Участник:Will he be a "10-win foreign pitcher" in 4 years

KIA Tigers has completed the formation of foreign players. Attention is focusing on whether they can make up for their failures in 2023.

KIA recruited a new foreign pitcher James Nail for a total of $950,000 on the 19th. Nail has played in seven games and 10 games each in the 2022-2023 season and the St. Louis Cardinals in the Major League Baseball (MLB). His performance (1 hold, 8.80 ERA) was not outstanding, but he was a pitcher on the 40-man roster of St. Louis before recruiting KIA. The top speed of the four-seam fastball (fastball) is 153 kilometers/h, and he is said to have excellent curve and sinker skills. "We judged that he is competitive enough because he has a wide variety of pitches," KIA general manager Shim Jae-hak said.

Nail's biggest strength seems to be his ball control. While striking out 557 in 742 and 1/3 innings he played in the Minor League, he had only 211 walks. KIA also said that he has few walks throughout the career. Although he has no experience as a starter at MLB level, he started 96 out of 245 games he pitched in the Minor League.

KIA signed a total of 1 million U.S. dollars with Will Crowe, who had 10 wins (21 losses) in 94 games (29 starts) in the big league on the 7th. He is a pitcher who played starting rotation as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2021 season. He also recruited other pitchers with experience in big leaguers. The completion of the contract was delayed compared to the other nine clubs, but Kia's fans are highly satisfied.

KIA failed to cultivate foreign pitchers for the 2023 season. In the second half of the 2022 regular season, when it ranked fifth, it built a fairly solid starting lineup with left-handers Sean Nollin and Thomas Panoni, but it broke up with the two pitchers to recruit "right-handers throwing fastballs," and hired Sean Anderson and Adonis Medina, respectively.

Medina went 2-6 with a 6.05 ERA in 12 games, while Anderson went 4-7 with a 3.76 ERA in 14 games. Both pitchers were released in the first half.

Aaron Brooks (11 wins) and Drew Gagnon (11 wins) were the last foreign pitchers in KIA to post double-digit wins in the 2020 season. Some pitchers have retired due to unfortunate circumstances, while others have disappointed pitchers with their below-expected performances.

In fact, Medina and Anderson, who played the opening rotation of the 2023 season, also had a good resume. Anderson played in 63 games during four seasons in the MLB, and Medina played in 19 games during three seasons. A stellar resume does not guarantee a soft landing in the KBO League.

"If foreign pitchers are better than average, we can expect good performance," KIA manager Kim Jong-kook said. Major players including Choi Hyung-woo and Park Chan-ho also picked foreign players as conditions for Kia to make another leap forward. Attention is focusing on whether Crow and Nail will be able to contribute to the starting lineup of Kia. 스포츠토토