher Lim Ki-young (30) has had an unusual season. In 34 games through 24 days, he has a 1-1 record, seven holds, two saves, and a 2.60 ERA. The most notable metric is his innings pitched, as he has thrown a whopping 52 innings without a single start.
Usually, bullpen pitchers don’t have a big difference between the number of appearances and the number of innings pitched. The best-case scenario for a bullpen pitcher is to pitch a full inning of no-hit ball, which is why the number of appearances and innings pitched are so close together. We only need to look at the stats of Choi Ji-min, who along with Lim Ki-young is the nucleus of the KIA bullpen. Choi has pitched 42.2 innings in 38 games.
However, Lim has pitched far more innings than he has appeared in. With over 50 innings pitched in the first half of the year alone, he’s been playing a lot of different roles this season. He’s pitched relatively short innings to get holds and saves, as well as long relief innings. He’s a cog in the KIA bullpen.
The key is the second half. Utilizing Lim Ki-young like he did in the first half of the season is a disappointing scenario for KIA. It would mean a collapse of the starting lineup that has been a problem for the entire first half. It’s time to stabilize the starting rotation and add bullpen support.
In the first half of the season, KIA’s bullpen was led by Lim Ki-young and included Lee Jun-young, Choi Ji-min, and Jeon Sang-hyun. With the slump and absence of Jung Hae-young, who was the closer until last year, there was a lot of pressure on these four, especially on Im Ki-young. 메이저놀이터
Fortunately, Jeong returned to the first team at the end of the first half. Add to that the return of Jang Hyun-sik, who has been up and down, and the entire bullpen is much freed up. The fewer innings Lim and the rest of the bullpen have to pitch, the smoother the second half will be for KIA.