"I'm not in Korea..." Lee Jung-hoo's ML changeup surprises him, increases false-swing rate but 'I hit it again'

"I'm getting a lot of false swings on my changeup..."

For South Korean hitting prodigy Lee Jung-hoo (26, San Francisco Giants), the last thing he wants to see is a lot of swinging strikes. The KBO's all-time career batting average leader (.340) through 3,000 at-bats, Lee has the third-lowest strikeout rate in the league at 7.7 percent. He also had the second-lowest swinging strike rate (3.4 percent), demonstrating his ability to make excellent contact.

Even in exhibition games in the major leagues, Lee hasn't struck out much. In 15 total at-bats in five games against the Colorado Rockies on Friday, Lee went 6-for-13 with two walks and a 4-for-6 slugging percentage. His slugging percentage is 5-for-3.

In between, he struck out just once. His only strikeout came against right-hander Carlos Vargas in the fourth inning against the Seattle Mariners last month. While we don't have a large sample size yet, his 6.7% strikeout rate is lower than it was in the KBO.

However, his swinging strike rate has increased slightly. In 15 at-bats, Lee saw a total of 53 pitches and swung at five. His 9.4% swing rate is not over 10%, but it is more frequent than in the KBO, where it was only 3.4%. In his only at-bat against Vargas in Seattle, he swung at four or five pitches in a row, which is uncharacteristic of Lee, and struck out.

Again against Colorado on Friday, Lee swung at an 86.7-mph (139.5-kilometer) changeup from right-hander Ryan Feltner with runners on first and third in the fourth inning. The very next pitch, he drove an 87-mph (140.0-kilometer) changeup high and outside for a line drive to the left-field fence for an RBI single, but Lee noted after the game that he swung wildly at a second-pitch changeup.

"I think I'm swinging at a lot of changeups here. American pitchers' changeups are different from Korean pitchers. Their changeup is a little bit faster. They're swinging at 87-88 mph (140.0-141.6 km/h), and I don't know any Korean pitcher who has a changeup with that kind of speed."

Along with the pitching angles of American pitchers' taller stature, Lee cited changeup velocity as the biggest difference between Korean pitchers and their American counterparts. The average velocity of the changeup in the KBO last year was 128.6 mph, according to statistical specialist Statize. Out of 105 pitchers who pitched at least 50 innings, only two pitchers averaged more than 140 kilometers with their changeup, Eric Pedro (Chicago White Sox-140.6 km) and Moon Dong-ju (Hanwha Eagles-140.2 km), who won the MVP with the NC Dinos.

With the same arm motion and height as the fastball, the changeup is an "off-speed" pitch that throws hitters off their timing. Too much velocity can be counterproductive because it's not much different from a fastball, but if you're a pitcher with a fast baseball, a high-velocity changeup is much more threatening. There are a lot of pitchers in the major leagues who throw changeups over 140 kilometers, and it's something that Lee will have to adapt to in order to quickly establish himself in the league.

What's remarkable about Lee is how quickly he adapted. "Once you swing at a changeup and miss, you're like, 'Oh, this is what I'm going to do,' so I think that's why I got a hit when the changeup came," he said. Earlier in the day against the Cleveland Indians, Lee hit a 79-mph (127.1-kilometer) changeup off Hunter Gaddis' sixth pitch in the fourth inning for a single to right. His swing rate has increased slightly from his time in South Korea, but that shouldn't be a barrier for Lee, who is quickly adjusting to the American changeup.

스포츠토토: https://www.sportstoto365.com/

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Pub: 05 Mar 2024 11:35 UTC
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